Smyrna times., 1885-10-21
The Struggle For Food.

The collection and comprehensive
consideration of statistics concerning
the industrial classes are of compare
lively recent origin. The past twenty
five years, or since the war, have seen
great advancement made in the United
States in procuring and publishing facts
and figures relating to the working
people of this and other countries.
Such have been the value and impOr-
tance of this Inc of effort that various
States have taken hold of it, and this
year has noted the third annual confer
ence Of the chiefs and commissioners of
the several bureau of labor statistics
at Boston. This meeting, which re-
ceiVed much attention while in session,
comprised representatives Ofthe United
States Commissioner of the Bureau of
Labor, besides the Secretary of the Bu-
reau of Industries for Ontario, Canada,
and several distinguished economists
from various parts of the country.
Apart from the regular proceedings,
prepared by John S. Lord, of fthis State,
as Secretary Of the conference, there
were several addresses made which are
worthy of mention. One was by Ed
ward Atkinson, the well-known writer
on economic and social questions, on
the waste of food or the statistics of
| consumption. In an elaborate deus
sion of the subject he contends that
half the struggle of life is a struggle for
! food, and then he takes several typical
| classes to illustrate the cost of living.
He has made, he says, Investigations
and has found, for example, an average
| French Canadian family to be much
more economical than an average fam
| lily of Celtic extraction. He estimates
that the simple item of fuel alone is an
all-impOrtant one in the domestic field,
and that there is great saving effected
even in the cooking utensils used by
the frugal housewife. The further fact
| is emphasized that there exists among
even every intelligent people a great
want of information respecting the
nutritive properties of various articles
of food, and the cheapest kinds, with
the best methods of preparing them fol
the table.
Mr.. Atkinson reasons that there is
an adjustment of labor and capital tC
new conditions which have been devel-
Oping since the war, and Of which We
are now feeling the secondary effects
These new conditions, profound and
revolutionary in their character, repres
ent vast saving of force in production
in distribution, and in the great com
merce of the world. Some Of them are
the abolition of slavery and the efIec
tive application of free labor; the eX
tension and consolidation in the rail
way service, especially in the United
States, but also in other countries tn
opening of the SueZ Canal the inven
ton of the Bessemer process for max
ing street rails; vast improvement il
steam engineering, whereby the appli
cation of fuel to the arts has been re
duced more than one-half in Quantit,
and in cost; the extension of the tele
graph system, and the invention of tn
telephone. He holds that each one q
these changes, improvements, or inven
tiOns has eliminated part of the COS
of subsistence, if cost is measured i
time of labor, and that almost ever
, customary process has been easier
, quicker, or more productive. He be
, lieves the recent period of depressiO
has been the rich mans funeral, nc
the poor mans; the price or wage {
, labor, taken:in the aggregate, has bee
) reduced much less than the price {
capital; the purchasing power of wage
has increased, while the income of car
| ital has deceased; but he is confder
f that we are now entering upon me-
2 period, which will be one of great pro
gress and prosperity for rich and poe
4 alike in this country, upon the ne
t foundation of more effective capt.;
Y and more productive labOr.-Inte
r Ocean.