Year: 1874

:


of business failures and unemployed workmen,
is now numbered with the past There is ample
reason to believe that sith tho dawn OF tho New
Year ne shall see better times-that business
will resume it's vonted course, that manufac-
tutes will be resumed, and that all clauses,
admonished By the disasters which so lately
swept over tho country, will put their affairs in
shape to avoid another September visitation OF
the financial simoom. How shall this be done
There is only one way given under Heaven
among men by which the zavages Of COM
mercial cribs can be repaired, and that il by
economy. Capital has been destroyed it mrss
DO replaced and, as capital is the result OF
savings, savings alone will make good what Was
apparently swept away by the panic, but VAS
renlly swept away long time before.


The economy which the whole people may
practice consists of the sum OF the economies Of
individuals, and this can bereg1latel by no rule.
Each person will be q law unto hlmse1, but
there are some savings Of really gigantic impor-
tance and magnitude which can be effected BY
tho force OF public opinion During the past
ten years, and even longer, there las been, as it
nere, general conspiracy to settle up aud bring
under cultivation the whole unoccupied domain
of the United States within the lifetime Of the
present generation. Land-grants havs been
voted, patriotic appeals made, bombastic and
lying circulars scattered over Europe, money
spent in coaxing and promoting emigration,
State agencies establishea-and all for what pur-
pose To establish competition in grain-grow-
ing in the Western States and Territories This
ia what aila the farmers more than anything else.
The old proverb which assigns blessing
to him who makes two blades Of grass to grow
where one grew before, is incomplete unless it
be added that the two blades will sell for no
more than tile one,-unIesB there be two buyers
in the market where there was formerly only
QUE. Il there be any vocation or calling not
specially in need Of competition in the Western
States and Territories. or in the United States
generally. it is that Of farming. Yet The best
efforts Of the nation, and Of the several States,
have been directed to promoting such competi-
ton; while laws have been passed with the
sanction and approval Of the farmers themselves
to prevent AMI restrict competition in the sale
of pretty much everything they have to buy.
Public lands hare beon voted away With ~pend-
thrift haste and capitalists, in order to possess
the lands, have invested their own money and
borrowed lavishly from others, in order to
put tho new settlers on rs favorable
footing as tho older occupants
Of the agricultural districts, who have gained
what advantages they possess By severe and un-
romitting toll. and who are deprived Of them to
large extent by this artificial competition


But this is not all Railway construction in
advance OF population ia the most exhausting
expenditure, next to war, in tho whole category
OF waste and pro0igacy. 1t is said that lis
railways, great aud small, have gone to protest
on their bonded indebtedness since the Sep
tember panic set in. For all present purposes,
the capital invested in these railways
might as we'll have been sunk in the sea.
The withdrawal Of this capital from the clanne1a
OF ordinary business contributed nightly to the
Septeubcr panic aud tie subsequent hard times,
and it Is here that ws may practice our wisest
and greatest economy in the next decade. There
is more wild land provided with railway facilities
than can be advantageouB]y cultivated during
tho next ten, it not the next twenty, yeas.
Every scheme that comes before Congress-, or
upon tho money market, to continue this par1li-
cious policy. or to help out broken railway and
land companies, should be visited With the male-
dc.ions Of the press and the people. and most Of
all, Of the farming community, who are the chief
sufferers BY it.