The Wichita city eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1872-1883, 1873-10-09
SPEECH OF DWIGHT TEACHER.
At the First Annual Fair Of Sedg-
Wick County.

livered upon on the third day of the
fair from the judges stand. We lost
many of his finest illustrations, but
tried to preserve the principal points.
1t was truly in every respect an able
effort. Mr.. Thacher, on being intro
duced, said that the occasian was one
of the evidences of the remarkable
growth which the state of Kansas was
making. Hardly five years ago and
this great Arkansas valley was known
to the people of the state only by name
being recognized merely as the home
of the buffalo and the wild Indian.
To-day there was this great assem-.
blage of intelligent men and woman.
and more than all these tangible evil
dences of productive wealth, these are
triumphs of man over rude nature,
causing the wilderness of yesterday to
blossom as the rose. 1t showed how
the march of civilization and progress
was moving on, pressing the frontier
further and further back and affording
good grounds for the belief that the
prediction ofthe late Horace Greeley
that Kansas would have population
ola million souls by the year 1880
would prove true.
Industrial fairs were purely Ameri-
can holidays. They brought together
all classes of producers,-the farmer
with his cattle and his grain, the me-
chanic and the artizan with the fruits
of their handicraft,-an taught him
that each had his place in the great ar
my Of human industry. Whoever, by
toll Of hand or brain, subserves any
real want of mankind, was true work
CT, Society was bound together in
unity of interest The poor could not
say to the hand. L have no need of thee,
but each worker, from the rudcst and
humbliest to the loftiest and most re-
fined, subservc useful function in the
body polite.
There was much discussion going
on in regard to the arrangement of So
cicty, SO as to secure an equitable dis
tribution of the fruits of labor. lie be-
lieved that the same great principle of
freedom which had proved so efficient
in matters of governmcnt would prove
equally potent in the domain of COM
merce. Every producer of wealth was
also trader, for he had its labor Or
its products to wear. Commerce was
only an exchange of labor. The halter
makes hat and trades it to the shoe
maker for a shoe. That is the essence
of it. What we need is that nobody or
thing shall step between the halter and
shoemaker, to obstruct the present
freedom of their exchange. Trace this
principle through 4 of its ramiiica-
tons and it was the great regulator.
There is an attempt to organize the
social system upon scheme of mutual
hostility, trade warning against trade,
avocation against avOcatiOn, one form
of industry trying to ursurp power
over another, one form of labor organ
izing against another,a contest of COM
binaiions, warfare of monOpolies.
Such scheme is fraught only with
disaster. The true principle is perfect
freedom q exchange, each man follow
ing that business in life he may choose
and reaping the rewards of his own la
Dor. AS country when invaded, may
be forced into war to protect its rights,
so it may be right to fight combination
with combination, but the moment it
goes beyond this truly defensive atti-
tude and becomes aggressive, that mo-
ment it becomes ali evil. The farmers
are sometimes solicited to enter the
field Of monopoly as remedy for their
grievances. 1t is impractical for them
to do SO, and would be wrong in prin'
ciple. Their true policy is to plant
themselves upon the great principle OF
perfect freedom of exchange and to
fight every form of monopoly.
The speaker then alluded TO the 20
sition of Kansas; SAID that nature had
worked out her destiny as that of 8
great agricultural community, and il
was wrong for her people ever to think
of carrying her raw products fifteen
hundred miles over mountain range;
to the sea- Thetrue path Of commerce
+ was like the flow of water down hill
When God made the great Mississippi
VALLEY he m de the great river which
+ drains it t i it products to 'h'
ocean.
The spea den alluded to the ne
cessitv of t ling the products of oul
, soil into the mot valuable and leas'
weighty forms. lie said that he hac
not lost any faitl in Kansas, that it wa:
q state exceedingly rich in resources
and bound TO deelope great wealth FOL
its people. All we needed was &c
adopt ourselves o the popularity o
f our position.
. The speaker closed with a warm tri
: butte to the peone of the county FOL
the interest thcy had manifested, thu
: excellent fair grounds they had thus
. early secured and the splendid exhibi
: ton they had made
J., Sedgwick Republicans.