The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1891-01-20
THE DEVELOPMENT OF RE
SOURCES.

Deliberation in matters of legislation
is sneered at as fogyism. Progress
is everywhere regarded as mere move.
ment. That contemplate piece OF
slang which We call "boom" is sup
posed to contain the magic power by
which all sorts of industrial and bust
ness marvels may be achieved in de-
6ance of time. Waste is dignifed
and msgnifed under the taking name
of liberality It is not strange, there
fore, that in these times of whirl and
confusion, there should be a great
deal of loose thinking as well as a
suoerabundance of loose talking and
superficial writing upon questions of
progress. In the vocabulary of CON.
mon talk and in the fashy periods Of
common writings the phrase the de
velopment OF natural resources" &C
ours with tiresome frequency. Let
Us see what is really imported by this
marvelously overworked phrase.
The development of natural re-,
sources is constantly understood to
be the transmutation of raw materia 3
into articles of desire, and the distri
oution Of those articles into all quarters
where demands for them exists, or
where demands for them can be Gre
Gated by artificial stimulation. The
raw materials are the real wealth of
the world; a sort of natural bank,
upon which men may draw for the
supplying of their actual needs, But
to draw Upon this natural oank for
the supplying of demands which do
not grow out of actual needs, is to
draw for purposes of actual wasteful
ness; and the penalties for wastetul-
ness are sure to be exscted in due time
with terrible im~partialitY.
In the loose talk one hears about
the development of natural resources,
the term civilization is very copiously
used. And civilization is supposed to
be excellent only as it is complex.
There can be no doubt at all that
much of the boosted complexity of
modern civilization Is hurtful rather
than helpful. It is certain that those
civilizations which have persisted,
reached their periods of greatest com
plexity just when they reached their
periods of decay and extin ;tion; and
there is no good reason to hope thas
our civilization will be an exception.
1t may turn out, therefore, that those
men who are hurrying up the develop
men of natural resources in the in
terests of mere luxurious completely,
are doing their own, and succeeding
generations incalculable harm.
Any one who possesses the power
of consecutive reasoning knows, or
may know, that thesoppressions under
which the people of this country are
suffering from the railroads are due
in a great measure, if not entirely, to
the over extension of our railroad sys.
TENS, which has been brought about
by the mad race to develop our
natural resources. The extension of
our railroad systems beyond certain
well defined ant comparatively narrow
limits has furnished the all powerful
motive under which all the combina
tons, pools and railroad trusts have
been formed. This over extension of
tae railroad systems b IS had the effect
of making competition SO great as to
place upon railroad owners An impers
tive necessity to eliminate from the
problem of railroad management the
element of competition. And
the attempts to secure this elimination
have resulted in all sorts of cOnsoida-
lions and combines. Thus it is seen
that the over extension of the rail.
roads, which was urged and carried
forward to secure competition, has
had the practical effect of destroying
the thing it was intended 10 create
and foster. The operation of this law
of over-extension in destroying com
potion is not peculiar to railroads 1t
will operate to produce the same
effects wherever there is over extension
IF ~ b,r;raSs. and +b No