Weekly graphic. [volume] (Kirksville, Adair Co., Missouri) 1880-1949, 1882-03-31
A REMEDY.

When the farmers of Missouri rails
corn to fatten hogs, to sell for none,
with which to buy machinery, built il
Illinois, Michigan, Ohio, or Massachu
sets, with which to till their farms
they are directly contributing to bull
up good home market for other men
and are paying nice bonus for tht
privilege in the way of freight charge!
each way; so with clothing to cove
their backs, furniture to furnish thei
houses, stoves to keep them warm
and SO on through the long list O
''necessaries" and 'luxuries7 consumed
How can such one sided transaction
prove success?
The subject of diversified industries
is one which is pressing itself more
forcihly year by year, and it is one We
must study sooner or later.
While men are growing at monopo.
Les and turning here and there for leg.
lslation and the widest and most ab-
surd theories of finance and reform
are expounded and find advocates and
converts,some OF the simplest and plain
est of natural laws, which can be neither
changed or repealed, ARE overlooked.
Here in the Mississippi valley remote
from the older settled portions Of the
Globe is a vast empire unequalled in
fertility and productiveness. Year by
year, not only the number of producers
but their power of production is null
tiplied. and the half of its capacities
have not yet been reached. Even with
adequate facilities for transporta-
ton the time must come when the
limits of foreign market would be
reached. But the increased production
more than keeps pace with the means
Of transportation, and they are so glut-
ted that they can dictate tern to their
patron instead of soliciting his patron
age. We go shopping thousand
miles, or others do it for US, and out OF
our pockets comes the cost in both di-
rections, whether selling or buying.
Buyer and seller, producer and con.
sumner thus separated by sea and
land, in many instances, have
seen their toll eaten up on the
way. We are in the nix of the farmer
who lived so far from mill his team
ate up the grist in getting it there. 1t
Is not the fault of our laws, our cur
rency, or our railroads. It is necessary
but temporary evil, growing out
of circumstances, which could not we'll
have beeL avoided.
The early colinis.s were compelled to
ship even the brick with which they
built their first churches, from across
the sea, but they did not continue such
an expensive and clumsy luxury long.
They learned to make their own bricks !
presently. So we in the haste and ne
cesSity Of a new empire have turned
most of our energies in the direction OF
food production, and the requirement
of homes and. farms, leaving to Others,
the arts, manufactures and diversified
industries so essential to the complete
of self.contained society
As long as the preponderance is so
greatly on the side of one calling. the
paradox of apparent poverty through
surplus will remain to puzzle tnanciers.
But the cause is simple and would ap-
,ly to any other calling or profession
With equal force under like circum-
tances. Suppose the whole Mississippi. {
alley, especially blessed with timber,
oal, and iron. and every citizen or at {
East very large majority, should de- ,
te their whole energies to manufac > ]