The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1877-08-15
Coming West.

from the st. Louis Globe.Deinocrat1
hmust be sad blow to the pride OF
Pittsburgh, but it is plain fact and common
sense that Pittsburgh has more hands than
she has work for, and the emigration move
nent which proposes to take 10000 sturdy
Welshmen from the mines and forgcs and
send them west is an act OF Teai phiiantbro-
py. 1t is the beginning Of that change IN
the distribution Of labor to which we nave
often referred as essential to the restoration
OF prosperity; and as it merely transfers
Certain description Of labor from district
in which there is surplus to q district IN
which all labor has its value and its reward,
the benefit OF the change is unmarried by
any corresponding evil.
At first sight it looks as II it would be
serious loss to Pittsburgh and the surround
ing coal and mineral region. but the loss IS
more apparent than real. The real loss TO
a city is when Its workmen stand idle,
when poverty and distress seize on their
families, and when trades and industries
are carried on at loss. This is state OF
things which the Pittsburgh district has
known for three years, and which will be
partially corrected by the removal OF her
surplus labor. 1t will be a long time be-
fore the movement can have any effect on
wages or production, because for some time
to come the population drafted of will
merely represent those who earn no wages
and who produce nothing. Those who re-
main will get stcadier employment, and be
that much better off.
or course there are croakers and prophets
OF evil who 60 about saying that the public
land is used up, that there is no fertile land
left: and Major Powell is discredited with
statement that there is not enough culti-
yable land left on the. public domain to
make good-sized county in Wisconsin. IL
Powell ever made any such absurd state
ment he stated what was not true. There
il plenty OF good land to be taken up by
those who are able 10 do so, and plenty or
land to be cultivated by those who have yet
to work their way up to the position OF in
dependent cultivators. 1t is not to be eX-
pectcd that miner who is not able to live
from Saturday to Monday at his trade shall
merely by moving west be able to clear
farm and wait until the haryests repay him
for his outlay. But il mcaus arc husbanded
and combined, and il colonization societies
are formed, there need be no fear OF
scarcity of land, and it will need but little
to keep village Of frugal families in COM
fort until the harvest comes.
The Russian Mcnnonltes have found no
difficulty in procuring location in Kansas,
and it will be very strangci il Americans cam
not do what has been done by foreigners
from 5000 miles away. Most Of our west
ern railroads still have lands for sale, and Ii
would be good policy for them to give away
as many alternate sections rs would be re-
uuired by actual settlers. The increase in
the value Of the rest would more than cover
the value OF the grant, and the business OF
the railroad would be built up in a way to
Justify the sound financial policy OF the act.
In this way the surplus population Of the
eastern mining regions could be put on the
road to independence and prosperity at Il
very small cost, and the whole country be
materially benefited by turning idle and
discontented aborers into productive, pa
trotic, and independent proprietors.