Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1870-02-11
For the indicator.

III. Edttor::-In a former ~communica-
ton I endeavored to show the im~portanceof
making our town manufacturing place
how I thoughtwe might induce men Of capt.
tai and experience to invest their means in
manufacturing enterprises in our midst. l
now propose to show that a purely agrleul-
tural community cannot be permanently
prosperous. 70 make a people prosperous
and happy. we must have the miner, man
ufacturer and mechanic laboring side by side
with the farmer and planter in the same
community, if we wish to profit by our mag
nifcent resources, increase our wealth and
keep step with the progress of intelligence
and civilization. The h~usband-man and
shepherd Of the barbarous ages used their
fingers for forks and the skins of their focks
for clothing, yet then Tubal Gains were
forced to supply them with knives and in
strumcnts Of Brass. The savages of Ame-
RIGA depended on their rude mechanical skill
in constructing snares and bows and arrows
to procure their food, while the Hotcntot of
Africa owed their precarious and miserable
cxistance more to there ingenuity than to
the material fruits of the earth. The soil
cannot be made to yield fruits without some
mechanical constructions. The burned stick
of the Indian, the wooden pillow of the Ro-
man, the rude coulter of our grandfathers
or the steam cultivator of to-day must be
made use of. We would relapse into bar
barism without the aid of iron and those met
ais which subject all nature to our use and
pleasure, but we cannot obtain them with
out the miner and manufacturer, nor can we
fashion them to our wants without the skill
Of the mechanic, yet science and knowledge
are quite essential. The ancient manufac.
turer made ingots of steel and the East In
dian of to day blowing through his sheep
skin bag can produce half a pound iron per
day. Science has increased the production
to one hundred pounds. Our ancestors in
England, in 1900, carried their coal, ore
and iron on the backs Of women and asses,
and, fifty years ago, the planters of Virgin
Ia rollsd there hogshcads of tobacco from
Danville to Richmond. Steam now does
the work with e thousand fold increase. 1t
is thus manifest that the miner, manufac-
turer and mechanic are not only useful to
the farmer and planter, but absolutely in
disrensable. They are the ''hanAmaids"
of science and skill.
The miner, manufacturer and mechanic
are not only necessary for the production of
food and clothing, but they furnish the
means of promoting intelligence and civil
cation, the necessities. comforts, pleasures
and Injuries Of peace, and the Implements
Of defence in war. These facts are evident.
aud it is manifest that the richest soils must
become eventually exhausted and valueless
by constant drains on their resources with
out recompense. A purely agricultural
people therefore add nothing to the per-
manent wealth Of their country, while a
combined manufacturing aud agricultural
community grows rich. There are many
examples, but let Virginia and Massachusetts
stand in evidence. The former was natur-
ally rich but now poor, the latter was natur-
ally poor but now rich.
The mineral resources of our county are
equal to our agricultural, but the one cannot
be properly developed without the other,
and domestic industry must be employed to
accomplish the result. We all desire per-
mant material prosperity and let US work
together then to secure it by fostering
mechanical and manufacturing as well as
agricultural interests.
A HT1iTYEN