The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-03-27
DIVERSIFIED INDUSTRY.
Indiana Farmer, March %.

Indiana Farmer, March %.
Labor is the heritage of man; aud in his pres
ent state it is a blessing rather than a curse,
most people regard it. Idleness almost invari-
ably leads to vice and crime, and happines is
lost. But civilization multiplies the forms of
labor by greatly increasing human wants. The
savage has but few wants, and to supply them
demands but few forms of labor; but cviliza-
ton creates the home, and this demands a house
with its furniture and conveniences for carrying
on the various processes of home life. To supply
these necessarily demands many forms of labor,
adapted to the varied processes of production.
This leads directly to a division of labor, and
thus labor, of necessity, becomes diversified in
proportion to the advance of civilization and the
accumulation of wealth. Perhaps at no place on
the globe, nor time in human history, have these
changes been more marked, or more rapid, than
in these Western States within the last fifty
years AT that period the farmer lived substan-
TALLY on home labor Many Of them lived plainly
but comfortably through the whole year, with
an expenditure not exceeding 500 for the
products of labor beyond the family. A small
bill to the blacksmith, the grocer and dry goods
merchant, comprised his entire cash outlay. He
clothed himself and family chiefly with home
made clothing, manufactured from homes grown
wool and flax. He made his own sugar and ate
his own honey. His garden. his orchard and his
melon patch supplied his table with all the luxu-
ries and many Of the substantials that the sim
pie habits of the times demanded
But these days are past, and we could not re-
call them if we would. In the lifetime Of one
generation we have passed to that stage of civil
ization which demands division of labor every
where. We sell our labor even from the farm,
and buy everything that we consume, except the
substantial dishes of food on our tables We
sell our grain and hay, our pork and beef. our
poultry, eggs and butter wool and fax, if
We produce any; and we buy our clothing. if not
ready made, yet in the complete fabric, ready to
make into garments. In short, the farmer has
circumscribed his operations to the simple bust
ness of raising and securing crops and caring
for and marketing stock, and even this last
branch of labor shows a strong tendency to di
vorce itself from the general business of grain
farming. OF this tendency to diversity fields of
labor by their minute division are not dis
posed to complain while it is kept within reason
able bounds 1t to great extent the legitimate
outgrowth of the invention and application of ma
chinery, by which the productiveness of labor is
largely increased and the inanimate forces of ma
ture, in the factory, are trained to do the work
formerly done at home by the toilsOme process
of hand labor. While this state of things is
concentrating the labor of the farm into a mar
rover line, it is opening new fields Of labor IN
the mechanical and manufacturing departments
and the operatives in these shops must be fed
from the fields that the farmer cultvates from
his pasture and from his poultry yards, while he
is supplying the farmers ever-increasing wants
wants, perhaps, the recent outgrOwth of our
advancing civilization-wants which our fathers
never felt, yet real wants nevertheless.
The United States may be regarded as essen
TALLY agricultural country, yet there is large
per cent of our population engaged in other
industries, who must be fed from the surplus
food of our cultivated acres But with all this,
an undue proportion of American labor Is de-
voted to farm products. 1t is estimated that
the cons umption of bread and meat by the en-
tire population OF Of the United States
age crop, while the remaining "a per
cent. must seek foreign market and the future
outlook Cor that market is not very flattering.
While this is true we are importing and con
Stunning largely the products Of foreign labor in
the form of manufactured goods which could as
well have been made on American soil by Ameri-
labor while consuming American food.
While it is true that the permanence and pros
perity of a nation requires that it shall be able
to feed its own people from the products of its
own soil, yet it is equally true that nation that
devotes all its labor to the production of food
must secure market for its products, or suffer
the effects of over-production. The agriculture
of Great Britain falls short of supplying the food
consumed by that nation, in an annual deficit of
about 800, 600, 900, while our food surplus con-
siderably exceeds that sum. This deficit cannot
be remedied by Great Britain her home ter
ritory but her dependencies i'll India in
fair way to supply the deficit of food at
prices beyond our competition. On the
other hand, fall short of supplying
we have an unlimited capacity for manufactur
ing with any supply of power that may be de
manded. All that is required of us is to
diversity our labor as to make our farmers indie
pendent of foreign markets for the consumption
of the products of our farms Indiana alone can
supply cheap power in her immense coal BEDS to
manufacture all the iron cotton WOODEN, and
wooden products of the factory that could be
consumed in half dozen States. and at the
same time furnish home market for all the
products of our soil. 1t is not sound policy to
export the crude products of the soil, either as
food or as the raw material for manufacturing
Our surplus should be sent to foreign consumers
only after it has received such labor as will give
it its highest value.
We may as we'll say to farmers now that I'M
less there should be signal failures of crops
abroad, the of high prices for grain
in foreign markets is about past. We
must turn attention to the creation
of a home market that shall not be so
high to tempt the mechanic manufacturer
to divert his capital and labor from the shop and
the factory, to become competitor in the pro-
duction of grain for which we can find no ready
market
WHAT DIVISION OF LABOR DOES FOR THE FARM.
The statistics which are here given from the
national census, for four decades for compari-
son, are very significant, showing what would
result to the farm industries of America. should
the manufacturing and cognate industries be-
come crippled, or even cease to expand as they
have in the past thirty years. For just pre-
sentation of these facts, the manufacturing,
mining, transportation and commercial indus
tries must be included, for the two latter are
necessary results of the former, indeed largely
created by them.
The following taken from the census reports
for the years named, shows the number of per-
sons employed in the United States in all the
legitimate industries except that of farming:
1880. 1860. 1870 1880