The new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1876-1904, 1885-07-25
MOTHER EARTH.
As Able to Produce IS IL Was Ten Thou.
sand Years Ago.


The absolute calamity OF man should
come only when the population of the
world is too large for tho productive
power of all the soil. Some land must
be set aside for supporting 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 necessity. But while the
earth shall continue abundantly able to
feed and clothe all its children, poverty
Is an accident and not necessity.
Only small part Of the globe is culti-
waited, and much of that has been cult
waited In the poorest possible manner.
Even in the United States, where farm
ing is yearly becoming 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 agri-
culture but little better than that of
Turkey of Palestine.
As to Its power to produce food and
clothing for man, Earth Is still as fresh
and able as she was ten thousand years
ago. II any members Of the human
myriads are short of food and clothing
the fault is in the occupant of the
world and not in the globe itself Our
troubles would pass away if few mill
ions Of those who have no pay for work
would do that kind of work for which
the soil would be paymaster. How can
carpenters secure pay when there are
not enough who need carpentersp How
can weavers secure wages when we I'll
have the fabrics we needp How can
the Lishman's shovel find work and
pay when the railroads are built and the
money for cleaning cutters Is all spentp
How can all the clerks find work when
there are ten clerks for each eight-by-
ten-store or Officer How can all the
teachers find schools when there are ten
teachers for each country school-housep
When there are no men to make any
payment for our form of labor then we
must turn aside from man as our pay
master and ask Nature to be the en-
ployer. That is, instead of barterlng
our misunderstanding" or our weaving"
or our "clerking" or our 'brickmaking"
for corn. wheat and potatoes, we must
turn to the ground and raise them. If
we can not 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 twenty-four mil
lions Of acres Of land, of which eight
millions are under cultivation. Assum-
ing that there is one more third capable
of being cultivated we have eight mil
lions Of acres of land, 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 white
washing among houses which do not
believe in the art, and ten other darkies
will be found hoping for revenue from
backing shoes in places where the men
go barcfooted. But how do these white
washing "darkies" in the South differ
from the whites in the North, who desire
to be book-agents in towns where shot
guns and cross dogs are awaiting the
canvasserp How differ from the whites
who wish to shovel hundred tons of
coal for the family which has had diff
Guilty in paying for few baskets full of
''!ittle eggp' Virginia would supply a
bountiful table for a million of these
hopeless seekers of something from
nothing. Going to the land for support
they would find how much better it is
to expect something from something.
Ohio could take million, Indiana a
million of those persons who are car
rying some form Of industry for which
there is no demand. In Paris there was
a reason for procession headed by q
girl carrying on banner the ominous
word, Bread" There industry had
been long defrauded by political crime.
But in America, where industry has
made great plumbers 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 toward
the idle fields where Bread 10 wont to
grow.
There are millions who cry out for
money. But they do not need money.
If they had it they would spend it for
food and clothes. The crisis is met
when these persons have resolved to
raise bread and clothing out of the soil.
Money then ceases to be necessity
Many OF us older men remember when
in all the pockets, trunks, drawers and
old stockings in the farmhouse all the
police in the world could not have found
dollar of money, but memory recalls
table loaded with abundance, and with
even such delicacies as coffee, sugar,
and molasses, purchased by barter. Most
of the clothing was made at home. In
those days money was not a god. The
great fields of wheat and corn, the gar
den. the chickens, the focks were the
forms which the money-god took forty
years ago. Some currency was needed
at tax-paying time, but the schoolmas-
ter boarded around, and part of all
salaries and wages was paid in things
from the land.
When one looks out upon the vacant
millions of acres in the Nation, and
then look at the number of the poor,
the feeling comes that they need not be
poor. The mental care and the actual
walking about to seek work involve
more real labor than would be required
to entice good living out of the fields.
The difficulty of the case is that of caus-
ing the millions who are almost bread
less to turn to the growing of grains.
Farming is not only science and an art,
but it is also a taste, and hence to car
nv new millions from town streets to
the fields is heavy task. But many
thousands can pass from city life to
farm life. and should do so in these
years of mechanical and clerical excess.
The farm offers support, home and hap
piness to many millions besides those
now living among plows and hoes. For
a thousand years to come, if the eli
mates of earth remain what they are to-
lay, the agricultural life will stand as q
refuge for millions who may desire to
flee from social wrath to come
DaUid Suing, in Current.
The commercial traveller who, it
was alleged, a few days ago, was ar
rested at the Windsor Hotel. in Topeka,
and fined ten dollars and costs for
drinking whisky out Of his own private
flask, appears to have been the victim
of sharpers who represented themselves
as officers of the law. Lot the humiliat-