1862. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



49 



For the Neic England Farmer. 



THE "WAR AWD THE FARMER. 

 BY JUDGE FRENCH. 



We have now, in the ranks of our army, fight- 

 ing for the Constitution and laws of the best gov- 

 ernment and most prosperous people upon which 

 the sun ever shone, more than half a million of 

 men, all volunteei-s, nearly all men who, a few 

 months ago, were engaged in the peaceful avoca- 

 tions of productive industry, either in the work- 

 shop or on the farm. A haLf-milUon of industri- 

 ous men, suddenly called fi-om laboring to pro- 

 duce food and clothing, into a profession wliich 

 produces not an ear of corn nor a yard of cloth ! 

 More than this, even ! for another large army of 

 men, with horses and macliinery of all kinds, are 

 away from their accustomed pursuits, devoting 

 their labor to constructing fortifications, to build- 

 ing sliips of war, to manufacturing guns, and 

 swords, and all warlike implements. All these 

 men are consuming the necessaries of life, and 

 producing nothing, and worse than tliis, because 

 what they consume is charged with the cost of 

 freight away from the place of production, and of 

 necessity, a considerable proportion is lost or waste- 

 fully consumed. Looking at these facts, wliich lie 

 upon the very surface, many are inquii-ing anxious- 

 ly as to the future. How can the loyal States 

 spare so many industrious men, and who is to 

 perform their accustomed labor at home ? 



No philosopher or statesman ever yet succeeded 

 in adjusting these questions relating to supply and 

 demand, especially if the matter of tariffs and free 

 trade were involved, so that his theories and facts 

 would correspond, and we shall not attempt what 

 wiser men have failed to accomplish. Yet there 

 are some facts and considerations worthy our at- 

 tention, in connection with the question whether 

 we can spare so much labor without suffering, and 

 even famine ? 



This is generally thought to be rather a hard 

 world to live in, and we in New England being 

 duly impressed with the Scripture idea that labor 

 and bread are pretty closely allied, have most of 

 us an impression that it is everybody's duty to 

 work all the time, to keep the world revolving. 

 Now, tliis is a great mistake ; we are laboring, 

 many of us, for that which is not bread, in any 

 sense, and it is by no means necessary for all the 

 world to work, that all the world should be com- 

 fortably provided for. We know it is not, if we 

 look Southward, where we see every negro, great 

 and small, supporting liimself, and a white man 

 or two besides ! and everybody knows that one 

 Northern farmer does more effective work than 

 three slaves. Read what Dr. Palcy says of the 

 real necessity for labor in England, and it will be 

 seen that an industrious people can spai-e for war. 



or any other extraordinary occasion, a far larger 

 proportion of its active laborers than we have yet 

 sent away. It should be borne in mind, that only 

 about one-tenth the population of England is en- 

 gaged in agriculture, the great majority being en- 

 gaged in manufactures. 



"Perhaps," says he, "two-thu'ds of the manu- 

 facturers in England are employed upon articles 

 of confessed luxury, ornament or splendor, in the 

 superfluous embellishment of some articles which 

 are useful in their kind, or upon others wliich have 

 no conceivable use or value, but what is founded 

 in caprice or fasliion." 



Now it is obvious, that England would be none 

 the poorer, if it should, for five years, dispense 

 with all those articles of luxury, and support the 

 two-tliirds of her manufacturers, Avho are fit for 

 soldiers, in her armies. They might as well be 

 soldiers, as to weave laces or ribbons. It would 

 cost the nation no more to sujiport such weavers, 

 with guns on their shoulders, than at their looms, 

 if those who formerly bought the laces and rib- 

 bons, would go without them, and pay the same 

 amount towards the war. 



In America, a far less proportion of labor is de- 

 voted to luxuries, than in England, but still it is 

 true that we can spare a very large force for the 

 Avar, and yet have enough to provide food and 

 clothing, and all other comforts of life for us all. 

 We can all economize as individuals, and so spare 

 sometliing for the soldiers. The imports of dry 

 goods into the city of New York alone, are fifty- 

 five mUHons less up to December of tliis year, than 

 in the same time last year. A great part of this 

 saving is by dispensing with mere articles of fancy, 

 by the women of the country. What harm comes 

 to anybody if the ladies who formerly did nothing 

 in theii' leisure hours, or worked worsted, which is 

 the next thing to it, now knit a half-million pairs 

 of socks and mittens ? Is not so much useful la- 

 bor created by the war ? 



We have in fact had a surplus of labor on our 

 farms, as a whole, for some years past. More In- 

 dian corn has been raised in many parts of the 

 West, than could be properly or profitably used. 

 So abundant and cheap has it been in some locali- 

 ties, that it has been burned for fuel, wliich is a 

 public loss, for the fresh productive soil has been 

 thus needlessly sapped in its production. And 

 now, with no extraordinary crop the past season, 

 we have enough for ourselves, with our vast ar- 

 mies, enough to supply the demands of France 

 and England, and, thank God, sometliing to give 

 to starving Ireland when she wants help again, as 

 she probably will, the coming winter. 



We have it stated on the authority of Pashley, 

 that there were in England, in 1850, 300,000 able 

 bodied male paupers ! and that the amount levied 

 for jioor rates in that country, was about $36,000,- 



