Marshall County Republican. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1856-1878, 1877-08-23
The Labor Question.

The Wheeling West Virginia.
Sta,ddrd. pondering on the labor
problem, envolves this: - if3 (
II Is estimated that there are
enough idle men iRa the Iorthern
states at this time TO form three new
states OF moderately prosperous
farmers. IL IS easy to figure out that
kind OF thing. The problem Is how
to make "A farmer ou' OF an idle man
who don't want TO be a farmer, and
who won't be q farmer.
It's easy enough to figure out that
kind Of thing too The problem is
how to make farmer out of a man
who does want TO be farmer. but
has no money to reach that condition.
1T is well enough to say we are suf-
fering from ~de- ruralization,n il one
may use the term. It is easy to show
by the census the enormous Increase
IN the population Of cities compared
with the country, and it fits in well
with this to say there is scarcity OF
hands in the country; that i~the
harvest Is plenty but the laborers
are few but do the facts bear ii out +?
The labor in the country has been
performed whether OF not there were
hands snough. The largest crop we
have had for years, large enough 10
MI every mouth in this Ian9 till the
next crop and to help feed the @rest
of mankind" besides, this crop has
been harvested in the tace or our
assertion that there was not enough
labor to to.do it. These are tiie facts
whatever oar theories concerning
idle imep. But coneedlng that there
is this large surplus in all cities and
that there Is room in the land for
them TO till the soil and become pro-
ducers, how are they going to do it?
All the idle men in the land cannot
get employment on farms and Il an
idle man cannot get such employ
nient where is he going to get farm
to employ himself when he is living
from hand to mouth In a citys II the
the government viii give him the
land how is he going TO occupy it !?
Who will furnish him transportation,
who will advance him money to
build cabin, buy horses and tools.
and who will give him food and
clothing while lie is clearing. land,
planting crops and waiting a year for.
the harvest? Here Is a Question for
the wise doctors of economic iile.n 1t
Is wellenough 20 talk about the idle
consumers who swarm the cities and
TO demonstrate the good effects to
| come from turning them into indus
iitrious producers,a but forces aof So
eiety capnot be ladled from one bal
lance to-the other whenever equilibr
rum Is lost Making farmers OF
trarnps is not one side of the ques-.
ti0n. AS we are suffering from one
kind of over. production now. so we
may suffer from another kindTif we
rush into IT, 1t question which
must be worked out. not legislated
out We must go into the world to
sell our wares, and come home and
make them, and must be allowed to
do it without the ruinous, restrictions
which have already dwarfed one
member Of the body ut the expense
of an abnormal developement in an
other We demonstrated Il to- our
selves and tie world at our Centen,
nial that there is hardly thing de-
manded by consumers which we can
not produce better and cheaper than
any other country. We excel England
in iron working, and Switzerland in
iwatches, Belgium in railroad supplies,
the. world in farm machinery South
American markets are open. We are
the cheapest dealer in, any, market,
What we want is to be allowed to set
up shop everywhere and sell what we
Makes saa Ell 10 aoa9i 4sss 10
j L9sH % sta us 9snm isnaA,S