Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1875-09-11

WEALTH. Is Hut Tic ICcuib VI CNd1CS.
The Creator has left nothing to chance.
His government in the moral and
social, as in the physical world, is a
government of law. All is regular
all obedient to His will. As we
conform to that will and subject our
selves to His laws, we have the right
to look for the rewards that He offers
to obedience.
Now, the rich communities of which
| have spoken have not more genial
sun nor more fertile soils nor more abun.
dant mineral deposits than we enjoy;
indeed, nature has not been to them
so kind as to US. Their men have not
greater strength nor natural capacities
of any kind.
Whatis the cause for this disparity?
The census returns to which | have
referred afford much curious and in
teresting information in regard to our
people. Among other things they tell
us who are at work and who are idle;
who, and how many, are creating
wealth, and who and how many are
drones in the busy hives of industry.
From these returns we find that in
Rhode Island forty (40) per cent. eff
her population, in Massachusetts, SO
per cent, in Connecticut 36 per cent,
and in New York "a per cent we're
engaged in 1870 in gainful occupations,
while only % per cent. of the people
of Tennessee were SO engaged. In
other words, In every 100 persons we
have eleven more idlers than they
/ have in Rhode Island, ten more than
in Massachusetts, seven more than In
Connecticut, five more than in New
York. We have only 90 persons in
every 100-or, to give exact numbers,
367, 1897 at work, and S90,533 who
are idle. But this larger number in
cludes the aged and the infrm, the
women and children.
/ But not alone in physical sloth have
we disobeyed the law of our being.
God made man in his own image, and
by SO doing gave to him not only NOR
al but intellectual faculties mind to
observe, capacity to think and intelli-
gently to direct his obedience to the
command, that by the sweat of his
brow he shall earn his bread. Now,
simple consideration of the wants of
man as he exists in civilized society,
will make plain to US that we have not
rightly used our faculties.
Man not only requires food for the
body but food for the mind /;
and, superadded to this, re-
quires clothing to protect him against
the cold of winter and the heats of a
summers sun, and that he may exact
from a generous soil its willing tribute
to his wants, he needs beasts of the
plough and implements of husbandry (;
and to all these if he would sell that
which he does not consume and buy
that which he does not produce, he
must have ships and steamers and 10
comotives and the railway. All these
are necessary to supply his daily wants,
aud all should be supplied as cheaply
rs possible. If the conditions by
{ which he is surrounded forbid that
the articles necessary to his use shall
be created in the place where they are
to be consumed, direct labor is required
in their transportation ; and accumu-
lated labor, or capital, for the con-
J structiOn of ships and vessels and
, highways to bear these articles to him.
But, as stated, this transportation costs
, labor that labor must have its reward (;
for it is a law of production that labor
unrewarded will cease its exertion.
To save, then, this cost, to provide
the comforts of life as cheaply as pos
sible, every community should, as far
as practicable, make what it consumes
the bread and the meat, the hats
and boots and clothing and farming
Implements and machinery of every
kind.
By again looking at the census re-
g turns we discover thst We have not
made the effort to supply all our wants.
We have devoted ourselves too exclu.
! sively to the cultivation of the soil.
En- all the United States there were.
, in 1870, twelve millions FIVE hundred
and five thousand persons (13, 5O5,-
, 923, exactly engaged in gainful &C.
equations. OF this number 1922, 00O
were tillers of the soil, producing cot
, ton and tobacco, grass, the cereals,
food of every kind, while in all other
, pursuits-that is, in the professions,
in mining and manufacturing, in com.
merce and trade, were to be found
, 6,583, 900 persons.
Now in the secession States, inclu,
ding Kentucky, containing at that
) time total population of 10, sos, OOO,
: 2,695,000 persons were engaged in
1 agriculture, and only 923, 900 in al
; other pursuits.
D But in the remainder of the States,
a having a population Of 27, 1907 900,
s only 1927 900 were employed as ag
n riculturists, and $3.50, 000-were other
:, wise employed.
. And considering the total popula
ton of the United States. its accumu
4 lated wealth was $50, ,51S, 900
: but of this aggregate the twelve seces
. sion States named, with population
= of 1O,SOS,OOO possessed only s3,343-
h 100000, and the remaining States
. with population of q. 307 900 pei
!. sons, had S26, 725, 800, 900, the aver
. age wealth of the inhabitants of on
: section being about $3.50, and of tn
4 other nearly $1,000.
/. But limiting the comparison, ant
n looking to our own State and Massa
W chusetts. we find that we had 267, 02t
y of our people engaged in agriculture
IS in manufacturing and mining, 29,061
n i ntrade and transportation, 7,51C
e when Massachusetts,, with a popula
&C ton exceeding our own by 100000