Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1872-05-01
l. Vermont Prosperous!

l. Vermont Prosperous!
There is not any marked increase either in
the population or Grand List Of Vermont
during the last ten years Yet with all the
drain that is made upon the State she has
little more than held her own. She has sent
out her sous into all other States, but has re-
tanned the full complement Of her population
and added to it about 10 per cent. But
some curious facts are revealed as to the ten
denotes Of population to collect in central To-
calities In the various counties the small
towns have lost aud the large towns have
gained in numbers. The industries and man
ufac,urcs that have been developed in the
larger villages aud towns have depleted the
agricultural region. There is but little fond
ness for the hard abors of the farm. Young
men and women prefer to quit the agricultu.
raj and severe manual employments for the
shop, the factory, the printing-offce, the
clerkships and the fields Of skilled labor.
Though the farm has offered the largest re-
Enumeration, yet the village has the largest
number Of laborers. For instance, East
Montpelier, purely agricultural town, has
lost in the last ten years l6 per cent. of her
population, while Montpelier, contracted in
territory, and merely commercial and man
uiacturing town, has gained about % per
cent. in population.
Another characteristic of the movement is
the advent of Canadians to do the work on
our farms and in our villages that has been
left by the native American. The Vermont
boy or girl, as soon as majority is reached
starts for the village to work at a trade, or in
shop, or 10 some business that demands less
exerton and has more chance of preferment
and leaves the vacant place to be filled by
foreigner. We know Of large families where
the children one after another have quit the
old homestead and given up the paternal
acres, and gone to the village or city for
lighter and precarious employment. The
consequence is, that when their places cannot
be supplied by immigration, the agricultural
department is curtaied and seriously weak
ene1 Men are gregarious and do not love
hard work. Consequently they mass to-
gether as fast as they can do it without too
great inconvenience and loss The tendency
is too serious to be overlooked, and the dan
gers to be apprehended from it, both to the
underpopulated agricultural regions and the
over populated town, are too real and calam-
tous not to engage the attention Of the
political economist and the philanthropist.
This centralizing tendency Of population is
always indicative of unstrung moral senti-
ment and dscloses the fact that the bonds OF
pure social life are loosening The tendency
away from agriculture, from the culture o.
the earth, is a foolish and ultimately de
structive one. There is no work, on tn,
$ whole and in the long run so remuneratiye
( so beautiful to body and mind, so quoting t.
, the passions and helpful to the moral and so
cial life as the cultivation of the earth. |
is the only employment in which honest worl
Il gets honest wages 1t is the only employ
9 ment, except in the nearly related one o
0 manufactures, that is intrinscally productiv
u and matchmaking, The revenues of tn
shop-keeper, the merchant the banker, tn
stock dealer and broker, are all secured o.
q the basis of this productive toll. They ar
n Fictitious, made on the handling of the agri
! cultural or manufactured product, on it
transit from producer to consumer And
the productive industries are despoiled q
! their laborers, or their rewards, the result
:. must be in the end as disastrous TO society a
is taking out the foundation of structur
l. would be to building.
In view Of this tendency away from tn
a basic and humber tasks of life, especial
, manifest in this State, the question at tn
n head Of this article is serious one. Tn
city is prosperous, the large town is prosper
Gus, but is Vermont prosperous2 BurinI
$ ton is doubling its population and lining tn
l. shore Of the lake with immense lumber yards
st. Adams is filling her shops with thousand
' Of artisans and projecting greater things
y Montpelier is constructing one railroad an
surveying aud getting ready to build anothe
=, and is extending her trade and manufactures
n St. Johnsbury is the worlds depot and fac
: tory for her splendid scales and is also enlar
: ging her commercial and business facilities b
" extending her railroad communications; bu
in the midst Of all this business activity an
!, development Of certain centres Of trade an
!. manufacturing, is Vermont prosperous2
:, general we have no doubt that it is, but tn
!, question opens good many lines of though
d that we propose to consider at some iutur
time. 1t may be possible to rectify PARTIAL
N the present tendency to desert agriculture
d life. II this can be DONE and agriculture
- labor have its true value aud power thei
n will be no drawback to the prosperity Of III
lie State, and no reason why it may not herea
ter largely increase in wealth and population
!" The whole amount Of insurance on prof.
ID erty destroyed in the great fire at Chicago,
is finally Ascertained to have been 800, 900 ,00
ID Of which companies in Massachusetts had Il
enormous amount Of s47,000,000 or ov
q one-half the whole sum.
~ Dawson county, Neb,, recently yot'
N $1,000 for immigration purpose, and p
i'm families from Michigan are now on their W,