Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1878-07-03
BETTER TIMES.
The Business Outlook as It Presents
Itself to One who Makes the
Course OF Trade Special
Study-The South Better
of than any other
section.

Baltimore Sun: The last number of the
International ReUies0 contains paper on IN
dustrial reconstruction by Mr.. Edward At
kinson, of Massachusetts,. There are few
persons in this country better able to write
on such subject than Mr.. Atkinson, and any
opinion he may express in regard to our in
dustrial future carries with it no little weight
of authority. AS far back as 1868 and again
In 1869 he warned the country of the enor-
NOUS losses that would be sustained by the
business community when the reaction from
high prices set in, and before the redlstrlbu-
ton of labor, disorganized by the war, could
be perfected. All that he predicted then OF
the consequences of initiation and OF over
production has since come to pass. 1t Will
tend to comfort those, therefore, who are
still disposed to be Respondent over the con-
dition of business to learn that Mr.. Atkinson,
after a careful survey of the industrial field,
holds that the limit Of the fall in prices has
been reached. and with the practical disap-
pearance of the so-called premium on gold
our normal relations with the world are about
restored, and we may look forward with con-
fdence to renewed prosperity at no very dis
tant day. Referring to our exports and their
enormous increase of late, he points out that
the great volume of them consists of articles
of prime necessity to foreign peoples. Our
corn and meat Europe must have or suffer
from want; our cotton she must buy, or her
operatives must be idle and her commerce
crippled; our petroleum, 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 a good deal of the money
expended was used in the improvement OF
farms, in constructing railroads and mills aud
factories. Vast Improvements were also
made in manufacturing and mechanic arts
and in labor-saving machines, stimulated,
e hu IA Of
inadequate number of operatives and work
ing people while the war lasted. The conse-
uuence was that when the troops were dis
banded 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 occupa-
lions in new places. This work of the redls-
tribution of labor, rendered more difficult by
the panic of 1873, the multitude of failures
that followed, and the locking up OF capital,
has been necessarily slow; for, from the
causes mentioned, an industrial revolution
has occurred not only at the south, but at the
west and north as we'll When, after 1873,
the elimination of our business troubles came,
the true remedy for them also became appar-
emit. 1t then became evident that there
could be no complete restoration OF prosperl-
| ty until the surplus labor population should
| be redistributed between city and country.
| between warehouse and workshop, between
factory and field, between mill and mine,
under normal conditions of peace. The re-
distribution, Mr.. Atkinson states, sis pro-
ceeding most rapidly at the south, next at
| the west. and least rapidly at the east, be-
cause it is more difficult for the artisan and
| the operative to change his or her occupation
than it is for men who have been employed
| in outdoor labor, either of the field, the mine
| or the forest" The south, he holds, has the
best opportunity to adjust itself to the new
| conditions, because its change Is from the
passive war of slavery to conditions of real
peace aud prosperity, now for the first time
attainable. Hence the changes in the, posi-
among the most startling events of this CEN
tury, and the claim to be the empire State
| NAV pass within ten years from New York
to Texas" In respect to the overproductlon,
which is complained of as a 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
all these are capital, and although the &C
cumulatian does not yet benefit every one,
| yet from this accumulation has come the
| seeking for new sources of demand and the
effort to increase consumption. The abund-
ance of money seeking investment is simply
a mass of loanable capital which Will be
| brought into active use with reward oi
confidence in the future progress of the ma.
ton and Just and righteous standard OF
value" Mr.. Atkinson believes In the won
derful recuperative power of the country
work to develop if. He believes also In the
ability of the people to correct unwlse legls
lation, and in their ability, in spite OF OBJ
structions, to move forward once more ane
at an early day on new career OF industrial
activity.