Knoxville weekly chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1875, 1874-07-15
A REMEDY FOR HARD TIMES.

| Everybody admits that wealth is the
product of labor, and yet how many
/ people there are who expect to accu-
mulate it without labor. There is an
easy explanation for the hard times of
which many are now complaining.
The man who has ten thousand dollars
/ of capital, and Uses but half of it, has
no reason to expect rs much return
from the halfused rs his neighbor who
iudiciously employs oil of his ten thou.
sand.
/ The successful men in this world
are those who use with prudence the
means they possess. But labor is as
valuable a capital The man who is
able to work, but fails to do so, is
as bad of as the man who has
money but fails to use it. The
man who has able-bodied sons
and daughters, but fails to teach them
how to labor either with their hands or
head, or having taught them, fails to
use them, is a much of drone to the
world AS the man who has money but
refuses to employ it, We hear a good
deal of complaint just now about hard
times and we are not surprised at it..
We walk through the streets and see
hundreds of men and boys and women
idle. We 20 out into the country and
We see hundreds of acres of land idle
or what j. just a. had--balf worked.
Now the community that expects to
prosper with idle lands and idle hands
so conspicu Us on every side as to force
themselves upon the notice of even
casual observers, has very little appre-
citation Of the foundation upon which
prosperity Is based Men may talk and
write fluently about immigration
and foreign capital coming to our
rescue, but the real remedy for Us as a
people is to 90 to work ourselves
Every idle man aud boy on our streets
waiting for some patent, easy way to
make money is drain upon society
and has his face set in the wrong di-
rection. The fact is that even manu-
featuring can not rescue Us from our
present troubles. Shops and furnaces
are not built in the desert. Every in
dustrial enterprise succeeds best where
the farms are small, well cultivated
and where every hand is busily en-
ployed at some kind Of productive la
Dor Just so long a. our lands are idle
or poorly worked, we must of necessity
be going 5ackUnrd The foundation
for every kind Of business is profitable
farming.
II then we want to begin at the
foundation to iufuse new life into the
South, We must rescue our lands from
idleness and put every idle man and
woman TO work ia the fed. shop or
home. We have often before urged
this upon our people. but we want to
drive it home t. Thorn again and again,
II dl-cOuragrs Us TO see the labor leav-
ing our fields and crowding into town
to overtipw the mercantile and pro-
tts-ional walks. II discourages US to
see strong young men idle upon our
streets, looking for some easy road to
affiuence, when our barren fields
cry aloud for more work
men and our producing class is
daily growing weaker. The day has
passed in the South when labor is con-
sidered dishonorable and every parent
who brings his children to manhood
or womanhood without teaching them
the necessity for, and the duty to, work
is doing wrong. Labor is not only
honorable, but idleness is a sin, and
the sooner public sentiment acts upon
this principle the sooner will we begin
to grow happier and more prosperous.