Vermont farmer. [volume] (Newport, Orleans County, Vt.) 1870-1877, 1875-04-09

tue nara times al rOund. nut Wnat remedy
have we Is not all business and all trade
one grand universal system Of monopoly and
extortion2 Without competitors, every man
grabs, clutches, and monopolizes all he can
get So that the common rule Of all So
ciety, in every state and county, is, every
man for himself, aad the devil take tho hind
most. That is IL; and it accounts fully for
all the mischief and misery, no matter how
rich the earth may be, or how full Of money
and honey, beauty aud plenty, The work
ingman must be kept in poverty aud go on
foot .....
We see then, at once, that, although we
claim to be brothers aud sisters, and talk Of
equal rights, yet the people need checks and
balances all through, and guards, and prison
walls to prevent one man from eating up
another. Will the grangers bring better
things So wo hope. As to the railroads,
competition may rein them in, at least for a
while but there must be a balance of pow.
er, in the shape of a ship canal, or river and
ocean transportation. That will be an ex-
pensive flank movement, somewhat after the
plan of the Kilkenny cats, or that employed
in military art. But necessity justifes such
expedients.
Then, again, as to other everyday disad-
vantages Of workingmen round home, l think
of no certain cure but the sharp, spunky,
and free newspaper. You must read, think,
and write more, aud learn to stanl up and
be men. Shame on the men. The women
can beat them. All power is in your own
hands, if you only knew it. Intelligence
brings independence. Danish ignorance.
That is always ruinous. Throw law and
physlc to the dogs. Moreover, you must
own up to some expensive vices, like smok-
ing and chewing tobacco, aud drinking whs-
ky aud lager. There's where the money
gOes-pOp goes the weasel.
Teach your boys good trades or farming,
and encourage them less in speculation and
fast living. A smart young man better be-
come blacksmith than doctor Of divinity,
because the one produces, whilo the other
merely eats and wastes the wealth Of Others
Dear good friends, think of these things, and
debate them in your lyceums. ....
The more intelligent one is. the better he
understands how to doctor himself, in medi-
cine, theology, or law. That saves money.
Industrious habits are good fer health, NOR
ais. and good manners Such qualities are
a great help, and man may be bis own
sheriff, and do his own pleading and preacb-
ing. A workingman. with such advantages,
may own nice dwelling house. have a low
ing wife and sweet baby, keep horse and
carriage, and be free from debt. Those men
are to be pitied who are SO often involved in
lawsuits, or who get scared aud send to a
city for famous physician, or who fancy il
is needfdl to bo always at church to get their
souls blessed. Thinking minds feed their
own brains, and thus save the fees and the
begging.
The grange college will do wonders 10
educating the people in every department Of
practical thought. 1t will be to working
men real sehool.house, university. chur ch,
and legislative hall, whereby they will be
enabled to dispense wfSAs the present heavy
professional expenses ip those directions.
1t will supercede the Old methods, and the
gain will be Incalculable.
IL pays to study social science, and there
by improve our condition. Look over your
state and find contrast Of towns and So
ciety. Allow me to refer you to specimens
in Minnesota. Take, for instance, the rural
and sylvan town of Hassan, on Grow River,
with over five hundred inhabitants, Of the
farming and working class. They are a
driving and thriving sort, aud favored with
n tri-weekly mail, and books, and schools,
and some of the most advanced pupils in
Hennepin County. As town, they are Dro-
gressive and prosperous, aud out Of debt.
But the marked feature of the town is, that
no doctor, lawyer, or minister, is settled in
it-not one. Yet a more healthy, orderly,
quiet, aud happy community may not be
found. A very strange fact
Now for the contrast A city, not far
distant, with population Of twenty-five or
thirty thousand, has twenty-five churches, of
all stripes Of creed, the operation of which
can cost scarcely less than hundred thous-
and dollars a year. Clergymen, attorneys,
and physicians abound by the wholesale. 1t
is fine city-a state capital. Arlstocracy
swells, and grandoes trot around big City
debt large, and taxes and rents most terri
bic, No workingman can easily own re.
spectacle home, or get ahead much in life
time, by any fair means. He must turn
politician or speculator. There are good
schools, but tOniold more liquor saloons
brothels, and gambling hells. Her newspa-
pers arc proud, shiny, and sometimes saucy
but not so much noted for manly free speech
reform, and moral principle. So also with
the ministers and people. Their lazy, stu
pid, sleepy Sunday religion consists Of
mummery, Aummery, jumbletry, gumpery
and Journalism, mixing wealth, poverty, fash
ion, show, learning, ignorance, steeples, and
diet, like chips aud pOrridgc. Her police
court, city prison, and reports of crime, are
constant aud prominent things. Here arr
the grand and dazzling homes of Politica
thieves and salary grabbsrs,
: Now, brother and sister workers, whict
will you choose, such city with her splen
did churches, ministers, doctors, lawyers
and costly and crushing aristocracy, or I
quiet, industrious town like Hassan, irO'
r. -. III III k,.I.,