Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1894-04-13
CURRENT COMMENT.

If some people had done their thinking
befnle voting instead of afterwards, this
country would have been today several
billions of dollars better Oft. However,
it is better to think afterwards than not
to think at all.-[Springfield Reporter.
In Rhode Island in 1892 there were
employed in the mills and factories a
total of 10 .0S9 hands. In the summer of
1893 came the business depression, and
the number employed shrank to l4,770.
This wear so far but 1896 have found
employment. This means that in one
little State Sl23 persons have been ree-
gated TO enforced idleness-43 per cent
of the total number of wage earners
Besides this the reduced wages of the 81
per cent who still find employment is no
inconsiderabe factor in the summing up
of the injury inflicted on this one State
by the Democratic tariff-smashng pol
icy Toledo Blade.
Mr.. David Bennett Hill will stand
back and view with pride and pleasure
the results of his mischievous and mali
cious effort. Malicious is just the word
to apply to it; for it is not that he is
really grleved at the mistakes which he
discovers the administration has made :;
it is not that he is ashamed of the dis
creditable position into which, under
the Cleveland leadership, his party has
fallen; it is not that he abhors the in-
come tax in itself or that his heart thrObs
with sympathy for the distressed manu-
facturer and the unfortunate working
man. His purpose is not TO defend any
body or any interest against what he
considers bad legislation, but simply,
with deliberate and bitter malice, to
u l.l. Lat,
the man who is in the Office where he
wanted, and perhaps still hopes, to he.
And it cannot be denied that he is quite
successful in his maevolent design. lie
| impales the blunders and faiings of the
administration on very sharp stick,
and fairly glOats over them as he holds
them up to the laughter and scOrn of
the OppositiOn.-lP Providence Journal.
/ The sO-called bonanza whPat-farns of
! the Northwest and The big farms of the
/ California valleys grew out of transient
conditions that no longer prevail-the
/ California farms out of the old Spanish
/ land-grants and the Minnesota and Da-
kota farms out of the congressional
grants to railroads. The history of the
/ Northwestern big farms is that the land
was purchased from the companies with
deprecated stock and cost originally
about one dollar per acre. The low price
of wheat and the higher price of land
have changed the whole aspect of large
farming. There is no bonanza in the big
farm now; it makes but a moderate prof
it on the capital it represents in average
crop years, and with Il bad crop it barely
pays running expenses. Ii requires jas
careful management as factory. | be-
lieve that we are now in transition pc
riod III agriculture. The influence of
machinery has been fully exerted. There
are no more fertile lands on the globe
to be conquered by civilization and to in
crease the foOd-supply. With growth of
population will come better prices for
farm products. Farm life will become
more attractive. The tendency to large
farms will be checked. A hundred acres
even with exclusive grain farming, will
afford a good living to a family. Better
times for American agriculture are moi
far off, +. V. Smaley in Forum.