Little Falls transcript. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1876-1894, 1879-05-29
The Road to Prosperity.

of Little Falls showed us an article taken
from the New York Grocer, entitled
tHGreat, Britain and America Changing
Places,'':. and remarked that he thought
the article presented the subject in a very
able manner, and that in case we would
publish it, our readers would find il very
interesting and instructive. The entire
article is too long to print in our limited
space, but the most essential part.of it is
as follows: = ..r... -
"It can no longer be denied by the most
sanguine of Englishmen that the industrial
supremacy of the United Kingdom is most
| critically threatened, even if it be not abso-
| lutely lost, and that this country is to become
| the leading commercial nation of the world.
We note this. as one of the developments of
progress, and in order to turn the thoughts OF
our thinking business men in a direction in
which it will require the greatest wisdom to
! guide and direct our financial and commercial
! iegislation. We have now the ability to pro-
duce cheap goods and good goods, but we
haye neither the homo market nor the means
of reaching consuming foreign markets to take
! Our products. We arc even with England in
many respects in the cheapness and quality of
our manufactured products, but in the means
of reaching foreign markets she is so far ahead
OF US as to enable her to undersell us in many
markets. This change has been brought
about in spite of the heavy protective tariff
this country has had to carry for q number Of
years, for while tho tariff has gradually been
lowered on many articles, their importation
has steadily declined. We cannot enter Deep
iy into the causes Of this depression of Eng
/ oof,1 Of
| however, are very apparent. It is due in
some part to high labor and poor work, as
compared with both the Continent and this
| country. The tyranny of the British trade
unions has also contributed to it by insisting
that all workmen in the same line shall re-
ceive equal wages. The consequence is that
the quality of British manufactures is steadily
deteriorating. The operators "scamp" their
work, especially when employed on piece
work, and their employers by excessive sizing
in cotton goods, by the use of shoddy in wool
en- goods, by their sluggishness in adopting
| improvements and following new patterns and
fashions, fail to adapt their goods to the
wants and tastes Of customers. u II Il y It
| cal economy that the American people are
| more fully employed now than for several
years. There has not been material ad-
vance in wages, but there has not been a time
IN the last thirty five or forty years when the
| purchasing power of wages was so great as it
| is now: 1t is unwise to expect sudden res
toration of prosperity or to seek to find a rem
edy for our national ailments in any one
measure, whether it be specie payments, our
system OF banking, free trade, railroad super
vision, or whatnot. The country is always, in
common estimation, being ruined, but is new
"er ruined, and the spirit of the people is su-
l tn hot Of uhn
i them. After all, these last simply record, in
| the long run, what the intelligence of the peo-
] pie directs them to do. This intelligence of
| the people is just now directed to the study of
| these-econonical questions. They will surely
| find out what good money is and secure that );
! they will also find out the right methods Of
| taxation and secure them. The era of pros
perity has just begun to dawn, but its culmi-
| nation will be effected by the solution of all
| these questions. Our bonds having nearly all
been bought back, that means of payment on
the part of foreign nations is nearly exhaust
| ed. How, then, is Europe to pay for our cot
these commodities are presented, payable in
| gold on demand. As Edward Atkinson says :;
He who can answer that question can tell
| whether there is to be any set back to the
cause of renewed prosperity Look, for in
| stance, at the iron trade alone. What does it
mean when, during the five years Of extreme
depression and of alleged loss, new furnaces
have been constructed in the Hooking Valley
of Ohio, which produced in 1876 $4,000 tons
| OF iron, where i've years ago not a single ton
was made, and furnaces, too, that are working
now at a rate of 10000 tons per annum, and
fully satisfied, also, with the prices they re-
celve! The mills Of New England are now
much nearer the cotton fields than they were
/ To thror1 Q
by rail. Prior to 1900, substantially all the
cotton went to the seaports of the cotton
states, and from there the cost OF movi ing it to
Inc Inc Noltn Or TO Liverpool varied but little,
~ ou' ~ :ne present day large ana annually
Mor.h portion of the cotton USED IN the
Nor:n Is bought in the interior markets and
callleu in covered cars directly to the mills,
"ne.o cthe bales are delivered clean ana much
I!eh m1:e hiree from damage and waste than those
Sta "nicn are carried down the Southern rivers on
uS "uS'' and barges, dumped upon the "narves
a+ uuu then compressed to the utmost 1or snip
4ne4' ta4 by sea. It is predicted by those compe-
Sen1 to form an opinion that, "within the lves
~ w;m Men of middle age now living the nation
WIN number 1oo,ooo,ooo. In whatever else
We may be found wanting, we cannot long be
Kept back in our career of material prosperity
which shall be shared with absolute certainty
oy every one who brings to the work health
integrity and energy"
The above, from the New York Gro
GER, represents one side of the question
but the writer of it fails to take view
broad enough to give all sides correct
showing. He views effects rather thar
causes, the surface rather than the sub,
soil, instead of considering both cause
and effect, both surface and interior. II
fact he distinctly asserts that "we canno'
enter deeply into the causes ofthe depres
sion of England's manufacturing inter
est;' and his prudent foresight in thu
refusing at the outset to center deeply
into the causes" enables h1m to build ur
superficial theories to any extent that hi
fancy dictates. he asserts that "the ers
ofprosperity has just begun to DAWN ,
but bases the assertion on the belief thai
the United States will take away from
Great Britain her manufacturing enc
Icommereial supremacy. It hardly seems
possible that any person who had giye1
the subject much thought could enter.
tain the notion that prosperity can be
brought about In that way, especially ir
| view ofthe historical fact that the period
1 of the greatest prosperity ever expert.
fenced in the United States was during
/ the very time that Great Britain was en-.
1joying the greatest prosperity known te
Asher history. And this historical fact is
by no means unusual in its nature, to1
| the commercial interests Of the world arc
| such that neither Great Britain nor the
| United States will ever enjoy great pros.
perlty while great depression exists In the
other, and no student of political econo.
my can have a reasonable excuse for not
| knowing that. The interests of the two
countries are united to a great extent,
and must remain so until there is great
er change in the commercial interests OF
the world than is likely to come about
except in the remote future. A period
of severe financial and business depres,
sion began in the United States in 1873,
at which time Great Britain was eni ioy,
Limo tho rnncf ocl IN, 81 =, =. !,