The Indianapolis journal., 1890-08-21

pound for North or South America, Asia, Aus
tralasia or Oceanica. indeed. II would not suf
flee for more than supply of fifteen pounds per
head TO Europe alone. Ellison, in his Cotton
Trade makes the average weight of cotton
gum uses 9.S pounds; Great Britain, 1.56; Ger
many. 7.53; Austria, 5.27; Italy, SOC; Russia,
3.3l, etc.
OUR HOMES AND THEIR ADORNMENTS.
The satisfaction of dietetic and sartoral de-
mands OF our people are no more imperative
than the urgency OF their requirements for
home-making and ornamentation. No able
bodied craftsman or skilled laborer, at forty
years of needs to pay rent for his habitation
from inevitable necessity. If he does ii is be
cause of extravaganza, mismanagement, dissipa.
ton or peculiar misfortune. There are crowded
and unhealthful quarters in New York and other
cities. but they are mainly occupied by lower
classes OF foreigners. Philadelphia. city of the
largest class, with million people by no means
exclusively native.born, has dwelling-house
for every six Inhabitants. Washington is equally
we'll provided with homes largely owned by their
occupants. Not few OF the colored residents OF
the capital city own houses in which they live.
Every town, village and hamlet is filled with
homes built or purchased by those who occupy
them. There are, indeed. log-cabins in the South,
board dwellings on the prairies and even dug
outs" on the plains of the more distant
West; but they are temporary expedients OF
those too busy ln opening farms and grow
ing crops TO build permanent houses, and 100
poor TO use their scanty capital in expenditures
not Immediately and largely productive. If at
such quarters. one may well question his indus
try or his sObrlety.
glance at the census records OF manufacture
of furniture and furnishing, of hardware, OF
heating and illuminating apparatus, of ingenious
devices for saving labor and expedltlng d0meS-
tic processes reveals wealth of suggestion In
the lines or comfort and luxury in building and
ornamentatiOn OF homes. The fact 1s gratifying
as 1t Is indisputabe. that a large part OF this
material goes into the houses OF the working
classes; if not so much of the costly and elegant,
at least a large proportion OF the tasteful, IN
genious and comfortable appliances or home
equipment and adOrnment. There Is many
mechanic who runs his wires and places bis
battery for electric bells in his modest cottages
or his minor son may do II for his amusement
and experiment in science and mechanism
IL Is rule, not an exception, that q large pro-
portion of the masters OF industry whose homes
the most spacious and elegant in their neigh
bOrhoods, have risen from comparative poverty,
from the industrial ranks. through opportunity,
energy and persistence. In every class OF work
ers from the skilled artisan to the 1aborer, those
who unite industry and economy secure homes,
and in many cases acquire comfortable COM
petence.
classes not alone in we'll furnished
homes, but in many forms OF profitable invest
in savings banks. There has been much talk OF
decline OF population, OF deserted farms, in some
of the Eastern states notably in New Hamp-
shire Yet the census shows there a gain or
about thirty thousand, or per cent. since 1880;
and there are more depOsitors III savings banks
than there are families. Indeed, these deposits
represent a sum nearly ten times as much as the
per capita share OF the people of that state III the
national debt, and are several fold more than the
share per head OF the people OF Great Britain In
their savings bank deposits Volumes of facts
illustrating the prosperity OF our working people
might be adduced. we're the truth not patent and
clear to every intelligent observer.
EDUCATIONAL CONSIDERATIONS AND WAGES.
The American citizen is not content to exist as
a mere animal Physical we'll being does not
| limit his desire aspiration. He feels that he
ip1 h1d
and recognizes the necessity of culture. He has
ambition to rise in the social scale. through merit
and progress, though he has an open
| contempt for distinctions founded on pre-
| tence and gilded demerit. He is es-
| advancement of his children, and freely depletes
limited income in their education and training
| for a career in life, often upon other than an
ceStral lines. This tendency may become exces-
| sive. and has already to some extent. it must
be admitted, in creating distaste for useful in
dustry and desire for conspicuous position,
for accumulation without labor, and speculative
rather than productive occupation The dispo-
| sitlOn to avoid work, and live upon the proceeds
of the labor of others, quite too general amon,
all classes OF young people, not excepting the
cOlored race. 1t is tendency that is the natural
result of the acquisition of fortunes If by magic.
but it must be cOmbatted with energy, in the In
| terest of legitimate industry, free government
and good morals.
Thus the average American lives upon high
plane, exciting the envy or the emulation OF peO.
pie of other countries. and inducing extraOrdi-
| nary immigration. This popular wave. i'm its
| movement during the last decade, represents a
population about as large that of the neigh
boring dominion of Canada. 1t is 10 per cent.
| OF our own population in 1880. 1t is equal to
that OF more than one European country. This
continuous living stream flowing to America
from all countries of the world. attests daily the
superior elevation of the American standard OF
| living.
high standard of living. as indicated in the
larger consumption of food aud clothing, and a
superiority of habitatiOns and their furnishing
1 he
can, requires higher wages. While the wages of
| European artisans and mechanics. and of farm
labOrers. have advanced in recent times. they
nowhere approach very closely the rate OF wages
received 10y the same classes in this country In
be an Of fhs rate sS Of
tstical Society, in 1880, by Mr.. j. s. Jeans, it
was claimed t as deduction on from ayalabe sta
200 per cent. higher than i'll France, l62 per
cent. higher than In Germany and "a per cent;
the agricultural wages OF Great Britain was IL
shillings per week, or about $3.50 per annum.
The "a, aHerase Wages of white farm laborers in the
Agriculture. In May OF the present year, Is $o76
per annum which is so per cent above the rate
quoted for Great Britain.
According to accepted estimates Of the rate OF
wages of men in the principal trades of france,
| the wages of women in this country are from go
| TO so per cent. higher report of the Depart.
| regular occupation. as averaged from 5,716 re-
turns In twenty-five principal Cities $295.54 per
annunI. with $40 average additional income in
6S2 of the returns.
A large mass of detail could be given. showing
wide range of differences in the rates of labor
OF this and other countries in the various Occu-
patiOns. 1t would not he easy TO make exact
averages. hut a glance only is requisite to show
| the great disparity between wages in the United
States and any other country that might be
named for comparison.
No patriot or humanitarian desires To see a
material reduction OF the rates of wages In the
United States. 1t means inevitably lowering
| of the standard of living, hindrance to home
making. a delay in the payment of the mortgage
| that in some instances helped to build home
| and debasement OF the spirit OF independence
| that is the glory OF the American citizen.
THE STATUS OF OUR FARMERS
Land is the freest thing in America. The orig.
| inal cost of the fee simple OF our lands is less
| than the rental OF farms in most European coun.
| tries. The public land area, three-fourths as
much as the area of all the countries of Europe
west of Russia, is carved into free farms for
| native born and immigrant alike. All who would
cultivate the soil, and enjoy a home in the coun-
try. can have the opportunity if they have energy
! and inclination 10 select and improve the farms
| they seek.
| With 100000 farmers and farm laborers.
cultivating over 5,OOO.O 900 farms, but third of
the land is taken up, hut small part of tnat is
under crops. ana the area under nominal cultva-
| ton Is superticially treated and scarcely up To
| half its maximum production. There is nothing
surprising I'm this. Cultivation Is always primi.
| tive where land is cheap, before land specua-
| tion gives place to scientific agriculture. For
| this reason the richest lands are often found to
give the lowest yields; for this reason the aver.
age wheat yields OF the prairies of Iowa are
less per than those OF the granite bills of the
, East.
| Very faur countries NJ tha world bava INV ann