Lamoille newsdealer. [volume] (Hyde Park, Vt.) 1860-1877, 1874-10-14
Bulls on the Track,

day to stop railway train Chappaqua. The
result was chiefly to the bull
Had the honest old gentleman lived to
witness the revolt Of the Wisconsin farm
ers against the social and material pros.
perity of their Strte, he would have found
IN their bovine attempts a striking and
very pertinent occasion for recalling the
comparison.
From higher point of view. the ac.
tion of the farmer class affords perfect
though costly illustration Of the inability
of human kin to profit by the fate of 9TH
ers, men as well as bulls 1t furnishes al.
so one more proof of the law of human dc.
vclopment, that all societies proceed from
barbarism upward along practically the
same course, marked by the same charac-
teristic stages, which may be more or less
rapidly passed over, but which can never
DC altogether avoided.
One of the earliest steps which men take
toward social improvement Is that of com.
blpatlon. Unfortunately, however, first
combinations among men are always for
offensive ends, and are always destructive
in their reaction. The first gang of pre-
historic savages who ever put their shoul-
ders in line for common purpose doubt
less had in view the wiping out of encroach-
ing neighbors more enlightened self IN
terest would have taught them that, in
their severe struggle with the forces of
Nature, not war, but friendly alliance,
with all other men was the better policy.
The same suicidal tendency crops out con-
tinually IN the history of human progress.
Nations spend ages-and their own man
hood as weil-in destructive wranplinG, to
discover at last that friendship and mutual
helpfuness would have been better for
both sides. And as with nations, 60 with
the integral parts of nations. Each class
must learn Its wisdom by Independent ex.
periencc.
When the mechanic classes first reached
the combing stage of development, they
straightway declared war against capital,
against machinery, against rival labor,
against the inevitable generality. Grad
ually. through bitter disappointment and
loss aud suffering, the more intelligent and
learning that the wiser course IS to form
closer and more amicable alliances with
all productive interests, especially with
the men without whose money and orga-
nizing ability their own exertions would
be prevented and rendered proftIess.
The farmers turn has come now, and
they seem bent on going through the same
unsatisfactory mill. They discovered that
there is strength in unlou, for them as fer
others; but they at least those of Wis
not learned that it is mad
ness to use their strength 10 overturning
the corner stone Of their own prosperity.
1t may be hopeless to expect them to profit
much by tn, dear-bought wisdom of the
classes which have preceded them along
the same line of intellectual aud moral de-
nevertheless it is safe to pre-
dict that 1t will not take them many years
to learn that the "indepondent farmer" IN
these days does not stand alone in the
world that his interests are incxtricably
blended with the interests Of others. even
those of the obnoxious railway magnate
and that in the long run general regard
for theGolden Rule will not seriously COLI
Aict with the advancement Of agriculture.
Descending from general principles to
special facts, it might be instructive to the
Wisconsin farmers to give an impartial
thought to the relation which the railroads
bear to their present condition, to consid.
,r their Indebtedness to these enterprises,
and to speculate little in regard to the
retroactive effect on their own prosperity,
likely to result from the pressure they
nave brought to bear on these arteries of
civilization.
The Providence which causes great riv-
.rs to flow by great towns for the advance
nent of commerce is seen not less clearly
% the distribution of railvays--particu.
arly in the West. As rule they have
ed the way, while population, and all
hat population brings, has followed after.
Without them, except peehaps along the
vator courses, the country would have
o.day been wilderness. Contrast the
'apid growth of Wisconsin with the slow
developments of States, 10 the days bofore
he Trail with dash) began to super.
,ede the Indian trail; States which, ike
New York, were blessed with Infinitely su-
,erior natural advantages, both from po-
,ion on the coast and because Of their fa-
,ilitics for internal communication by wa
or. Or contrast those parts Of Wisconsin
which always traverse with those which
lnow them not; and it may be possible to