Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1885-07-02
Mother Earth.

The absolute calamity of man
should come only when the pspula-
tion OF the world is too large for the
productive power of all the soil. Some
land must be set aside for supporting Q
buildings, some for roads and streets.
some for the growth of cotton, fax
and wool; the immense remainder is
available for the growth of food.
Should the human family outgrow
the clothing and grain areas of the
planet, then hard times would be a
necessity. But while the earth shall
continue abundantly able to feed and
etotho- all it's children, poverty is an
accident and not necessity. Only
small part of the globe is cultivated
and much of that has been cultivated
In the poorest possible manner. Even
IN the United States, where farming
is yearly becoming a science, there is
almost as much land in the middle
states to be reclaimed as there is in the
far west to be opened for the first time
to cultivation. Virginia, Kentucky,
Ohio, Indiana, and nearly all the
south, compose one large example of
an agriculture but little better than
UhcaoO VI AoAhCJ VI d1CStliIc.
As to It's power to produce food and
clothing for man, earth is still as
fresh and able as she was ten thous-
and years ago. If any members of
the human myriads are short of food
and clothing the fault is in the occu-
pant of the world and not in the globe
itself. Our troubles would pass away
If few millions of those who have
no pay for work would do that kind
of work for which the soil would be
paymaster. How can carpenters Sc
cure pay when there are not enough
men who need carpenters? How can
Weavers secure wages when we have
all the fabrics we need? How can the
Irishman's shovel find work and pay
when the railroads are built and the
money for cleaning cutters is all
spent? How can all the clerks find
work when there are ten clerks for
each 8x10 store or offlce2 How can
all the teachers find schools when
there are ten teachers for each country
school house.
When there are 10 men to make
any payment fer our form of labor
then We must turn aside from man as
our paymaster and ask nature to be
the employer. That is, instead of
bartering our school teaching" or
our weaving" Or our "clerking" or
our ''brlckmaking" for corn, wheat,
and potatoes, VIC must turn TO the
Z UUI.1 >.Al >-upise 4ha,,a TfDa oo,no+
barter for bread and meat we must
grow them. Unable to buy any land
we must rent some acre or acres, for
we must live and there is life in the
ground.
Virginia comprises 100000 of
acres of land, of which 5000, 900, un-
der cultivation. Assuming that there
is one~thlrd more capable of being
cultivated we have 5000, 1000 of acres,
under one Of the best skies in the
world, waiting for humanity to come
to them for food, shelter and clothing.
And yet in that very state there will
be found ten ''darkies" to the small
village who are expecting money to
come from whitewashing among
houses which do not believe in the
art, and ten other darkies will be
found hoping for a revenue from
O1esSh1AS SAOCS LII ploCCS NuSfc Lie
men go barefooted. But how do
these whitewashing ''darkies" of the
South differ from the whites in the
North who desire to be book agents
in towns where shotguns and cross
dogs are awaiting the canvasser?
How different from the whites who
wish to shovel 100 tons of coal for
the family which has had difficulty
in paying for few baskets full of
little eggsa" Virginia would supply
a hountiful table for a million of
these hopeless seekers of something
for nothing. Going to the land for
they would find how much
better it is to expect something from
something.
Ohio could take a million, Indiana
a million of these parsons who are
some form of industry for
which there is no demand. In Paris
there was a reason for a procession
headed by a girl, carrying On oan-
ner the Omlnous word, Bread"
Then industry had been long defraud-
ed by political crime; but ip America,
where industry has made great blum
ders only, and has made ten clerks to
one farmer and ten girl canvassers
for one girl gardener or girl farmer,
The procession ought indeed to march |
once again, and should carry once
more the device, Bread" but the
march should move with music to-
ward the idle fields where bread is
wont to grow.
There are millions that cry out for
But they do not need money.
,f they had it they would spend it for
ood and clothes. The crisis is met
when these persons have resolved to
'aise bread and clothes out of the
'oil. Money then ceases to be a ne
,essity. Many of us older men re-
member when in all the pockets,
rue ks, drawers and old stockings in
he farmhouse all the police in the
world could not have found dollar
# money, bat memory recalls table
oaded with abundance, and with
,VaT1 SI1ch 6aleoaoiaS aS aofoo pr,,o,.