The Marietta journal. [volume] (Marietta, Ga.) 1866-1909, 1871-03-10
Che Agarietta guurual.
Marietta. Georgia. March 10, 1871.
UNPRoFIrABLE CITIZENS.


and those engaged in them become
improbable citizens. In all COM
munities, these classes exist-bad,
Improbable and profitable citizens.
In civilized societies, the bad con-
stitutc but a small part, the un-
profitable more numerous, the profit
able compose the large majority
For our present purpose, the un-
profitable citizens of our State will
be the subject of discussion; show
ing their homes, their occupations
and exposing their lack of true pa
triotism. But few Of that class are
to be found among the white popu-
lation of the country since the close
of the war; the villages, towns and
cities of the State have become their
homes, being too inert or too indo-
lent to undertake the necessary
physical labors Of the present coun-
try life, they desire to live by their
wits, and draw their support from
the products of the industrious.
Since the close of the war, the vii
lagos town and cities of our State,
have increased in number and great
ly increased in PARLIAMENTARY
one fourth of its population are now
the residents of those communities,
the larger portion of them non-pro-
duccrs there the man of wealth
makes his home, either in the enjoy
ment of idle ease or in loaning his
money at ruinous rates of interest to
his more valuable fellow citizens
there we find the swarm of politic-
ians proclaiming their devoted love
of country, stirring up a fog to blind
their fellow citizens, that they may
secure some public Office realizing
support with but little labor to them
selves or profit to the State; then
too we find the lawyers, waiting tor
the man in trouble to receive his fee
and aid him in escaping the penal
ties Of the laval free consumers
but small producers of the wealth of
the State B.; and there are the homes
of the merchants and the trading
men, who with their assistants, COM
pose the bulk of the dwellers in the
cities and towns, always in readi-
ness, with smiling friendly face,
to exchange his money or his i'm
ported supplies on the most favora-
BILE terms, for the fruits of the farm
ers labor. Merchants are a neces-
sary class in every civilized COM
munity, to increase the comfort and
wealth of the whole; though not d.
rect producers by their occupation,
their services as middle men, save
the labor and time of the producers,
in effecting personally an exchange
of the fruits of their labor for other
products, more needed by them;
thus by their agency in saving the
labor and time of the wealth pro-
ducers, as a class they greatly facili-
tate the creation of wealth for the
State.
To the extent that these various
classes of town residents may be
needed, to facilitate the wealth pro-
ducers in their labors, and when so
fully engaged, they cannot be placed
among the Improbable citizens; but
when their number exceed the de-
mand, then their time and labor be-
come lost to the State. Our State
being agricultural, almost wholly de-
pendent upon the product of the soil
for its wealth it cannot require a
fifth part of its population to ex-
change It's products, administer its
laws and occupy its public Offices
as its town citizens seem to consider
their special province-they chiefly
expend the wealth, which four-ffths
of their fellow citizens are laboring
to create and thus embarass and i'm
poverish the State. The population
of the town not engaged in produc-
ing labor and in excess of the num-
Der needed to facilitate exchanges
and to perform other needed services,
are Improbable citizens and the
absence of such, would in most cases,
be gain in wealth to the State.
This excess of town population is
probably one third of the whole num-
Der, being citizens, who are drones
or dead weights upon the advance of
the State consisting mostly of pro-
fessional men without clients or pa