Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1880-12-25
ENGLAND AND AMERICAN CONFETTI
TON

It is becoming recognized by the most
profound observers in England that the
effects of American competition upon pro-
duction in that country do not promise to
be transient, but permanent. There is in
fact no more ground for believing that the
English farmers will regain their past SUI
premacy in the grain market than there is
for believing that our own Eastern States
will ever be relegated to wheat and corn
growing, The development of Western
America has simply swamped the English
farmers. They were too heavily handi-
capped to have chance in the race The
conditions OF English society doomed them.
The problem was plain enough. Here was
contest in production between two coun-
tries. In one Of them the land belonged
to the cultivator. In the other the culti-
vator was only tenant, and landlord hal
to live out of the profits OF the soil as we'll
as the tenant and the laborer. There
could not be doubt as to the result OF
such competition. The land which had to
bear the triple charge must succumb to the
land which had only double charge
TO bear. And there is no ground for
supposing that these conditions will
change, at least as regards American land
Wheat viii be raised in the Pacific and
Western States on the present principles
for generations, so far as can be seen, and
it is certain that England cannot afford to
wait single decade for a change. IT,
therefore, any new departure is made it
will have to be taken by her, and such a
new departure as must almost loosen the
foundations of English society. For if it
Is necessary for the British farmer to
abandon wheat.raising, this involves the
practical extinction of the British farmer
But to extinguish the farmer is to destroy
the value of the land, and to destroy the
value of the land is to pull down the landed
proprietors, or in other words, the aristoc-
racy. In fact the frightful idea is sug-
gested that it may become absolutely
necessary for these spoiled children of For
tune to go to work at something, and
nothing more appalling than that could be
imagined Yet it is difficult to perceive
what help there is for them. The in
evitable fact of American competition is
present. The equally inevitable fact of
ever-cheapening transportation Is pres
emit. When the Southern Pacific is COM
pleted, and when it is possible
to pour the enormous harvests of California
into the English markets in thirty days,
the impossibility of competing with Amer
lean productions will be more apparent
still. In fact, it seems clear that the Brit
ish farmer must go, ard that when he goes
the land system Of England must be revo.
lutionized. But viii the movement stop at
the land ? The adherence to monarchical
government has hitherto been mainly due
to the influence of the great landed inter
est If that interest is about to be dis
solved through the depreciation of the
value of the land, it is evident that the
commercial and mechanical elements will
obtain increased Importance. These inter
ests have no strong traditional attachment
to the Crown, and moreover they. are much
less patient with royal drains upon the
treasury. It would seem, therefore, that
American competition may lead to other
than commercial changes, aud that in fact
this rapid development of the resources of
the New World may, in Canning's words,
''redress the balance of the Old"