Mower County transcript. [volume] (Lansing, Minn.) 1868-1915, 1881-06-29

uoZen knitting machines would supply
stockings, miitens, underwear, shawls,
&c. AT Hampton College, Va, where
we are educating negroes and Indians to
skilled labor, this idea is illustrated.
In the knitting room are 20 machines,
employing so persons, probably. They
made fifteen thousand dozen pairs of nit
tens for one firm in Boston last year
The capital invested was only $1,000, for
this large result, yet the city Of Austin
has barely as much invested in original
manufacturing industry as those poor re.
groes in Virginia. Austin should supply
Mower county with all this class Of goods.
1t should rcsolutely set itself to keep its
money at home by industries mutually
supporting each other.
Let a meeting be- called to exchange
views and organize society to promote
varied industry and the general improve
ment of the city.
Enlightened sclfishness not less than
patriotism dictates that ali should give
their preference to articles Of home pro-
duction. A general acquiescence in this
policy would assure the success Of such
an enterprise as have here described.
A community that has neither patriotism
nor intelligence to lead 1t to do what its
obvious interests require, might find in
the progress Of other towns and example
to shame it into enterprise.
Austin has passed through the period
Of infan cy with lis weakness and usual
disorders. 1t has come now to face the
struggle for life, and it must do its part
or be left behind IN the race and sink in
to insigniticance. It has now seen thai;
stores, drinking saloons, and County
Seat will not make much Of city.
Creature labor alone supports trade.
The community must unite TO provide
work for all willing hands. The chill
dren must be taught to love work by pro-
viding varied and organ lied Industries
which stimulate and give scope to the
peculiar talents OF each. Even the Grip
Piles and invallds are thus made pro
ducers and are made happy thereby.
Nothing is better proved than the inabil-
ity of the adult population to sustain the
gro wing burden of non-producers. The
wealth and intelligence of New England
has come largely of the grand opportu-
nifty given in her varied industry to edu.
cate brain and support the body by pro-
ductive, organized work. Such work
gives better intellectual culture than can
be obtained at college. 1t improves the
mind in healthful and natural way.
The boy educated by work easily goes
by the tenderly reared schoolmau in the
race of life. Peter Cooper says the secret
Of his success was, THAT he learned half
a dozen trades, and could make with his
own hands what he invented" So he
gave million dollars to build the Coop
err Institute, where the youth Of both
sexes are taught to do things by which
they may live. Forty thousand young
men and women have gone out from this
institution in thirty years and are all over
the world. Many in the highest posi-
tons in our own and other lands
Abram Hewitt, late chairman of the
House Committee on education and Ia
Dor, in his report to Congress shows
that book education does not keep men
from crime. There are plenty of bright
schol ars in the State prison, but few chill
dren reared to love work lapse into crime.
Self supp orting labor is therefore the
safety of all, as it IS the never failing
source of prosperity. Mr.. Hewitt, who
employs seven thousand laborers, and IS
rich, thinks 1t necessary to teach his own
boys to earn their living, and they are
good mechanics.
I commend these thoughts to the
good people Of Austin. They are more
important at this moment than anything
else can be, because they involve the
most vital interests of home The city
has only to put aside the guided illusions
that have defrauded it so far of any
healthy growth, and accept these homcly
truths, 10 become one Of the most attrac.
tive and prosperous IN the State.
EDWARD DANIELS.