Smyrna times., 1878-07-03

have or suffer from want; our cotton she
must buy, or her operatives must be idle
and her commerce crippled; our petro-
lum, our lumber, our leather are articles OF
common need, not of luxury, and many of
our goods and wares command the markets
of the world" He contends that the waste
of war was not wholly waste; that good
deal of the money expended was used in
the improvement of farms, in constructing
railroads and mills and factories. Vast inn
provements were also made in manufacture
ing and mechanic arts and in labor-saving
machines, stimulated, many of them, by
the needs of war and the inadequate num-
Der of operatives and working people while
the war lasted. The consequence was that
when the troops were disbanded and the
men returned to their homes, as we'll as
numbers of persons who were thrown out
of work by the cessation of the war, they
were forced to seek new occupations in new
places. This work of the redistribution of
labor, rendered more difficult by the panic
of 1878, the multitude of failures that fol-
lowed, and the locking up of capital, has
been necessarily slow; for, from the causes
mentioned, an industrial revolution has oc-
CURED not only at the South, but at the
West and North as we'll. When, after 1878,
Gll6 Vi OQI OllolIlSSo .IlOuOlGS
came, the true remedy for them also be-
came apparent. 1t then became evident
that there could be no complete restoration
of prosperity until the surplus labor popu.
lation should be redistributed between city
and country, between warehouse and work
shop, between factory and field, between
mill and mine, under normal conditions oi
peace. This redistribution, Mr.. Atkinson
states, "is proceeding most rapidly at the
South, next at the West, and least rapidly
at the East, because it is more difficult fol
| the artisan and the operative to change his OF
her occupation than it is for men who have
been employed in outdoor labor, either oil
the field, the mine or the forest" The
South, he holds, has the best opportunity
| to adjust itself to the new conditions, "be
cause its change is from the passive war ot
| slavery to conditions of real peace and pros
| perity, now for the first time attainable
| Hence the changes in the position and con
dition of labor at the South are among the
most startling events of this century, anC
the claim to be the Empire State may pas!
within ten years from New York to Texas.
In respect to the over-production, which i.
complained of as grave present evil, Mr.
| Atkinson regards it as an ultimate good
If we have too much cotton, corn, coal
goods, wares and merchandise too many
houses, railroads, mines and factories-al
these are capital, and although the accumu
lation does not yet benefit every one, ye
from this accumulation has come the seek
ing for new sources of demand and th
effort to increase consumption. The abun
dance Of money seeking investment
simply mass of loanable capital which vii
be brought into active use "with renewa
of confidence in the future progress of tn
nation and a just and righteous standar,
of value" Mr.. Atkinson believes in tn
wonderful recuperative power of the cour
try, and in the forces now openly or silentl
at work to develop it. He believes also i
the ability of the people to correct unwis
legislation, and in their ability, in spite {
distractions, to move forward once NOR
and at an early day on a new career Of il
dustrial activity.