The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1877-08-29
CheGntelIi9euts,;
,mHtI.G. l.!v sc.
Present Times aud Former
IilnaS


the cost Of food and rainment. Sill, It is
undoubtedly true that working people
are not as rule doing IA well now as
then, and are neither conten.ed nor saw.
ing 40 much money. Aside from the tenn.
p1rary distress OF the want Of employ
ment by large classes, the increased ditIi.
Guilty Of this generation over the former
IN making both ends meet lies in the pre-.
gnant fact that everybody is living better
now than Their, that the entire range Of
society has experienced an increase Of
wants and necessities in the way of com.
forts; that in brief the whole scale of liv.
ing has greatly advanced.
No family that can 60 back % years
aud make contrast OF its habits then and
At present will fail to be almost startled
with the changes in these respects. A
greater variety Of food, greater variety
Of clothing, n greater variety OF amuse-
ments, and larger means of education, are
in Order-the whole scale Of social civi.
lHanon and habit has been pushed for
ward into new domains. No study either
Of tue labor or Of the social question is
intelligent, that does not make chief &C.
count OF this revolution. No analysis Of
the wage question can stand that does not
recognize both the fact fits existence and
the necessity OF its continuance.
This increase in the comforts Of exis.
tance is the gift of machinery and the
great agencies Of communication, in
cheapening production and multiplying
the means Of grace to body and mind,
What were luxuries II quarter oil a GEN.
tury ago are practical necessities now.
Convenienced and induIgences then rare.
y attainable or totally unknown have
become a part Of our essential daily com.
FORT and We cannot put back the elements
oil lille to the old standards, and we should
not try TO. We can study and teach how
oget the most Of. all our new blessings
at the lowest possible cost. And this Is
not only the philanthropy, but the ueces-
'iIy, Of our day.
The great production in amount and
variety Of American soil and American
industry this year is to furnish an impor-
'ant contribution 10 this question. Con.
SANITY IA we have been all dwelling on
the great crops for the last two months,
lew OF us fairly realize how large they are,
aud how greatly they are to affect the
pressing questions OF our individual and
national distresses, it is not simply that
this has been good year for wheat, or
Tor Gotten, or Tor potatoes, but that il has
been u great year for everything in the
way OF iood for man and beast. Not simp-
= or chiefly year Of increased acreage,
but a year OF remarkable increased pro-
dnction per acre. Never 80 many bush
els OF wheat, or rye, or corn, or potatoes
to The acre, as we'll rs never so many acres
cultivated. The year ia also ceptional
IN this, that, while most seasons are ia
vorabIs to certain crops, and apparently
by the same circumstances untavorable
10 others, this season seems 10 have been
equally favorable to everything. Some
cFop' want dry season, others a wet,
some warm, others cool, and we had
come 10 regard these laws as fixed, and
to accept the compensatiOns OF success
here for failure there us part Of the nee
essary laws Of production. But the year
oil 1917 has practically distinguished it
sell throughout the whole country rs hot
enough for corn and dry enough for po-
"'oeS,-as equally good for everything,
and, like the shoemaker's boot, "large
enough for a man 'and small enough for
hoy" And the results are already GER
IAN to be such a wealth Of food as the
nation never realized before in any year, an
abundance for ourselves at cheap prices,
an! "' much Tor all the rest Of the world
" II can possibly take and pay for.
by way of illustration we have given
The figures OF the wheat production Of
Tie ionr States OF Minnesota, Iowa, Wis
consin and Kansas, very much, of course,
only Intelligent estimates, but they foot
np 100000 bushels for this vscr,
against u 100000 last year and 9S0OO,-
WO IN 1870. Five other States, Michigan,
'sdlana, Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee
promise to show a gain Of 10000 OOO
bushels over last year. Adding Califor,
ma, which is estimated to be 1900 Que
bushels short this year Of last, and these
Ten States will show u gain OF $4,000 OOC
bushels Of wheat. We cannot extend
These mammoth figures 10 all the otheI
crops OF course. The wheat States have
W"dr special effort in their iayorito
production, because Of the certain heavy
foreign demand and the promised hirt
prices, But rome OF the other cropl
MlI show hardly leS relative
S''ns, and are greatly in exces,
Of any former year. The crops-th,
"r"ns' the SQuashes, the vegetables and
tns fruits generally, have all borne
"s"u III the remarkable bounlies Of III,
season. Gov. Horatio Seymour. of Nav
lorE, tells aStory Of his own exnerience
mat illustrates what has been going IN
Alter he had arranged bis own rsons
and thinking that next winter mich, it, ,
season oil dis!res8 for poor people, he de
cided to put in four acres OF beans "A Ii,
special contribution for the relief al ant
irFing, and thought it quite an origins
mea; but on going 10 town for the seeJ
The scotsman told him everybody wa
doing just the same thing. Eyerybod,
,eems 10 have had the instinct to plant al
he could, and nature, catching the iivln
thought has responded with her mos
ooanIeous increase.
''may be considered as settled, there
Lore that, great as may be The deman,
'YfeSport for certain Of our food pro
auctions, their yield is so great and uni
''''al and the means Of transmission 81
'''"danl and cheap, that America i
','1at to enter upon an era Of unprece
"nltd low prices for food. The inslnc
W l0r Tact already outruns its presence
'na '%calators are either holding aloo
VI investing for falling market, Oats
nnealeRd corn have all gone sharpl,
HoNh within the last few weeks. and Ii,
exports Of the New York market recor,l
. "saS! losses by those who had larr1