Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1888-01-20
On Getting Rich.

Every now and again some wiseacre
undertakes a sermon to the working
men in which it set forth, with a good
deal of elaboration of detail and sup
ported by numerous practical" illus
trations, that it is possible for every
man. If he be Industrious and thrifty,
tence for himself. The intention is to
say, though they do not say it exactly
in that way, that it is possible for every
man to be rich. One OF the leading
citizens of the town will die, John Jones,
for instance. The local papers will
have fulsome eulogics. 1t will be told
how he originated from "poor but re-
spectacle" parents, worked on a farm,
or did odd jobs for the neighbors. saved
his money, opened little grocery store,
carried in three bushels of clover seed
or barrels Of -four, and toted the goods
round to the customers himself rather
than go to the expense of hiring man
to do it for him. How he thus accu-
mulated his first few hundred dollars.
How one of his customers got in debt
to him for several hundred How he
compromised by taking half the Gus
TONER'S farm. How coal was subse-
quently discovered underlying the farm.
How he sold it for SIS. 900 hard cash.
And so FORTH and so forth, and so forth!
This is but one of the variations of
the same old story, and the telling it is
always accompanied by the same advice
that what the eminent deceased did in
those ways it is possible for each and
every man to do. But what bowling
absurtlity it all is! TO be sure the great
majority of men are not thrifty. They
are industrious. They must be to live.
But they are careless in their expendi-
lures, within certain range. Suppose
they were not. Then not half SO many
OF the others would become rich. The
recklessness of the many is the chief
factor in the construction of the for
tunes of the few. That is, if it can be
called reckless for man to prefer to
surround himself and his family with
such comforts as his means affords,
rather than pinch and stint, with the
hope OF some day having enough to
buy his neighbours property at forced
sale at half it's value, and sell it to the
other man with more money than wit
who comes along, for twice what ii is
worth.
There can only be so many rich, and
to make and keep them rich others
must remain poor. There can only be
so many bankers and grocers and dry
goods men. If the supply of either
comes to exceed the demand, some will
be crushed out, and it is not always the
least wise or the least deserving that
meet that misfortune. The fact is there
are too many men in such business and
IN all businesses now. There are even
too many mechanics and factory and
mine workers for the manner in which
the business of the country as a whole
in managed. The only one class Of
which there are not too many are the
small farmers. OF these there can
never be too many SO long as the
stock of small farms hold out there can
be no excess Of small farmers. Farm
ing the small farm is the basis and best
Of all business. 1t is the business the
law should do the most to encourage.
particularly in a country with so lavish
an endowment of rich soil, uneuualed
anywhere in the world, as this country
possesses And, strangely enough.
though the small farmers are sufficiently
numerous in the country to outvote all
the rest OF us, il they saw fit, they arc
less deferred to by those who make the
laws and customs OF the State and
Nation than any other. With a solid,
intelligently managed union, the small
farmer could have the laws just as he
might choose to shape them. He
wouldn't be rich in the common acccp-
tation of the term: but he would come
nearer than any other representative of
a great body could possibly come to
having all he needed and he would
have an organization in comparison
with which all other so-called great or
CARNATIONS, either Of labor or capital,
would seem ridiculously insignificant.