The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1878-06-18

The Shoe and Leather Reporter calls at
tention to the fact that the agricultural in
terest lin the West of course where it is pre-
dominantl is enjoying the greater part of the
prosperity which has come to US through the
enormous crops with which we have been
blessed; and it adds: "It is unquestionably
true that, while the farmers have been add
ing considerably to their means, the mechan-
les, as whole, have made nothing whatever,
and the tradesmen, in the aggregate, are not
as well off by great deal as they were, or
rather as they thought they were, on the 1st
day Of January last. II does appear like an
unaccountable inconsistency that when the
country is increasing largely in opulence, five
eighths of the people should get it all, and the
other three eghts meantime grow poorer, if
anything" But, it says: 'It will not do to
lose sight of the fact that this order of divis-
ion was substantially reversed during the dark
days of the Republic. While the war was in
progress the shopkeepers realized fabulous
gains, Notwithstanding the people as a whole
were being swiftly impoverished. These
things generally equalize themselves sooner
or later. Any business which is inordinatey
successful for a season will be very likely to
be prosecuted with such zeal that it will soon
be a losing instead of paying one. The de-
mand for war material led to great increase
in the mill power and tanning capacity of the
country, and when the conflict ended great
proportion of the capital which was invested
in these manufacturing appliances was liter
ally sunk. The owners of the property tried
to make it available by carrying on the works
they had established. That plan was open to
two very serious objections. In the first
place it created so large a demand for raw
material that prices of wool and hides went
up to unnaturally high figures, and in the
second place there was such a continual sur
plus of the manufactured article, because of
the overproduction, that it was seldom posi-
Die ever to get anywhere near cost for it.
Thus it was that the millers of wooden cloths
and the tanners Of leather were impelled to
make involuntary restitution of portion OF
the excessive gains that drifted into their cof-
fers at the time they were busy furnishing
the soldiers with clothing and shoes. But
there is this further and substantial source of
consolation to those who are at present de-
MED participation in the refreshing shower of
blessings that is falling in such Righteousness
upon the tillers of the soil. 1t cannot be long
before the still wider diffusion of this added
wealth will begin in good earnest through a
greatly quickened demand for all the useful
commodities which it is the province of the
mechanic to fashion and of the merchant to
sell. In this assurance lies the moral certain
ty that business will soon be thoroughly ac-
tive and reasonably remunerative to those
who conduct it with circumspection and fore
sight," Certainly the farmer, who last felt
the pressure of the hard times, and who is
first to experience the recovery therefrom,
has least reason of all men to complain of the
present condition of affairs.