The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1893-11-06

ed, and capital, instead OF seeking employ
ment In the Development Of new regions,
will be used largely in housing the added
population and In adding TO the productive
power OF industries that will expand as
the population to be supplied shall increase.
The owner OF loanable money will find the
number OF his competitors greatly in
creased and the market narrowed by the
cessation OF demand from new regions
rapidly filing with youthful and intense
ly active and enterprising people.
For the manufacturer the cessation OF
territorial expansion probably means a
more exacting market, closer competition
and lower prices. Offset, In a measure. by
the greater use OF progressively Improving
processes, many forms Of cheaper material.
q lower interest charge: and, ultimately. q
much lower wage scale and constant
striving for conditions that will enable him
to keep control Of the home market and
compete successfully In distant markets.
For the wage-earner it means. rs soon as
| the farmer shall receive remunerative prices
| for his products, q brisk and increasing de-
mand for his services, such demand to last
desired buildings. furnished the new house.
strument, thoroughly improved his hold
ing. and supplied himself and family with
the comforts and some OF the eegancies OF
life which heightened period OF unprofta-
BILE production has placed beyond his reach.
This now approaching halcyon age OF
the American wage-earner. Is likely to
DO followed by one where the crowd
ing into the Industrial column OF the in
coming immigrant, and nearly all the
increase Of the rural population mo longer
able to embark in new agricultural
eXploitation) shall overstock the labor mar
ket and cause q gradual decline OF the
wage scale to the European level; level
that Is likely to descend, as another result
OF that exhaustion OF the unoccupied ara
BILE areas OF America; such exhaustion rem
dering it yearly more and more difficult to
provide room for the immense and ever
increasing swarms thrown of by Europe.
For the owner OF buildings. except in linn
tied districts where the concentration OF
business shall increase special demand. it
means lower rents. continuous cxpend-
lures upon the rented property, that it may
approach the most modern standard. and
rate OF income shrinking as does the inter-
est charge.
The implication for the farmer Is that
after heightened period of inadequate re-
turns. resulting from too rapid develop
ment OF the prairie regions. he is shortly to
receive remunerative prices. prices that
Will gradually advance to highly remuner-
alive level; and ultimately the cultivating
owners and landlords OF the temperate
zones will constitute the most complete
monopoly the world has ever seen: COM
plete. because 1t will be in absolute control |
Of the means or machinery for the produce
ton of what every member of the COM
munity must have and can procure nowhere |
else. machinery that can neither DO In |
creased nor duplicated by any conceivable |
device. although its productive power can |
and probably will be slowly and materially |
augmented by better methods OF culture. |
Yet such augmentation is limited. the limit |
being practically reached when added yield |
is secured at any diminution OF profit. |
There Is. moreover. an absolute limit. |
easily reached, independent OF any ques-
ton OF profit. This limit depends upon
climatic vicissitudes rather than human
agency or needs and 1t is an incontestible
that the population sustained
from the products Of a given area can be no
Ludu Illc uuulucI5 Suppllcu III
Of minimum yield. unless tho standard of
living be lowered in such years or the peo-
pie profit by the example OF JOSEPH.
Up to the point Of maximum profit neces-
sarily determinable by each individual Gull
tivator. an increase Of yield due to i'm
proved cultivation is sure to be much less
rapid than the increase OF population.
Hence such increase viii! but enhance tho
producers profit without lessening the cost
10 the consumer. On the contrary. there
may be. and likely will be. material
OF product. from improved
coincident with a constantly
ascending scale Of prices for all the prod
lcts Of the soil.
Only those entirely familiar with the i'm
mobility OF the great mass OF any agricul-
.ural population can fully estimate the time
'equired to leaven the lump and secure the
adoption OF such methods as will result In
my material increase Of acreage yields.
Whenever conditions shall warrant the
bringing into cultivation OF lands now idle.
because OF their low productive power or
he great cost OF reclamation, the use OF
uch land will. in itself. imply very high
prices; and the cost OF growing needed ad-
litional supplies on lands OF such character
will determine the minimum price OF all
consumed. Hence the necessity of adding
.cres OF very low productive power In order
O secure the needed supplies. will but en-
lance tho returns from all the better lands;
md, therefore. the farmer is shortly. and
yer thereafter. to be the best paid. rs he
las long been the poorest paid. Of all the
ctual workers in the worlds hive.
It Is held to be an economic heresy to
elevo that u purely agricultural commu-
ity can become prosperous; but there is
mple reason to believe that tho world is
bout to enter upon new phase of devel-
pment that will reverse this idea. and
how that such communities. so long as
hey produce considerable surplus OF those
Kings which the manufacturing and COM
nercial communities must have. not only
nay but will become the most prosperous
he world has ever seen. Still. reliance solely