Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1883-01-11


steadily increasing. As matter of fact
the creation of wealth has far outstrip-
ped the increase in population.
Our population in 1880 was 100000
but our national wealth of all kinds was
forty billions. While the wealth of the
country, Notwithstanding the panic of
'73. increased 35 per cent. from 1870 to
1880, the population, notwithstanding
our immigration. increased only 80 per
cent. Your own State of Ohio increased
her werlth about 40 per cent. in the same
time, while she only increased her pOpu-
lation 20 per cent. And yet the State of
Ohio only averages about S0inhabitants
to the square mile, or 90 less than bleak
and barren Scotland. The increase of
| wealth per capita for the whole country
from 10 to 80 was about 1920.
DISPARITY OF LAND, AND THE PoPULA-
r.- TION. -.
The tendency to the rapid diversified
tlOn of industry is not only to create but
to distribute wealth. A minimum of
agriculturists and a maximum of other
and nOn-cOmpetive industries with the
farmer seems to be the developing for
mula of the Crea- or. When | was boy
| used to read with wonder, and with a
feeling akin to sadness and regret in the
school geography that of the superficial
area of the world three-fourthS were
water and only one-fouIth land. l felt,
as Bob lngerssll might say. as if this was
one of the mistakes of the Almighty.
However. it WAS some consolation to
| Iead in the same book that the fecundity
of the water was such that if all other
means of supplying food to man should
fail, the fish of this wild waste of water
would alone assure him support. Ex-
perience, however, has shown in the cases
of Ireland in Europe, and India in Asia,
that the existence of food somewhere
else in the time of famine will not pro-
tect people from starvation. There must
be speedy methods Of distribution for the
surplus products of one area to the va
cancy in another area. Food, unlike
water, will not seek its own level. The
great solution for the problem how to
sustain populations is (1) a diversified
industry. and (2) rapid, abundant and
cheap transportation for the distribution
of all surplus products between different
areas. The railroads of India have to
some extent of late solved the problem
for that country.
THE MALTIIUsIAN THEORY OF POPULA-
TION.
OF the one-fourth land of the worlds
area. only perhaps 0ne-half is really ca
pable of sustaining life by cultivation.
This at first thought looks as il the OBJ
ject of creating a world that is seeming
ly destined to increase in population, and
that can not increase in land, must ulti-
Inately result in naturalization and de-
feat of increased population. In the flrst
part of this century a famous political
economist of England, named Nautilus,
lad down a theory and backed IL with
tables of statistics that created much
attention. showing that population was
pressing upon the means of subsistence,
and that as things were going the actual
physical defamation of the delicate and
weakly among mankind in infancy would
he the only remedy against increasing
pauperism and misery. This was a
shocking solution for society to cOntem-
plate, but there were many among the
economists and statesmen of that day
who were inclined to accept the theories
of Nautilus as correct But here it was
that in the annals of advancing time
Moses was to be raised up at a critical
show to the world that the people had
not been brought out into the wilderness
to confound the purposes of ftheAlmighty
and die of thirst and starvation. Steam
Began its great unparalleled agency in
the work distribution, and now we hear
10 more of the doctrines Of Nautilus ex-
cept as an exploded relic Of Pagan phil
osophy. The ease, rapidity and cheap
ness with which breadsLuffs are moved
to-day is
THE WONDER AND MIRACLE OF OUR CIV
ILIZATION.
To me there is no more interesting
reading from year from year than
the railroad statistics published III
Poor's railroad annual. Wheh the rail-
roads were new and the country west
of Ohio sparsely settled. charters were
granted on the basis Of wagon freight =
and 25 cents per ton per mile was th'OC
to be cheap enough for haul OF 100 or
POO miles, as also was the old stage fare
of six cents per mile per passenger. 1Oa
remember that ten to fifteen years ago
il Has common to say that 1T took two
bushels of grain in Kansas and Iowa to
move one bushel to the Atlantic sea
board. Such is not the case to-day. The
report of the New York Central Rail
road for 1880 shows that 2,551, ,720,l15
tons of freight were moved one mile at
a charge to shippers of Sc 100 of | cent
per tor, and on the Erie Railroad that
I,7l0,1l2,O95 tons were moved at
charge of S3o-1OOO Of cent per ton per
mile. The reduction in price in seven
wears on the former road had been from
i Nf. 70 - of
cent. and on the latter from l cent and
4B9- 1000 of cent to $50 1000 OF l cent.
Only few years ago we chartered a
railroad in West Virginia, allowing 1t
to charge 20 cents per ton per mile for
freight, and 10 cents per mile per pas
senger. This looks eXtrayagant, but
how very cheap it is in comparison with
the wagon charges of % cts. per 100 lbs
for a haul of so miles from the terminus
of that road to the interior of Braxt0n
county.
In the interor Of West Virginia to-
day great deal Of farm product IS
measurably lost for the lack of trans
portation by steam, just as it was lost by
the millions of dollars worth within all
the country west of the Alleghenies 8
generation anda half ago. Here, for in
stance, is a paragraph that cut from
st. Clairsville paper few days ago, that
shows how the case stood with the
farmer west of the mountains within
the memory of men still living:
PURCHASING POWER
In 1916 one bushel OF corn would buy one
pound of nails. In 1882 one bushel Ct corn
would tuy fifteen pounds of nails In 1916
it took from twenty to eighty dozen OF eggs
to buy one bushel Of salt. In 1882 one dozen
of eggs would do the same thing. In 1916 II
required sixty four bushels OF barley 70 buy
one yard of broadcioth. In 1882 five bushels
of barley would do the business. In 1916 1t
required on bushel Of wheat to purchase one
yard of calico. In 1882 one bushel OF wheat
would buy thirty>hve yards of better arti>