Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1877-08-17
The End of It.

Some Of the Western papers so direct to
the gist of the late difficulty, when they say
that the final result will be 10 drive the sur
plus population of cities and towns TO farm
ing. No arguments or theories about the
relations of capital and labor can overthrow
the bald facts that the market for one class
Of labor is largely overstocked, while the
other is not supplied. The railroad corpor-
alton CANNOT afford to pay more than 81 or
30 cents per day to laborers who are oblig-
ed, in order to work for them, TO live in
towns, and to pay town rates for rents, pro-
visions aud clothes. Ten thousand men
declare themselves unable to support their
families on these wages, while forty thou
sand without these wages are waiting 10
step into their places. On the other hand,
farmers in Pennsylvania and Ohio are Of
fering $3.50 and Sl.75 for help, and cannot
get it. One dollar aud fifty cents in the
country is worth SO in a city. 1t is true
that these are harvest wages and exception
al. But in the rich farm lands of the Mid
die States it is almost impossible to secure
the services of a steady laborer and his fam
lily for the year at the same wages as that
paid in the city, although house-rent is free
and provisions are one-third OF town rates.
In the West are hundreds of thousands
| OF acres of Government land waiting TO be
| taken up. 1t is true, that there is a vague
| dread of late years among hard-working-
| men of the necessary struggle against grass
| hoppers, malaria, hot suns and bitter cold
in the West. But in this State, in Virginia
and North Carolina there are vast untitled
regions waiting to be worked. The man
who earns So per week in this city or Phil
adelphia must pay Sl.25 of this sum for a
cellar or foul garnet in tenement-house in
which to lodge his family, and 81 for fuel,
which he must buy at exorbitant retail
rates. How far the remainder will 20 for
| food and clothes at city prices may easily
| be counted. Now, in the high table lands
of the Blue Ridge, the Nantihala, aud Black
Mountains of Virginia and North Carolina,
| good farm land may be bough. for from %
cents to SO per acre. In many of these
places there are settlements of hardwork-
ing men who are building up little towns.
Notably is this the case at Highlands, Ma
con County, N. c., where there is n colony
| of Northern men, fruit-growers and farm
ers. There is no danger in these places of
ague. The land is lifted into a region clear
of consumption and malaria, and all other
plaques, even grass-hoppers, potato-bugs
aud mosquitoes are unknown. The settler
buys his land, say at 81 per acre, and builds
himself big, roomy house almost without
money and without price. There are fuel
and pasturage for his cattle, free, enough to
last him for thousand years. The soil,
rich aud black, is as we'll adapted to the
raising of cereals and fruit as that OF the
West, and If he chooses to follow the exam
pie of his neighbors he can be clothed in
homespuu, strong and soft, without tho
outlay OF penny.
There, next door 10 all this anarchy and
want and vicious idleness, are abundance
and health, waiting for the industrious man
to come and take them. Here is the grimy
workman with his wife Sitting in town al
legs, and his children imbibing vice at ev
cry breath, and yonder the farmer, secure
among his beeves and corn, his family we'll
clothed and in their right minds. We only
offer these facts as facts. Our readers may
make their own deduclions.-M Y. 1ri6-
| ane.