The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1879-02-07

ty; House bill to amend the law relative to
highway officers; House bill relative 10 the sal
iourned to-day till the 10th, in order that the
Legislative committees might have an oppor-
tunity 10 visit the various State institutions
ENGLAND'S EXTREMITY.
The Prevailing Distress I'm the Island-star-
walton or Emigration.
From the New York Post.l
The decline of British trade affords
theme of constant comment for the lead
ing journals of the sight little isle"
All deal with the subject in a spirit of
commendable candor. Thus the Week
admits that the iron trade is practically
lost to Great Britain forever, the Amer
leans, instead of buying abroad, having
gone into business on their own ac-
count, and as competitors with those
from whom they formerly drew their
supplies. I'm 1872" says the Week,
"the Americans bought iron and steel
of us to the value Of close upon $780,
100000. This amount had sunk in 1877
to less than $12,500,000. Everybody
will at once see that this is tremend-
GUS falling off. We go to the official re-
turns of the United States for these
figures and, therefore, there can be no
possibility of mistake about them. In
all other things which the Americans
bought of us there has been q similar
falling of, In 1872 they purchased cot
ton manufactures of us to the value of
$25, 100000 lin round figures); in 1877,
only $7,750,000. We have not made
proportionate gains in any other mar
ket"
The cause of the widespread distress
which now prevails all over Great Brit
ain is chiefly found in the statements
here made. England is declining be-
cause we, as her chief competitor, are
rapidly advancing in all the elements of
prosperity. In ten years our iron pro-
duction has increased twelvefold.
Every ton of ore produced has been so
much taken from England. British
iron, once the largest item of our i'm
ports, will, at no distant day, be entirely
driven out, and we shall be sending our
manufactured iron to the British mar
ket. This decay of q great interest af-
fects q vast mass of English laborers.
Then, as to the cotton manufacture, be-
fore referred to, not great while ago
England had virtual monopoly of that
industry. She purchased our raw cot
ton and sent it back to us in cloth, the
industry attaining prodigious proper
tons. She had market in China from
which, as from ourselves, enormous
profits we're derived. Tens of thousands
of operatives found remunerative en-
ployment in her factories AM mills.
Now the United States make their own
cotton into cloth, and are beginning to
supply England. In China our cloths
are 80 much better than the English
that we are taking the market. English
mills are initiating our American trade
marks so as to secure a Chinese trade.
mills and making their own cloth. Thus
the three great markets in which En-
gland has 80 long been supreme are lost
to her, and, with the loss of her trade,
the men who have worked in cotton are
reduced te idleness and starvation.
The picture of the prevalent distress
in the industrial centers, presented by
the English journal, is sad and pitiable
in the last degree. All classes of the
population are affected by it. In many
of the towns of Scotland and England
crowds of able-bodied men throng the
places of business begging for bread,
and on every side soup-houses and re-
ief-stores are being established. In
Birmingham the suffering is almost
without precedent; in Warrington ex-
pert workers in wire are breaking stones
at Is cents day; all through the Trent
region, in Staffordshire, where the low
est form of industry fourshes, the de-
preston is frightful in its scope and
effects; in Leeds the boatmen are ut
terly destitute, and the silk operatives
are idle; in Wolverhampton bread and
oatmeal are distributed TO hundreds
daily; in the Manchester districts, the
center of one of the richest, most popu-
lous, and most industrious sections In
England, "the trade depression, poverty
and distress, hangs like cloud: Inc
want is so widespread in that city that
at one agency alone, in single DAY, re-
lief was asked for 10000 souls.
What is to be the outcome OF this
terrible condition of affairs? Where
lies the remedy? These are questions
which provoke wide discussion in the
British newspapers and among British
publicists. The balance of opinion
seems to be that the only effective relief
will be found in the emigration OF the
surplus population Oh the working ana
agree that the emigration from England
will hereafter be much larger than ever
before, and that it will be the emigra-
ton of the better class. Men of proper
ty, or of business, who have about
enough for an oldest son, with portions
for the daughters, consider that the best
career for the other boys is in the
colonies or the States. Strong
efforts" says correspondent, writing
from London, are making by the Gov
eminent and private enterprise to direct
this emigration to Canada and
Australia. But Canada is cold and
Australia is far away, and the burden of
IL will oo to the United States.