THE REVERSAL OF MALTHUS.
EX-SENATOR INGALLS, in a recent review, says : " It is a curious fact that with increasing population, creating increased demands, all products of the field and farm have diminished in value, and that with the exhaustion of the public domain farming lands have become more and more unsaleable."
The Ex-Senator has always been recognized by friends and foes alike as a man of keen perceptions. He does not attempt to account for the condition he describes farther than to hint a belief that " it is intimately though mysteriously connected with the financial system that has been developed in the last twenty years." This belief he advances with the hesitation that becomes a thoughtful man when considering conditions altogether anomalous in extent and character. He shows the sincerity of the doubt which affects his mind as to its being merely local in its nature, by adverting to the fact that " England, France, Ger- many and Spain are all suffering from the same general par- alysis."
It is probable that not a single reflective mind in the whole country has failed to note the facts stated in this interview; a great majority have arrived at similar, if not identical, conclu- sions in regard to them. The currency and the tariff are gener- ally held responsible, in the public mind, for the greater part of the evils which affect our economic conditions. Because of this a remedy is almost universally sought in tariff amendment or currency re-adjustment. So strong is the former sentiment that the friends of Mr. McKinley have with unanimity dubbed him the " advance agent of prosperity," considering his views upon the efficacy of a protective tariff a restorative for all the ills with which the social body is now affected.
Two other considerable classes regard our present condition as concerned primarily with legislation affecting the currency;
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