The bee. (Newtown, Conn.) 1877-1877, 1877-07-05


them, lei me nj this time ask the readers
attention To the necessity there Is and
such change in the agricultural silua.
lion. and such an increase In food sup
ply. MS will bring down The two lending
articles Of human consumption, dread
and meat--to price In some sense com
mensurate with other things.
Beef and ilDnr, measured by the gold
standard. are nearly us high as they
were ever known 10 be; and II their price
Is measured by he price Of labor and It's
numerous products, even higher. And
besides, there Is every indication thai
within few months pork and corn will
achieve the same distinction. And how
shall we account for such condition of
lhingsg According 10 the official returns,
there has been not only no general fail.
ure of the crops, but their yield has been
something above the average of former
years, with II healthy increase into the
bargain. Besides, since the fall of 1878,
great Numbers of hboring men have
been out of employment, aud consequent
ly since that time a portion of this vast
army, If employed at all, must Lave Ia
bored on the land. And yet while the
price of labor an most manufactures and
many imported articles of home and for
al, ,l,tn hat In, Hf
er known before, meat and bread have
practically risen 10 famine figures. What
we repeat, are the causes which have
led 10 such an unhealthy condition of
things Is it that this vast army of un-
employed laborers, and earning no more
than enough to supply themselves bread
and meat, have bought nothing else, and
50 raised the price in one case, and low
cred it in the otherY There is now, and
has been since 1878, unlimited unem-
ployed laborers, and acres of unmeasured
production waiting for them. Why has
not the one sought the other, and why,
with unbounded want on one hand, and
means of unbounded relief on the other,
have the absolute necessaries of life risen
above the reach of all but the fully EN-
ployed and the prosperous? Is it that the
curse Of war and paper money, like the
curse of Cromwell, atficts more than one
generation? las the vast army of the
unemployed, seduced during the excite
ment of the war from the pursuits OF
agriculture, returned to any considerable
extent TO the land which they never
should have left? No they have not, and
that is the solution of the problem of
the present condition of things. But
they must, and therefore they will, and
it is in the accession of these to the ranks
of the agricu.turisls of The country that
| look for in all increase of production
which will establish Il reasonable equil-
ibrium in the price of the articles OF
common consumption, and IL partial re-
stora,ion of all, or nearly all the indus
trial activities.
But let US not forget that foreign
war is an important factor in the problem
of prices though not the cause of the
resent real scarcity os beef and flour.
nor the reason for the anticipated one OF
corn and pork. Ard there is another
important fact in regard to agricultural
productions, of which nobody seems to
make account. And that factor is the
railroads. Once constructed, they slim
ulate consumption and withdraw produc-
ton at much greater rate than they in
crease the latter, and to the extent, if
there is not a steady increase in agricul-
tural production that the country having
the greatest number of miles of railroad
is the soonest impoverished. These are
curious facts and important ones, and
for many thousand readers of the Coun-
try Gentleman, the proof and Illustration
of them lies right before their eyes
Cor. Co. Gent.