The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1885-09-19
MOTHER EARTH.


The absolute calamity of man should
come only when the population of the
world is too large for the 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 a necessity.
Only small part of the globe is cult
waited, and much of that has been culti-
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 or 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. If 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 a few mill
ions of those who have no pay for work
would do that kind of work for which
the SOL would be paymaster. How can
carpenters secure pay when there are
not enough who need carpenters? How
can weavers secure wages when we all
have 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 eight by
ten-store or Office? How can all the
teachers find schools when there are ten
teachers for each country school-house?
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 bartering
our ''school-teaching" or our weaving"
or our ''clerkingn or our ''brickmaking"
for corn. wheat and potatoes, we must
turn to the ground and raise them. II
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
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
blacking shoes in places where the men
90 harefooted. But how do these white
washing "darkies" in the South differ
from the whites in the North. who desire
to be book-ageuts in towns where shot.
guns and cross dogs are awaiting the
canvasser? How differ from the whites
who wish to shovel a hundred tons of
coal for the family which has had diff
Guilty in paying for few baskets full OF
little eggP" Virginia would supply a
bountiful table for 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 a
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 blunders only. aud 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 is 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 aud clothing out of the soil.
Money then ceases to be a 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
a dollar of money, but memory recalls
table loaded with abundance, and with
even such delicacies as coffee, sugar
and molasses, purchased by barter. Mos
of the clothing was made at home. In
those days money was not god. The
great fields of wheat and corn, the gar
den, the chickens. the flocks were the
forms which the money-god took forty