Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1883-10-15
wHgAr-RAIsIEG IN INDIA.

The people of the United States are at
loss what to do with their prison labor.
They have nearly $4,000 conviets in their
various penitentiaries, whose labor is cut
ting under the wages of free workingmen
in all the various cities and towns No
people, not even the Chinese, are slower to
adopt foreign methods in any respect than
American officials generally for the reason
ii at we are 50 deal sure that it is absc.
lutely impossible for any body anywhere to
get an idea worth our borrowing. But in
India the wheat export has been brought
up from 80, 900 bushels III 1872 to 81, 000,-
900 in 1882 how? Largely through the
the system Of irrigation enforced by the
British Government TO encourage the
growth of wheat One OF our Consuls in
India writes Zone of these sin n-hewed
canals in the Punjsb has just been CON-
plete1; it was built mainly by prison
labor, is 500 miles long, and will irrigate
$50, 600 acres, through 2, 500 miles of minor
channels. England has destroyed the
manufactures of India by the COM
petition Of her cheaper machine
power with the hand looms of the
Hindo,s, and has inflicted appalling suf-
fering upon the people of that subject
country. The population OF India has
probably been reduced within century by
number equal to the entire population OF
Great Britain and Ireland. Now, however,
England is seriously trying to make
! 200, 600, 900 OF people available in agricult
ure alone in Hindoslan without manu-
! factures. Such is the need felt there for
reviving the native manufactures that
although there are only l67, 600 white per-
sons in India, apart from the army, the
Council OF India actually adopted system
of protective duties for shutting out Egg
lish goods and developing native manufact-
ures, which was only prevented from
taking effect by the veto of the Governor
General, who did not attempt to base his
veto on the ground of HindoO, but exclu-
sively on that of English interest. Feeling
the need of putting forth berculean efforts
to employ the native ryot population in
agriculture, and wheat being almost the
only agricultural product that Will bear
transportation to England, the entire con.
vict force of India is employed upon these
works of irrigation and railway building.
India's capacity for the export Of wheat
| has now become fourth Us great as thar of
tie United States, and is stridiDg upward
with great rapidity. Il is quite within
DOuHub TO say tual INC luOlan capacity OF
production is likely to supply the whole
English demand before the close of ten
J years more. That means lever prices on
our wheat export and that in turn means
cheaper cost of production. While Eng
land is fighting onr wheat crop in India
| with her big canals, our chief resource for
fighting her will be our bonanza farms.
They could continue to raise wheat at
Il ~
30 cents a bushel, as the figures concerning
many of them show. Irrigation, however,
would enable US to extend our bonanza
farming over broad regions which will 9th.
erwise remain as bad lands, but from which
the transportation will be less than from
Dakota or Wyoming. Whether we could
not profitably utilize upon similar kinds Of
public works the same kind of convict
labor with which so much progress is being
made in India, is question fairly in order.
-TChicapo Inter. Ocean