Wichita eagle., 1886-10-09

? natural resource of the country, and profit
ably utilize the accumulated stock of prop
erty of every kind. and keep all the work
ing energy employed at remunerativt
prices, it is necessary above everything else
Mr.. Edmunds continued, to diversity oul
industries, our productions and our com.
mercial enterprises If all the able-bodied
men in the United States should devote
themselves to farming, he said, there would
be comparatively nobody to buy the pro-
ducts of the farm; and SO of all the pro-
ducts OF the manufacturing interests. 1t is
indispensable that there should be buyers
as well as sellers Aside from the mere
matter of subsistence, abundant crops are
of no benefit to the farmer unless he can
dispose of his surplus to those who are able
to pay for it at fair and just rates; and the
means to make such purchases must neces-
sarily be derived from other sources
than that of agriculture. This familiar
and commonplace statement illustrates, !"
to quote the speakers exact words, 1.-THE
whole theory of the productive and indus
trial prosperity of nations" The farmer
stock who makes living by producing
things of different kind; and the latter
| in turn must look largely to the farmer as
sell.
For country situated as ours is, ac-
cording to Mr.. Edmunds' view, ''home
markets and home consumption are the
sure and only constant reliance" For
eign markets are undoubtedly desirable,
he allows, for the sale of surplus products
of every kind that can not in the ordinary
course of things be consumed at home;
but to rely upon them as the principal
avenues of reaching paying consumers is
in his judgment mistaken and danger
Gus policy Such markets are controlled,
he reminds us, by thousand circum-
stances over which the producers and la
borers have no command and little inf
ence. They cannot count with any safety
upon definite demand or given price at
any time. Their most confident eXpecta-
tions in such respects may be easily disap |
pointed by conditions which have not en-
tered into their estimates, and they cannot |
know with any degree of certainty what |
their years work will bring them. This |
implies, of course, that Americans should |
live mainly to themselves and for them |
selves, by the development of home re-
sources, the employment of home labor |
and the consumption of home products; land |
in this theory, Mr. Edmunds believes, is to
be found ''the key of gold that unlocks not |
only the physical treasures of the world,
but opens to us and makes sure all those
higher benefits that come from the school
and the church, and that tend not only to
promote more and more the comfort and
happiness Of the people, but to make the
whole body of the community more homo
geneous."
There can be no doubt that under sys
tenn of diversified industries, the farmer is
favored with special opportunities in the
way of fixed demand for his surplus pro-
ducts at good prices right at the door, SO to
speak. The elements of his prosperity are
not subject to violent variations, and he
can calculate confidently as to the future.
Similar advantages accrue for like reasons
to the laborer in the respect of assured en-
ployment at satisfactory wages. The con-
stantly employed and well paid laborer will
gradually become himself man of capital
-'the force of labor transposed into
hings, Mr. Edmunds defines it-and abide
n his own house and have savings in the
,ank He will see furthermore, MIR. Ed
nunds suggests, that liberty of the labor
ng man is not only the liberty to strike,
,ut that it is the equal liberty not to strike
he does not wish to, and the liberty to
work on in peace and safety if he thinks
t for his interest to do so, while others may
hoose, as they have perfect right to, not e.
0 work upon the terms proposed. He
will also learn that any kind of unlawful
oercion exerted toward other wOrkingmen o.
r toward employers, is crime against all
,bor, inasmuch as the consequences of n,
lch acts always finally fall most heavily
pom the laboring classes. tits well known
lat the stopped manufactory brings want III
nd suffering to hundred families of oper-
YES where it so affects one family of an an ar
oyer. Clearly, therefore, it is to the in
rest of employees not to cause the closing
such establishments on any account; but 10
keep them running, and to encourage
e starting Of others in every reasonable
ay. The problem of capital and labor
to be solved, Mr.. Edmunds contends,
rough common understanding OF these
cts on the part of both employers and
nployes. The interests of the two classes ~
e practically identical and indissoluble; ~
I'd he who promotes strife between them, az
stead of harmony and friendship is their la
utual enemy, no matter what his pre-
noes may be or what methods he may
nploy to carry out his purposes.