Litchfield enquirer., 1880-03-25
GRUMBL1Na.

NAA~~J SAASSS times. Grumbling seems to be confined to no particular class. In the same paper in which writer seems to blame working man for srnnhii..s ti,oo1 whom he fancies are the cause of his troubles, in part, he himself will grumble at the monopolist, or some one else. All seem inclined to appreciate the weight or power above them. So the farmer grumbles at the lawyer, merchant, etc., and they in turn grumble at the monopollst. Is it the exclusive privilege of any particular class to do the grumbllng? If 30. who has more reason for doing it than the one at the bottom of the pile, on whom, in great part rests the weight of the others" Is not this grunbling of one class against another, on account of bad state of affairs d mistake all around, however? It seems to us that the fault lies, not with any particular class, but with our system.
 AS regards the intellectual occupations, as they are called, our system is Gas is suggested by recent Enquirer article) kind of lottery "a lottery carried on at the expense, princi- pally, not of those who hold tickets, but of those who do not hold tickets, and therefore have no chance of winning the prizes offered. That this, like most lottery systems, IS kind of swinde, is shown by the fact that SO many draw blanks. That is, that so many in the in- tellectual occupations are, or are claimed to be, costly to those not interested, and 80 produc. | tive of harm to those who are, as is pictured by your article (and it would seem that it is) is it not the duty of our government, "by the people and for the people," to interfere in be- half of the sufferers, as it has done in the case of other harmful institutions of this sort, not half so. widespread in their evil influence Certainly our system ought to be such that no blanks should be offered in any of the occupa- tions if properly followed.
 Such system as would regulate the number in the nonproducing occupations more in ac cordance with the proper necessities of the people, would, we believe, be productive of this result, in a great measure. and, would in good degree do away with the enormous train of evils and great number of perpleying questions arising from our present system The enormous cost at which this lottery is carried on may be pretty we'll illustrated by taking almost any of our large towns and con- pairing the number in nonproducing occupa- tions with the number really needed.
 Every time a great Insurance building, ''pa. latial" residence, state or national capitol, or the like, is erected it means that the soil has had to foot the bill. Is is not easy, then, to see why our farms are mortgaged when we see the immense wealth heaped up m our cities? Every time an additional shop or store is set up it usually means that there is another fami- ly of two or more to support; and that, too, many times, in style that those on whom they depend cannot afford.
 Is it not easy then to see how the earnings of workngmen are eaten up? Taking Litch- field as model town (for the sake of the it. lustration) we find. in the one occupation of trade, from twenty to thirty or more shops, stores, etc. They are run by from one to three men each, while with national department of trade something like our postal system (modified and enlarged, of course to suit the nature of the business), with traders and their
 
 and their clerks are. the number of stores, or depots oi supplies, of the town would hardly need to exceed the number of post offices They would at the same time accommodate the public as well as now, or better, while the force and capital employed in sustaining so many different establishments might be en- ployed in other business enterprises of course these unnecessary establishments are maintain ed at the expense of the public. Hence, whether our merchants fail or prosper, are they not much too heavy an expense to the public?
 If this expense of which we speak were in- cured for the support of those surplus nonpro- ducers called tramps, or for the worthy. poor, CT for public improvements such as the erec- tion of a graded school building, for instance, would not there immediately be music in the air?' But men will often suffer more quietly through ignorance than they will to get rid of ignorance.
 In England, we understand there are seven hundred and fifty thousand traders, compris- ing or controlling about one third of the voters. With this and other burdens. is it to be wondered at that her working classes are impoverished, that citizens of her dependent Ireland starve? Taking this view of things, (and we, of course consider it substantially correct) is it the essence of wisdom or virtue, to remain content, as some of your correspond ents counsel? Like Browners s'Old Cove" all they seem to ''ax" is ''Let us alone!'' YF HIGH PRICED BUTTER MT. A. w. Cheeyer, l Editor 4Eeao E1agLand Farmer, owns a fine dairy and gets high price for fine butter. In an editorial, Nov. 2d, he said: '.The Perfec- l ted Butter Color made by Wells. Richardson