The anti-monopolist. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1874-1878, 1876-10-12

human family and the growth of society,
we must follow the track OF the plough
The aborigines Of this country, wnen
first visited by the white man, subsisted
partly by the chase and partly bv agri-
culture of a rude kind. They had Meth
'er pillow nor sickle. They dug the earth
with a pointed stick, planted the bean,
the squash. and the maize and tobacco.
These plants must have been derived
from vast antiquity. The wild original
OF the maize has never been discovered.
1t has probably become extinct since
man first cultivated it. Wheat and oats
can be traced back to the wild grasses
from which they were developed. This
| would seem to indicate that the agricul.
ture of Europe and Asia was recent COM
pared with that of America.
| The advance from the wooden dibble
OF the wild Indian, or even the stone or
copper spade ofthe mound builders, to
the plough, constituted as great revo-
luton in its day as the discovery of steam.
| The results were greater, for the plough
made the locomotive possible.
The plough, in its last analysis, is
simply the dibble dragged through the
earth. The Indian and the Mexican new
er reached that point. The Aztecs had
the hoe, the spade and the rake, but not
the plough. The Peruviaas, on the 9TH
Ell hand, who derived their agriculture
from wanderer to their shores, Nance
Capac. who probably brought thither the
higher civilization of some other country
used a strong, sharp pointed stick, to
which six or eight men were attached by
ropes, and dragged it through the
ground; while women followed, break
ing up the Jumps with rakes.
Here was the origin ofthe plough. 1t
preceded even the domestication OF the
OK or the horse. But the initial thought
hch constituted the plough was there
the dragging OF the ancient dibble
through the earth. The mind that first
possible.
And it is singular ana striking fact
that the Argan race, that white race of
which we are a branch, and which from
Hindostan to Boston, and from Boston
to China, has encircled the world with
its colonies and its conquests; the great
dominant. aggressive, progressive race
of the world, derived its distinctive
name from the Sanscrit root AR, which
means to plough. The Argan race were
a race Of ploughmen. They had passed
beyond the point OF development of the
Peruvians, and on the plains of Asia, or
perhaps Of that buried continent of the
Pacific, dim memones OF which are pre-
served in the mythology of the Hindoos,
they had subjudgated the bison, the ass.
or the horse and yoked him to their
pointed dibble and dragged it through
the ground, until with their expanding
fields came expanding population. pow
Ell. safety. abundance, culture, civiliza-
ton, and that vast movement OF migra-
ton and colonization, part Of which, in
this new land, we now are. Having en-
circled the world, the conquering plough
is now driving out the ancient dibble
from the birth place of the human family.
A thought has made race master of
mankind.
And if we would further trace the
pedigree OF root words it is signifi cant,
we find that same Aryan syllable AR, to
plough, developing into the Roman ars
or arts and into our word. arts. For
is not the plough the parent Of all the
arts?
There can be no civil zation without
an abundant supply OF the necessaries OF
life and these spring from the capacity of
the disturbed earth to give back the seed
committed to its care, increased ten,
fifty AMI hundred told. Civilization
and civility are derived from the name
ola city, but the city is only possible as
the outgrowth OF the ploughed fields.
Hunters build no cities.
Great armies rest upon the plough.
We saw only the other day the orders of
Sitting Bull ready to break up for lack
of those food supplies which the chase
could not give. 1t is the absence OF the
+ plough which now drives the bold hun
tiers of the plains into the agencies. beg
ging for something to eat. The plough,
and not the cannon. conquers them:
1t it were possible for the ploughs of
the world to be stopped for only one year
billions of human beings would perish
OF starvation.
And yet civilization is but in its infan-
CIV. The cultivated fields are only
patches OF the earth's surface even in
our own majestic land: while the greater
part of South America. Asia. Africa and
Oceanica are untouched by the plough.
And where the plough is not. is bar
barism. stagnation and degradation.
What fair world this will be when
through every graduation Of climate, on
all the continents and all the islands OF
the sea, the sun in its daily course will
look down upon an unbroken realm oil
growing crops. orchards. vineyards.
and gardens, empowered cottages and
happy homes
"A school house upon every hill,
| Darling in1adiate nerve lines thence.
The quick wires Of intelligence.
While mankind. blessed with new arts
and discoveries now undreamed Of, rises
to attitudes of happiness (which we can
form no conception. And if 1t is true
as the poet has it. that
The Dsety is seen
From every elevation of the SOUL
May we not hope that every advance
OF material power will mark 8 CORES.
ponding growth OF moral greatness?