The anti-monopolist. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1874-1878, 1878-06-06

to the swarms of unemployed men and
women who have drifted into our
towns and cities. The effect of the
Developments Of recent years in la
~bor-saving machinery must be per-
manently felt in a wide range of in
dustrial pusuits. This is illustrated
by the statistics of the shoe industry
IN massachusetts,, where it is stated
that there are now $4,000 less hands
employed than there were in 1865;
and yet the amount and value of the
shoes produced last year was i'm
mensely in excess of the production
in 1875. And various other industries
throughout the country have been
affected perhaps quite as seriously as
shOemaklng in Massachusetts. Inthe
Tribune office in this city there has
recently been introduced a perfecting
press that prints. folds, pastes and
cuts the weekly edition of that paper
at the rate some $4,000 an hour; and
scarcely a dozen men are needed to
tend this marvel of mechanism.
With the facilities but recently in
use it required sixty or seventy per-
sons to manage the presses and feed.
fold and deliver the papers. This
new labor-saving press is good for the
Tribune, but bad for the press room
t~oilers. One of our large printing
houses is successfully using type-set-
ting machines, n of which does the
work OF several cOmpositors. And SO
1T IS in almost every department of
industry, machinery is waging an IL
resistible conflict with muscle, and it
seems apparent that the only relief
for the unemployed is a return to the
pursuits of rural life. Happily. Tn
Gle sam is not only ''rich enough to
give us all a farm" but he has shown
a paternal interest in his children in
providing Il liberal homestead law. by
which all may at once enter upon
their Inheritance. The great necess-
ity of the time is the honest co-opera-
ton Of capital in aiding those without
means to get out of the slough Of de-
spond in II towns and cities into a
new life in the great agricultural dis
trlctS. II does not require such a
large mount OF capital, or such seri-
risk as should render it difficult
to set such 4 system of farm colonies
on foot, as would at once infuse new
hope among our laboring masses.
The withdrawal even of a small per
cent. OF those now seeking vainly to
live by technical pursuits in our man.
u scturing centers, would vastly anne
llprate the condition of those who re-
main. X few properly organized
farms colonies would do more to es-
tabliSh wages on the most liberal
scaleth hat employers could afford. than
all the strikes that could be organic
ed.
In this connection we would call at.
~tention to Gen. Buffers proposition,
that instead of maintaining armies
on the frontier, for protection against
the Indians, the government should
organize military colonies: that is tc
say, the government should give mer
who have had military experience and
training. 4 reasonable sum Of none
per year, not to exceed the pay anC
rations of an equal number of sol
diers. on condition that they would
60 out and colonize the extreme
frontier and protect all the region be
hind them from the attacks of tn,
red savages.
There are many thing about such
plan that strike Us favorably. L
would be no more expensive than
standing army; it would settle up thu
territories. and it would draw off tn,
surplus population of our cities. TIL,
time during which such pay should b,
given might be limited to two O
three years, or until the ~colonist.
crops would support them; and thel
as the line of settlement moved far
Their on. a new SET of military colonie.
could be placed farther and farther
west. The colonists could be requir
ed 10 each keep a horse, rifle ant
ammunition: and to meet at statef
periods for target practice and drill
and to be subject to the call of thei1
officers for active service at n time
Ben Buffers plan deserves to b,
carefully considered.