The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1879-10-09
NOS.

costly stock of merchandise to day, to-
morrow may be bankrupt and homeless.
The man who owns the factory or the
mill. may be obliged to suspend opera
tiOns on account of some great financial
crisis in the country. The banker may
lose his capital by the defalcation of a
clerk, and the retired business man may
have his competence swept away, by
the failure of bank, but the man who
owns, in fee simple, piece of land, has
: something which, protected by the laws
of a wise government, no earthly power
can wrest from him, something which,
while the sun shall shine, and the rains
and dews of heaven descend, will each
rolling year, by prudent and judicious
management, yield something to contrib
ute to his support.
Hence, say, there is cause for indie
pendence, sense of security among the
tillers of the soil, that while the pillows
Of financial ruin are rolling high and
wide over the great business centers of
of the world, while almost every daily pa
per which comes to our HOUSEHOLDS, is
teeming with accounts of disastrous con-
flagrations in city and in town, yet the
farmer, isolated from the dangers of the
one, and free from the temptations of
risk in the other, can feel that he has
rock upon which to stand, a capital upon
which to operate, of which there is no
danger of loss, except through his own
idleness or neglect. -
There are reasons why the farmer ought
to feel independent.
Mankind is divided into four classes:
the producer, the manufacturer, the
dealer and the consumer.
Preeminent among the first class, stands
the farmer. He who simply consumes,
is entitled to no credit, is worthy of no
honor. even though he renders full value
to the producer for the material, to the
manufacturer for making. and to the
dealer for handling.
He who manufactures. while he does
not bring into existence single atom,
for the benefit of himself or his fellow
| beings, adds to the raw material furnish
ed by the producer something of value.
Ee puts into it labor, and labor is value.
| What money he puts into the operation.
he gets back, and retains, but what of
labor he bestows upon the material. passes
| from him for the benefit of others. And
| for whatever he thus adds, in labor, to-
ward supplying the wants of humanity,
he is entitled to credit and honor.
The dealer also, adds value to the ma
terial produced by others, by the invest
ment of labor in distributing the articles
| at the doors OF the consumers, and what
ever labor he performs in distributing, he
saves to others, in procuring, and he who
saves value, makes value.
But to him whose life and labor is en-
tirely devoted to producing, for the use
of himself and others, all honor is due.
What he consumes. he produces himself,
or produces an equal amount in some
other form.
! Hence comes the right to feeling of
independence. on the part of the farmer.
He who produces as much as he con-
sumes, is entirely independent, as far as
mere physical existence is concerned, and
! he who produces nothing, is entirely de-
pendent, on some one else for all that
he consumes So man is indepe ldent
of his fellows, in proportion as he pro-
duces more or less.
Having in mind therefore the relation
which these different classes bear to each
other, l desire to say few words to the
representatives of each class present here
to day.
You have met together here to day for
a common purpose, mutual exchange
of ideas, and to gain by mutual inter-
course, each one for himself, the benefit
of summary of the experience of
I.all the rest engaged in the same
| vacation as himself The object