Workmen's advocate., 1890-04-26
final judgment by a premature state ment of theoretical views.

ilnal judgment Dy premature state- ment of theoretical views.
 Of the facts which rightly belong to the first class-namely, the ''physical'- tso deserve special mention for the period under review, to wit: the inunda- tion of the Mississippi Valley and the excellent condition of the growing crop of winter wheat in the Western states. We need not dwell at length on the re- lations of these phenomena to the national welfare. In a commonwealth deserving of the name the prospect of agricultural abundance would be a cause of rejoicing in all quarters, while the news of great overflow along national waterway would induce national effort to prevent its recurrence. But what do we see? In the first case, consternation among the inrmers because the large crop of Lost var must be sold at prices Considerai " below the actual cost of raising and garnering it, and indifference among the city consumers, to whom the price of agricultural produce is not sufficiently reduced by the dealers and spectators to compensate them for the loss of work and wages consequent upon the lessened ability of the farmers to purchase manufactures. In the second case, private property in land not only
 prevents our legislators from voting a
 public expenditure which would mostly,
 if not exclusively, benefit a comparatively
 small number of landowners in the in-
 undated districts, but is actually respon- | sible for the extent of the disaster, be- | cause these private owners, in order to
 irrigate their lands, have carelessly and
 unscientitically cut into the levees certain
 openings, through which the water pour
 ed out with tremendous force, undermin-
 ing and finally carrying away the levees
 themselves when the mighty stream be-
 gan to swell. Again, the same disregard
 of the pubic welfare, and even of those
 private rights which our political system
 recognizes and boasts of protecting, is
 induced by the private ownership of
 forest lands, that are ruthlessly stripped
 of their natural wealth to satisfy in-
 dividual greed and no longer act as | mOderatOrS of seasons and distributors
 of water; so that tornadoes, frosts and | inundations occur at great distances
 from those ancient forests, now bare and
 unproductive, which would not take
 place under truly national care of all
 interests. And, by the way, it may be
 pertinent to ask whether the so. called
 scientific anarchists would or would not
 regulate such matters; and in case they
 would, how they could do it without
 some sort of administration, capable of
 ascertaining what people may not do
 here and there without injuring their
 fellow men thousand miles away. We
 may hdmit, nay, we admit absolutely,
 that under the reign of intelligent free-
 dom people will refrain from doing any.
 thing which they may know to be in
 furious. But, were it only to come to
 that point, the machinery of knowing must be provided and can only be pro- vided at the public expense The right claimed by an anarchist to abstain from contributing to that expense implies the
 right of not knowing and, therefore, of injuring. A queer right, to be sure, this right of being stupid; very natural right to those who are naturally stupid, but not likely to be respected by men of common sense.
 This first part of our monthly review
 would be incomplete without reference to the health of the people, which IS as good as dirty streets, overwork, tenement houses, priv atiOns here, gluttOny there
 and food adulterations everywhere will permit. That there is room for improve 8 ment in the conditions of health no one !. thinks of denying, To name the causes !. of avoidable sickness, as have just done, , is to suggest the possible means of pre- vention. But we bury the victims of i our perverse system-even though they / be wives and children-with resign q ation and apathy more creditable to a
 stoic of ancient Greece, or more pardon able to savage of Patagonia than to - men who boast of the moral effects of
 civilization and political equality.
 We shall next consider the economic 5 events of most importance.
 t Reference has already been made to n the distress prevailing among the |, farmers; the apparent cause being a Il physical fact .. e. the large crops of last l. year and the favorable prospects of this.
 The real cause, of course, is purely . economical. It has been examined at 'V length in the WoRKMEN's ADVOCATE, d together with the remarkably absurd n views presented in BradstreetS by our if great soup bone and bone soup economist,
 Edward Atkinson. Considering the u short crops in all the countries that com. l. pete with America on the grain markets n of the world; considering, furthermore q the large increase of population in this
 country since 1880, when the wheat croE ) was as large as last year, while the corn It crop has not increased in greater ratio
 than population, it is evident that there
 is no overproduction even in the limited l. and unscientitic meaning attached to ths W word by political economists, and tha 70 this ought to be year of extraordinary if prosperity for our farmers. But they N are in the hands of the speculatlng anc