Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1878-02-22

| AMI hEAhl
Letter in the Toledo Sunday Journal.
We want more men at the plow NOR
than we want money. Money may max
the mare 60, but it is hay and grain tha
makes the mare. Money drives the ma.
10 spavins, glanders and staggers. Ii
planting time | heard a carpenters wit,
in Door street car mourning the scarce
ity OF work, and shudderingly wonder a
her familv's state next winter. | looked
from the window and saw the vacan
fields and lots, and wondered if it ha,
ever occurred to the mechanics that brea'
must come from the ground first, and no
saw-teeth, paint brushes and lime mortar
nor from money presses. 1t was sac
commentary to see men needing food in
the winter and spring of 1876. and pota
toes only 10 cents bushel. II the pool
fellows had shared in the labor of tEeil
production, they would have shared IL
their possession. The only way to get
your Fridays fish. if you can't earn the
money by saving wood. is to 60 10 the
water and catch them. The Chinese
garden at Colusa, Cal, is cultivated by
eight or ten men, and furnishes the veg
eiables for :, 200 people, II 10 paganS can
get enough out of two acres to feed +0C
Christians. ought ToleGoans TO damn the
times while hundreds of acres within the
city are yielding nothing. and might be
Colusa gardens?
We want more skill. more than more
money. Said a grain dryer to me in
Cairo, H., once: Il am boarding at the
best hotel here. but I'll bet Eliza Jane
(his wife) can get up better meal out OF
an ox's head than the hotel cooks do out
OF tenderloin." That woman had been
trained to care and neatness and skill.
With my limited acquaintance, | know
where score of servants who have had
such training are faithful. can get en-
ployment to-day. First rate workers are
not idle. We want more skill in preserv-
ing what is produced. What 4 plight the
farmers are in for granaries, barns and
cellars. More of our products vanish by
negligence than by prudent consumption.
What grand field for inventive genius
in preserving everything from human
energy down through the product OF the
field. and tree and vine TO the fertility OF
the soil on which they depend? We want
more skill in putting out fires; more skill
in propagating fish. in preserving our for
ests and in destroying the pests that de-
your the crops. We want more skill in
our manufactures and arts. Germany
was fast outstripping England in manu-
factures because she taught her artisans
and workmen drawing and model making.
The United States must do the same, and
then an iron or wood worker or house
builder can do his work from drawing or
models. as economical mothers make
clothes, and the extra cost OF overseeIs
will be saved and successful competition
with foreign manufactures assured.
We want more contentment more than
we want more money. Contentment is
the pillar of human happiness. We want
more men as willing 10 continue soiling
their hands in honest labor IS TO blacken
their hearts with dishonest tricks. Sol
omon said: "He that ruleth his spirit is
greater than he that taketh 4 city" |
suppose the city may he as large as Toll
edo or New York, and the man who
should take it by armed force or by
great speculation, when Peter Cooper
shall be president, is not so great As he
who controls his temper. his passions,
and desires OF every kind. What has un-
rest for sudden riches brought upon us?
Who would restore the ieveIish specula-
tions of the good times? Who longs for
another sale OF Cases addition and Starr
avenue addition in Toledo? And some
may think might mention other sales rs
well as those. Who would darken the
heavens again with Black Friday anu
make the grandest market in the country
hideous with the means and yolls of men
tumbling in delirium from delusive
hninhtS n nbaStlr 1nnthEp lNhn NynnIl
en- core the siren songs of puts,
"spreads" and "straddles?" Those who
suffer the severest from these times are
those whose thrift was the greatest when
they were furnishing their labor or their
goods or their wits to people who they
knew could i'll afford to them. Because
the extravaganza OF the one and the thrift
OF the other have ceased. must the money
press be set in motion? That pursuit
which depends upon the extravaganza OF
others is fatal TO all. and the sooner it is
changed or limited, The better. 1t is not
the starry flag that guides the ship, but
the steady rudder. Said the senior MEM
Der of one of our wholesale grocery
houses to me one day, IL always count
the profits on speculative advances as so
much borrowed money to be paid back in
losses on declines" The nation has but
TO count these times as the inevitable day
OF payment, like that wise merchant
and be contenied.
We want more men OF brain and heart
more than more money. Stewards trade
and Astor's wealth. never nourished the
lite springs of the nation like Jackson's
grit and Greeley's philosophy, and that
philosophy and grit glorified coin cur
rency. We want more honest men more
than we want more rich men. i. is men
and not wealth that constitute a state.
Massachusetts,, glory is in the education
she gives her children. Honest old Abe
selected his generals without considering
their wealth. Ohio chooses her legis-
lators in the same way. 1t was the pen
Of woman without wealth, and not the
purse of 4 rich one, that gave the North
courage TO free nation of slaves. |
want the standard OF human ambition TO
relate more to the head and heart and less
TO the purse and panier.
In conclusion, believe the fresh hope
given the country by promises OF an abun-
dant harvest confirm my argument that
cur need has been more men at the plow
than in the city; more skilled men else
where, and more cOntentment and brain
and heart, rather than more money.