St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1886-09-04
Many Mem of Many Minds.
Home and Farm.

free trade trap on us. There are just
as sound and able reasons for protec.
ton, and if it had not been pretty we'll
proven that one or two OF the leadlng
free trade newspapers OF the country
had been directly subsidized by Engilsh
capital, [, for one, wonld have greaIer
faith in the free trade doctrine. Inc
man who advocates building up British
manufacturing at the expense OF his
own country is lacking in true patriot
ism. -,
The Florida man evidently likes
little snp" of good old Bourbon, and
therefore, salves over his own CON
science by writing as he does OF IN
temperance.
"SteeIe's Bayou" is off the hooks"
in suDposing the cOtton-plcker VIII
drive the small farmers from the heid;
Has the twine- binder driven the small
grain grower from the field Isn't
there as many or more five-acre patches
of wheat to day as ever before !hls
cry of new and more machinery lnJur-
ing small, farmers and the laoorlng
classes is all wrong. Ihe worid moves
forward, not backward; and the great
developments of time are for gooo, nor
evil. BY machinery man proceeds win
his dominion over nature. He assim'-
lates it to himself; it becomes, so to
speak, part of himself. Every great
invention is the enlargement OF bis
own personality. Iron and fire become
blood and muscle, and gravltatlon
flows in the current of his will. His
Dulses beat in the steamship, throb-
bing through the deep, while the f1oers
of his heart and brain inclose the earth
in an electric network of thought and
sympathy That which we give to heip
man can not hinder nor hurt him. For
the spirit of the living creature Is 10
the wheels.n
And again the cry of production
is all wrong. The trouble is under con- 3
sumption, not over-productlop. 1t
every individual member OF society
had all the good wheat-bread he want,
ed for the next ten days, there Wouia
be no surplus of wheat, and so OF col
ton and wool, Until the poorest nlgger
baby in the land has its little belly full
of good bread and milk three times a
day, and its little body has at least
three calico slips, and two flannel petit
coats, when needed, there can be no
oyer-nroduction of breadstuffs, cotton,
or wool.
The great question of the day, and
the one over-shadowing al! others, even
that of labor and capital, is, how to
bring producer and consumer into more
direct and personal contact. The one
item of milk sent to the city OF New
York. and sold there, will help illus
trate my meaning. That great city re- re-
ceives every day from 5000 to lo'ooU
cans of milk, each can holding ten eai,
Ions, or forty quarts. This milk Is SOLO
to the people by pedlers at ten cents
ner auart. or four dollars per each can
The surplus, or that which is not taken
Nv regular customers, is sold at from
s1 to 1926 per can to the pedlers, and
the farmer. has to pay freight out OF
that. and buy his own cans. The farm
ers are well pleased II their milk nets
them 2a or 8 cents per quart. The othei
7 or more cents per quart goes TO Tile
grocer and peddler.
do not mean to set up as a critic
hut there are "many men or many
minds.n even among the readers OF
good old Home and Farm. h. Z. w
Lnckenbach, Texas.
The articles | have written for Home
and Farm are meant only to sngges.
one remedy for the present distressed
condition of the farming classes. L az
not wish to create the impression 10 any
mind that free trade will usher 10 tine
millennium, or that it Will restore US If
Eden. where labor was not necessary tt
fife T wish to make one thing plain
fhouoll. and that the tariff is tax. II
takes from one class for the benefit OF
another: il increases the cost OF pro-
duction; it impedes trade, or the inter
change of articles; it does not bring
nrodtIcer and consumer together, but
keeps them apart, and is meant to keeI
them apart. -, :,
through his letter. after the first para.
graph, There can be no such thing
as over production until every man
woman, and child in the world has al
II wants Of food, clothes. shelter. and
other comforts of life. The difficulty
is that the products of the field and Of
the factory are not rightly distributed
They are damned up in one place
though the stream elsewhere runs dry
I simply contend that anything which
impedes the interchange OF products
or their distribution, is harmful allke
Co buyer and seller.
When new cotton machinery was IN.
vented in England, armed hands OF
men went about mObbiDg the inventors
and DESTROYING their inventions
When new farming machinery was
made in America, farm iaborers de-
stroyed it; and even last year, iI
Ohio. men out Of work destroyed
reapers and threshers, under the i'm.
preston that these machines were do
ing work they ought to have.
The opposition to new machinery
rests on exactly the same arguments
used to justify protection. II it il
right to impose a tax to protect" ths
American manufacturer, why is i
wrong to destroy machines in order tt
- protectr American lab0r7 The OBJ