The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1875-05-13
Economy and Industry Of the French.

Your paper of the 2Sth inst. contained a
long and most valuable letter, from Mr. Hugh
McCullock to the editor of the Tribune, from
which have cut some extracts which might
we'll be studied until known by heart by every
American citizen. Read, mark and inacardly
digest. The only reason for mutilation is to
condense the essence. He says:
Many causes may be assigned for the wealth
which France has been found to possess in all
great emergencies, among which are the fol-
lowing:
The French people are an eminently eco
nomical and thrifty people. A French family
can live, and live we'll, on less than would
be considered sufficient to save from starYa-
tion an American family of the same number.
An intelligent Bostonian, who had spent some
years in France, said to me last summer, in
speaking of the economical habits and skill in
cookery of the French people, that "a French
village of thousand inhabitants could be
of our large American hotels" The remark
was not far from the truth. If the art of cook
cry was understood and practiced in the Uni
ted States as it is in France; if our people
knew as well how to make the most of their
provisions as the French do, the cost of living,
as far as food is regarded, in most of the States
would be reduced more than 20 per cent. Do
mestc economy, as a rule, is neither practiced
nor understood by Americans, as it is in France.
1t may not be too much to say that the entire
population of France could be supported on
food which is literally wasted in the United
States The number of people who live be-
yond their incomes is less, and the number of
those whose incomes exceed their expenditures
is greater in France, in proportion to popula-
tion than in anv other cOuntrV
Then, again, the French are beyond all 9TH
ers boarding people. There are few artisans
in the cities or peasants in the agricultural
districts who do not keep reserve of coin in
their own custody. There has always been
more gold boarded in France than in all other
European countries combined.
France has q fine climate and an excellent
soil, and her lands, which have been cultivated
for centuries, instead of being exhausted by a
vicious system of husbandry, or yielding less
than formerly by unskillful tillage, as is un-
fortunately the case in many parts of the Uni
ted States are now more productive than they
ever were before, while the division into small
ownerships-the result of the French law of
Observation-Disclosures every year the acreage
under cultivation. Notwithstanding her large
population to be fed upon what her soil produ-
ces-a population of some $4,000, 900 upon
territory much smaller than Iexas-she is
large exporter of various kinds of agricultural
products. As purely agricultural country,
she is undoubtedly the first in Europe; in
manufactures, second only to Great Britain.
But Notwithstanding the economy, the indus
try, the skill, the general thrift of her people,
and her great agricultural resources, together
with the accumuIations of former years, France
would not have been able to pay the indemnity
exacted by Germany, and to recover, as she
has done, from the disastrous effects of the
war, had not the management of her finances
and revenue been confnd to the hands of able,
experienced and upright men, and had not her
own people and the capitalists of other nations
relied implicitly upon her good faith. French
statesmen have not been notable examples of
political wisdom or conservatism, nor have the
French people been especially trustworthy on
questions Of government; but no country has
been more favored in the possession Of really
able fnanciers and political economists.