154 LAND AND LABOR. 



abundance and comfort than ever before. One half 

 of our people furnished abundant subsistence and 

 comfort for the whole at the very time when the nor- 

 mal and abnormal demands for consumption were the 

 greatest ; and, consequently, at the close of the war 

 there was no demand for the services of those who had 

 been engaged in it either as enlisted men or otherwise, 

 to help in the work of providing for the sustenance 

 and comfort of society. 



An incident marking the great development and 

 power of our normal industries during the war, and 

 the abundance and wealth of our products, was, that 

 in the midst of the most tremendous throes of that 

 great struggle, when it was learned that the work 

 people of Lancashire were hungry and in great distress 

 for want of cotton to work upon, our southern ports 

 being blockaded and little cotton exported, we loaded 

 three ships with cargoes of food from our wealth of 

 abundance, and sent the means of life and comfort to 

 a suffering and distant people. Still more recently 

 the people of Lancashire and all England have again 

 been hungry and distressed, with plenty of cotton and 

 other material to work upon ; but our people, though 

 in a state of profound peace and burdened with the 

 greatest abundance of everything necessary for the life 

 and comfort of all, were still too poor to feed our own 

 hungry or help their distress. Our people are also 

 idle and poorly paid. 



The great industrial change that reduced four mil- 

 lions of persons from abundant employment to idle- 

 ness was mainly accomplished within one hundred 

 and twenty days after the signing of the capitulation 



