Litchfield enquirer., 1877-08-16
Colonization.

M population, 2 as the writers choose to call it. This means that we have improved our machinery and overstocked our mar kete to such an extent, that in Massachu- setts. where we know population to be exceptionally dense, there are more peo- ple.than can find work to do. The popu- iation of Massachusetts is denser than that of Ireland. Yet there are plenty of peo- ple who would talk glibly enough about <. freland's being over-crowded, and the desirabiIity of emigration from Ireland, who do not care to understand that, at this moment, there are more people than can live comfortably in Massachusetts.
 So severe is this providing in the state of New York, that, as appears from a re- cent report of the secretary of that state, one person in twenty of her population received aid last year as pauper. Our figures in Massachusetts are not much better. And yet. peoples indifference on this subject. joined with the genuine American notion, that, of course, things will turn out right if nobody sees to them, is so great. that the general doctrine as to surplus population is; First, that the ex- tra mouths will soon die off of themselves; second, that the promised revival of busi- ness" is coming so soon that we really need do nothing to make it come. e
 This is very absurd way to treat a great subject. Every manufacturer knows that there are more men hanging about, asking for work and needing it than can proftably be employed. Every farmer knows that he can hire farna-help for half what he gave three years ago. Every merchant knowss that if he advertises he wants porter he will have 8 hundred Aap- plications before noon. .'lsssg.S g....3
 Now the difficulty is not to be met by 'making work" as the phrase is. All schemes for using the unemployed labor in dwelling parks, in building new state houses, or in other ways creating useless ente rprisea, or enterprises useless but to give work to starving industry, belong in theory to the same false economy which establishes treadmll1s to keep prisoners in motion. The only system which stands test is that which sets honest labor to work where work is needed. And the world has not lived a hundred thousand years, more or less, without finding out where that is. . ssas ..es
 Here isa ar.t- class machinist. who in the summer of 1873 earned five dollars dry in locomotive factory. To-day he cannot earn a dollar day, perhaps. Why not? Because nobody wants new locono- tives. Everybody who uses locomotives is wearing out the old ones rather than buy new. What did that man do with his five dollars? He bought . house, coal, and food and clothes for his family. Then the prime object for him is now, not to make locomotives. but to obtain home, fuel, food and clothing.
 It follows, of course, that if he cannot obtain them in Massachusetts at his old trade, he must obtain them somewhere else at another. And really, other things being equal, there seems DO reason in the nature of things, why in this cold, barren, clinate-eursed Massachusetts, zz there should be two hundred people to every square mile. while in regions blessed with every aiftAwhich nature knows how to give, there is not one person to assquare mile. This simply shows that it has been worth the while ofsthe leaders of men to call men into Massachusetts, and that it has not 3et occurred to the leaders of men that 1t is quite time to take some people away.
 Really, the city of Boston, in the econ- omical use of money, would be more wIse if she selected thousand men, and sent them where they were needed this sum msr, SO far improving the wages ofsthose who are left behind, than if she kept, as she will, that same thousand to be starv- ing, sickening and dying. with their wives and families living largely at the public charge during the next year. She spends more and more every year on the able bodied poor who cannot get away. be- cause we have no system by which she can send them where they would be glad to go, and where they can support them selves. 8a as sl3 LA
 But our system does not provide for such migration at the charge of the gov ernment The more is the pity. Is there then nobody else who has sense enough and money enough to go into the Same enterprise?
 Oh, yesl is the cheery reply of the land officers. Every western road has it's tout CT, who proves that land in his section is better than in any other section. and who explains to you that if you only will buy his land you can have your ticket to it thrown in for nothing. But it requires only half an eye to see that this two-and six-penny solicitation does not meet the regulation. Is a starving sewing girl re- ally expected to sell her bureau and wash- stand for two hundred and fifty dollars, and with this to buysherself 'a farm in Kansas2 Or is the machinist we have al- luded to to teach himself to be a farmer to go and break up prairie, to settle down in desert, because the "Cattaraugus and Kingdom Come Railraad" will only ask in cash quarter part of the sum which they will eventually claim from him? This is squirting at the Chicago fire with syr- inRe. What is wanted is organized colon. ization.S It would not be hard for @ real leader of men to organize in months time colony of a thousand persons fol some vacant point in the west or soufh' west or south, and to transfer them thith or to the advantage of all concerned. Some railroad with large tracts of land might we'll furnish every inch of the first land needed without charge. A true leader would rightly select the personnel of his colony so that there should be enough machinists and not too many. enough farmers and not too many, enough dressmakers and not too many, enough builders and not too many. Such a lead CT would take them to their new home, by land or by water, at the least expense and with the most comfort. Within ( month of their arrival the school would bt open, the mill would be saving logs, the forge would be we'll established and th' houses would be built For the absolut, necessary expenses of such a movement the money would at once appear. It is by far the easiest requisite to obtain. And by so much, would our over wrought la bor market be relieved. None of those colonists will be begging bread next win ter. 14s
 The initiative in spch a movemen would come best from the Land Bureau of some railroad company. Such a com pany needs to find, first of all, an orga nizinR man-who knows New England and who knows the west-and who hal ambition and pride enough to take holt of such scheme man-fashion. Find sucl aman and, he will arrange the details He will find the emigrants, he will int their homes, and he will find the none, which will move them from starvation here to comfort there.--Rep. E. E. Hale
 'sKiss me, George" she said, and, chain cd to the rest of the gang as hes was George managed to kiss the girl. The oth CT prisoners looked on in envy, and tn G1ApsA IroHa1 asa sn1uluopk1v Ruk hax