The Emporia weekly news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1881-1889, 1881-08-04
OUR PROSPERITY.

AAlltAl1ts 8tlS COt1
A distinguished writer, in reviewing
the condition OF this country, recently
said that no other country on the earth
is more prosperous, except France.
The exception and the cause of il arr
worthy of remark, for other nations o.
Europe have as great, if not greater
natural advantages. Our American con
sui at Hayre, in recent communication
said that the small economies of the
French were such as wasteful and ex.
travagant Americans had no idea of. We
waste what France would live ON com
fortably.
Bad cookery costs our country annu
ally a sum that would pay the interest
on the national debt. Foreigners are
astonished at the recklessness with which
Americans throw away food, and the
general Ignorance in preparing it for the
table 1t has been said that French.
man with a soup-bone and a bunch o!
garlic can get up a banquet, while an
American would starve. And yet it is
not denied that the French live well
Cooking with them is an art, and n good
dinner is a triumph of skill.
But the economy of the French ex.
tends not only to food. but everything else
The small farms compel carefulness in
the husbandrY of resources unknown
elsewhere. On ten acres French far.
mer will support his family iii comfort
and raise stock to sell besides. He hus
bands his savings-puts it, when he can
into the national securities, but rarely
allows il TO lead him into extravaganza
He has money on hand for an emer.
gency-
This enables the government by the
fssuance1of small bonds, to realize from
her people the money Wherewith to pay
the large German indemnity. No
French bonds went abroad. With nc
such resources in mineral and agricul
tural riches as has our country, France,
aGter the Franco-German war, was
not compelled, as we were, to seek a
market for bonds abroad The thrift al
her people made her independent of all
other people.
Another notable fact stated is that the
French national securities are not re.
deemable at any fixed time. but may
run ON forever at the pleasure of the
government. The holders are the poo
pie, the poor as well as the rich. The
debt is theirs, and the interest is all that
is expected Such an arrangement is
only possible with u united people with
perfect faith in their government and
perfect love for their country.
The Frenchman certainly is an ardent
lover Of his la belle France. He seldom
emigrates. If he does it is but To sound
the praises of France throughout the
world. He looks with mingled emo
tiOns of pity and contempt upon the peO-
pie of other countries, much as did the
Greeks in Pericles' day, when 10 them
the earth was peopled only by Greeks
and barbarians. He has something like
similar reason, too, for the French
have inherited an aesthetic culture, a
taste and knowledge of the art of liv-
ing while they live, eXcelling any other
people. Hence to the Frenchman there
is no other land the sun shines upon
equal to France, and he prefers to en-.
dure its evils of government and social
disorder rather than fly for relief Ia any
other. 1t mus be said that while the
Englishman has emigrated to save his
liberty, the Frenchman has rarely done
so except to save his life.
If the English national debt is a bless.
ing, that of France is doubly SO. The
difference is the poorer classes have no
question about it. They want more
small government securities in which to
invest their savings. The poorer and
middle classes of England groan under
their taxes and discomfort is abroad in
the land. English farmers are tenants
at exorbitant rents, and their market is
failing. Without any reference to party
views it must be admitted that England's
free-trade policy is driving even the far
mer to desperation, and he begins to
long for home in that land where he
can buy farm at less per acre than his
annual rent, and yet raise more wheat
on IT with less labor. If the land in
England was owned in small farms by
her own husbandmen, instead of being
held in vast tracts by her aristOcracy,
her people would be happier, her gov,
eminent more secure, and discomfort
would disappear.
Another reason for the greater diffu
sion of wealth in France, the greater
comfort of the poor, is the general en-
ployment of women in avocations un.
known to them in other countries. Ev.
erywherc women are shopkeepers, agents
ticket-sellers, money-makers, selfsup.
porters. This enables France the more
easily to support her immense army
The shop goes on though the war RACES
on the Rhine. Family comforts and re
sources are not cut off though father
husband and brothers have gone to the
wars. Hence, France today, with heI
great debt and her crowded population
in general thrift, happiness of her peO
pie and prosperity, is second To no Other
nation on the globe.