Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 1.djvu/232

 224

��EDITORIAL MEMORANDA.

��In no year of the recent past have the American people in all States and sec- tions had such substantial cause for gen- uine thanksgiving as in this year of our Lord 1877. Politicians of all parties may enunciate their grievances, but there are two simple facts standing out in bold re- lief, which, together, are sufficient to justify the most general and hearty thanksgiving observances. The harvest has been rich and abundant in every part of the land. There is bread enough and to spare, and the overflowing wealth of our granaries, finding a ready market in Europe, is turning the balance of trade, so long against us, in our favor.

Secondly, the country is at peace. Sectional hostility has subsided. Each State is in control of its own domestic affairs, and general business prosperity promises to follow restored local self- government and fraternity between the sections.

The earnest of better times to come, irrespective of party advantage or disas- ter, cannot be mistaken.

��A correspondent. "F," suggests the inquiry — " What are the advantages of- fered at agricultural colleges that farm- ers do not appreciate?" In connection, "F" makes the following statement of fact or opinion : " When the student of medicine receives his diploma, he is pre- pared to earn his living by his acquired knowledge. When the practical mechan- ical student leaves his master, it is with a knowledge of his trade that may be coined into money. The boy who fol- lows his father upon the farm, keeping in the ruts his father made, learning, dur- ing his minority, the frugal habits of his ancestors, may live as they have lived, uncultured as he may be. But send the farmer's son to Hanover and keep him there through an agricultural course, and what is he fitted for when he leaves with his diploma? Not for the ruts his father made — not for contentment in the frugal habits of his sire ! Nor does he take with him a knowledge of his profession that will enable him to draw from the sterile hills of New Hampshire the means of

��living in a style corresponding with the culture he has received in college. The truth is, most New Hampshire farmers must earn their daily bread."

The drift of "FV argument is ap- parent. It is against the practical utility

of agricultural colleges. If there are those who are prepared to prove his posi- tion fallacious, it is proper that they should speak.

��A recent article from the pen of E. H. Cheney, formerly editor of the Lebanon Free Press, a brother of ex-Gov. Cheney, who has spent much of his time, for sev- eral years past, at the South, upon the relative condition of the cotton manufac- turing industry, here and in that section, has attracted much 'attention, and been the subject of no little comment and crit- icism. Mr. Cheney maintains, and not without some show of reason, that cotton manufacturing in New England has seen its best days, and that the seat of this great industry will be — is now being — transferred to the South, where there is unlimited water power in easy access of the cotton producing Sections, thus sav- ing largely in transportation of the raw material, and proportionately lessening the cost of production.

It is claimed, on the other hand, that notwithstanding the progress that has been made at the South in this direction, there is a constant and even greater pro- gress here ; that even if some minor man- ufacturing establishments in the smaller towns have suspended operations, the great corporations in the larger towns and cities have been constantly increas- ing the magnitude of their business, so that on the whole the increase here ex- ceeds what has been accomplished in the South.

We opine that both positions are right and both are wrong in a measure. The manufacturing interest will grow up at the South, but will not go down in New England. When the barriers of " pro- tection " are broken down and free trade is established, New England skill and in- dustry will be enabled to compete suc- cessfully in the markets of the world.

�� �