The sun. [volume] (Morris, Stevens County, Minn.) 1882-1895, 1886-01-28
MOTHER EARTH.
Her Ability to Feed and Clothe All
Her Children.

Her Ability to Feed and C1othe All
Her Children.
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, flax, 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 clothe all its children, poverty
is an accident and not a necessity. Only
a small part of the globe is cultivated,
and much of that is cultivated in the
poorest possible manner. Even in the
United States, where farming 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 cultiva-
ton. Virginia, Kentucky, Ohio, In
diana, and nearly all the South, COM
pose one large example of an agricul-
ture but little better than that of Tur-
KEY or Palestine.
AS to the power to produce food and
clothing for man, Earth is still as
fresh and able as she was 10000 years
ago. If any members of the human
mydrids 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 millions of
those who have no pay for work would
do that kind of work for which the soil
would be paymaster. How can car
penters secure pay when there are not
enough men who need carpenters? How
can weavers secure wages when we all
have the fabrics we need? How can
the Irishman' 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 'weav-
ing" or our ''clerking," or our ''brick-
making" for corn, wheat, and potatoes,
we must turn to the ground and raise
them. If we cannot barter for bread
and meat we must grow them. Unable
TO h,,xy
acre or acres, for we must live, and
there is life in the ground.
Virginia comprises 24,000.0O0 of
acres of land, of which 5000, 900 are un-
der cultivation. Assuming that there is
one more third capable of being culti
waited. we have 5000, 600 of acres under
one of the best skies in the world, wait
ing for humanity to come to them for
food, shelter, and clothing. And yet in
that very State there will be found ten
'sdarkies'' to the small village who are
expecting money to come from white
washing among houses which do not be-
lieve in the art, and ten other darkies
will be found hoping for revenue from
backing shoes in places where the men
90 barefooted. But how do these white
washing ''darkies" of the South differ
from the whites in the North, who de-
sire to be book-agents 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 difficulty in paving for few bask-
cts full of ''little egg?" Virginia would
supply bountiful table for million of
these hopeless seekers of something
from nothing. Going to the land for
support they would find how much bet
ter it is to expect something from some
thing.
Ohio could take a million, Indiana
million of these persons who are carry
ing some form of industry for which
there is no demand. In Paris there
was no reason for procession headed
by a girl carrying on a banner the
ominous word, Bread" There indus
try had long been defrauded by politi-
cal crime But in America, where in
dustry has made great blunders only,
and has made ten clerks to one farmer,
and ten girl-canvassers for one girl
gardner or girl-farmer, the procession
ought 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.
For thousand years to come, if the
climates of the earth remain what they
are to-day, the agricultural life will
stand as refuge for millions who
may desire to flee from social wrath
to come.-Prof. Dauid Suing, IN the
Current.