The New Orleans daily Democrat. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1877-1880, 1877-08-18
OUR SOLUTION.

Some time since we allowed ourselves
to unbend, as it were, and assume
tone of raillery and satirioal merriment
in commenting on some absurd nom
sense that appeared in the Picayune,
about emigration and the diversion OF
the laboring classes from the cities to
the fields, which was headed, with that
temerity characteristic Of those people
who proverbially rush where angels
dare not tread, "The Only Solution"
m Gaming OF the labor problem. Since
then, however, we have been astonished
at the number Of journals that urge
with earnestness and ability the
same ideas, which virtually means
the abandonment Of the industries and
mechanical and commercial enter
prises Of the country, which have built
up the cities and really constitute the
main sources Of our national wealth.
Persons who give such advice can pos
sess but superficial knowledge Of the
circumstances which have brought
about the present condition of affairs,
or else they are the advanced think
ers" of some new and strange political
economy, whose postulates they must
explain before we can be prepared to
acknowledge the wisdom OF their con-
illusions. Their advice to the laboring
classes is to leave the cities and all the
m anifold industries they supply, and
betake themselves to the fields and the
tilling of the land. Have they
paused before giving this ooun-
sel to reflect that these hordes of
meu have been drawn originally from
the country and driven out Of agricul-
tural employment by the very condi-
tions that are now operating upon them
in the cities? II they would take the
pains to inquire, they would discover
that mechanical invention has done
more to dispense with labor in the rails
ing and harvesting Of breadstuffs than
in any other department Of industry.
The result Of this has been to send sur
plus labor into the cities, the counting
rooms, machine shops, professions,
manufactures and the various avoca-
tions that afford subsistence in the cities
and highways OF trade. 1t had always
been the case that ten men could plant
and cultivate what it required twenty
to harvest, and it was in overcoming
this fact that the application of me-
ohanical inventions to agriculture
brought about what was regarded as a
great and happy achievement In the in
terests of human progress and political
economy. At the present time, with
our disorganized and perverted econo-
mics, it would be impossible to estimate
the disastrous results Of such innova-
tions as were brought about in agricul-
tural industries by these inventions,
which dispensed with such an
immense amount Of physical la
Dor. When 1t occurred there was q
demand in the cities, in manufactures
and commerce, for all this surplus labor
which does not now exist. This demand
has been surfeited. and we are now suf-
fering from the reaction. But this has
in nowise operated disastrously to agri-
culture. On the contrary, we are placed
face to face with an entirely different
state of affairs, but, happily. one that
is not so hopeless and distressful.
The production of the country is far
| in excess of the consumption, and to
this fact, by some strange perversion, is
due in a measure the great distress
that prevails. In land Of plenty, with
granaries grooming with plethora of
all that sustains life, we find the masses
at the point of starvation, and rendered
by want capable Of all manner of crime
and excess. That such condition OF
affairs exists must be due to the arti-
fetal and unnatural restrictions Of un-
wise government. and bad, and fool
ish, and abnormal social organism.
But what relief can result from send
ing the starving multitudes that tramp
about our cities to the fields, whence
they were driven originally by the very
conditions which have but again over
taken them in the industries which then
gave them new and untried sources OF
livelihood and enterprise? The exces-
siye production of the country is suffi
Gent answer to this proposition, and
shows conclusively that there is no de-
mand in the fields for this excess OIL
labor; at least, outside of the South,
where cotton must be picked. as it has
been planted, by manual labor.
Undoubtedly the South and other un.
developed regions Of the country afford
almost illimitable fields for labor, but
we know here that the demand for capt.
tai is quite as great as for labor, and
that it is just rs necessary to the devel-