The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1879-05-24
SELECT LITERATURE.
LABOR AND THE NATURAL FORCES
BY CHARLES CARLETON COFFIN.

Franz he .1tinntir MonfhIy.
RAILROAD TRANSFORMATIONS.
Some of us can recall the days when pom
ierouS wagons, drawn by six and ei9h
horses, We're dragged from Vermont to Bos
ton, along the turnpikcS. Those We're TIL
days when country tavernS abounded, bu
now the highways, once so thronged will
teams, are grass grown and desolate.
"To the messy waySidc tavern
Comes the noisy throng no more.
And the faded sign, complaining,
Swings unnotiCed ut the door"
| Dismal Were the torebohings of the farmer:
when railroad construction heSan,-never
more would they find Il market for thei1
grain, and horses would depreciatc in value
but oats are still marketable, and horse.
! Salable
According to the railroad reports of Mas
sachuSettS, there We're in Use last year in
that State loo locomotives. Mr. Edward
Appleton, Il competent engineer, estimates
| that the number in constant uSe-deductins
those that are undergoing repairs-is 6S2
and that the work performed by them is
equivalent to the power OF 30 900 horses
on common roads, whereas the number OF
horses i'll the State, by the census of 1875
was only Ei,2lS. Applying Mr.. Appleton
formula to the number of locomotives in
the United States, we find that the locomo-
tives are doing the work of nearly 1000, COG
horses, whereas the aggregate horses of all
ages in 1870 was less than 5000, 900.
We smile at the ideas of the men living
a half century ago, who thought, when they
were planning the first freight depot in
Boston, for the use of the Boston and Wor-
cester Railroad, that Il building forty 10y
sixty feet would accommodate the road for
Il quarter of a century. How little did they
comprehend the power of steam us a force
of nature to change human affairs. How
little do we comprehend what it has done,
or what it is yet to do.
CAPITAL.
We have seen that the new civilization
has had its development through the united
efforts of capital and labor, powerful when
working tremendously, but able to accom-
plish nothing separately. But what is capt
tai? If this were Il treatise on political
economy, several pages would be needed to
set forth the nature and functions of capt
tai, but it will be sufficient here to say that
capital is accumulated earnings. which when
we put into II house, farm machine, or any
thing else material, we call ,fred capital:
when We have it III money, or its equivalent,
we call it o'tirc. If once fixed, it is a per-
mancncy. AS an individual l may sell the
house, but somebody's labor is in the bricks
and carpentry, and will he there forever,
unless fire destroys it, and then it is annihi-
lated.
ANNIHILATION OF CAPITAL.
Many of us indulge the illusion that if We
could but once obtain property we could keep
it. but think that most men will agree that
its preservation is quite us difficult as its at
tainment. BY fire and flood capital disap-
pears: moth and rust are agents for its de-
-tructinn. Use destroys it: the machine
wears out, and new one must be obtained
Invention destroys it: stage coaches; We're
seeded them: sickles and scythcs were capt.
tai once, hut now they are ruSting in gar
rats. No manufacturer could afford to take
as Il gift to-day Il cotton mill equipped as in
1860: it would bankrupt the man who might
undertake to run it, invention having rem
dercd the machinery of twenty years ago
utterly worthless.
We have rebuilt one of our furnaces five
times since 1850 was the remark of an iron
recently: "not that it was
worn ont hut because invention has made
such an advance that we could not afford to
run it on the old methods
Fashion annihilatcs capital A few years
ago millions of dollars We're invested in ma
chinery for the manufacture of hoop skirts,
1'.h thousands of men, women and children
earned tlitIt-ily. bread in their manufac-
turr: but when the sex diSr:le,l crinoline,
the fixed capital WAS annihilate,fnd the
operatives We're compelled to seek other t..
ployment.
1t is Il law of nature that there can I've H.
progress without decay. Progress is eterna
change. Nothing can prevent the ,lcStruc
ton of accumulated earnings: it is tn
| gnawing of the tooth of time, and the mo
mrnt we invest our money which represent
our accumulated earnings in anything ma
| terlal, it becomes permanently, is Subjec
to constant depreciation and ultimate ex
tinction. The Use OF BeSscmer steel has an
nihilated large portion of the capital once
invested i'll iron furnaces. The dead past
is a comprehensive term, and sooner or late
| we, with all our Accommodations of materia
wealth, 90 back To the dust from whence W,
came.
What has become of the wealth of Rome
once SO immense? How the fire whitfs on
riches-onc hundred millions per annum il
this country.-So much labor annihilated
| How the war swept it away. And vet, not
withStanding the ravageS of war; the de
vaStation by fire and flood, the extinction b,
new invention, the Accommodations huv,
been marvellous. Want of space will no
permit the giving of details, but it can b,
shown that the earnings of labor and capt
tai together, invested in savings banks, gen
| eral banking, insurance, railroads, national
state, and municipal securities, aggresat,
nj the present time not less than Sl:;, 000, 900,
900. The data for this estimate is at hant
and reliable: much more trustworthy thar
the estimated general value of all prorert,
in the United States as given in the census
which is placed at $50, O6S, 0oO, 900.
| While these accumulationS have been 20
ing on in this country, there has been Il cor
responding increase in other lands, and Mr.
Gladstone is reported us saying that the de
velopmcnt of the present century is greater
than that from the time Of Julius Caesar t,
| 1900.
| PROGRESS OF THREE NATIONS.
The volume Of trade is fair indication q
the progress Of Il people, and the following
exhibit shows how Great Britain, France
aud the United States have respectively ad
v;,nced since the coming in of the new civ,
| iliZa'ion. The presentation is by decades.
GREAT BRITAIN.
lS2'-;ii Imports and Exports S4,94S, $50, TOO
| 1SH-4I NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.. 6,I1l ,LLI, lti,
| lSlI-I1 Observation-Disclosures. II 065, $50, O0t
| lS5I-6I c0,:,1g, s9O, 90,
1871 Observation-Disclosures $3.50 205, 90,
FRANCE.
| lS2I-:i1 Imports and Exports SCOOP, 400, 0ot
| lS31-1 Observation-Disclosures. 2gnS, 4OO, OOl
| lS47-11 Observation-Disclosures. 4,6OI, 500, OOi
| iSII-;i1 NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.. 9,26l 200, 0Ot
!S'i1-17. Observation-Disclosures. 1888 800, 90,
UNITED STATES
| 1871 Imports and Exports S2,0D6 Dis. 90,
| 1871 NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.. c2S1 42S OOi