Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1894-09-07
TAKE TO THE SOIL.
There Is Always Work for the La
bOrer Oh the Farm.

There Is Always Work for the La
bOrer OH the Farm.
Council Bluffs Nohpareil.
If the labor agitatOrs who are stalk
ing about the country prating over tn.
dismal future which in their judgment
awaits the poorer classes in this lane
would read some of the suggestions
looking to the future OF their condi
ton it occurs to us they would dis.
cover that these laboring men are
quite as d 0aaggest employment
for themse> One else is to dc
so for them. -. -
A workingman wrote letter to the
st. Paul Pioneer-Press the other day,
and, among other excellent things,
gave this advice: "The laborer can
always find employment at fairly re-
munerative prices on the farm either
working for another or for himself on
small plat of ground which, though
it may not be large, will still afford
him living"
This is a most sensible suggestion
because it is q practical one. The
small farm will at least secure the
workingman immunity from any dan.
ger of starvation. He can always take
from the soil, no matter how small
the tract above five acres, enough for
himself and family and a reasonable
amount besides to supply his markets
in towns of any reasonable size. A
laboring man near Council Bluffs, for
example. who owns and operates five
or ten acres of land, is assured q COM
potency besides the gratifying knowl-
edge that he is independent, feeling
the workingmen in our cities never ex-
perience.
He is his own master. He comes
and he goes whenever he pleases.
Labor movements do not disturb him.
The professional agitators who tramp
about the country urging strikes and
political fusions while they pocket the
earnings of their listeners in collec-
tions they take up do not interest him.
He cares nothing for such discus
sions. He is occupied with his little
farm and happy in the thought that
from it he will realize enough to meet
the wants of himself and children. He
solves for himself the problem which
perplexes the labor unions of what is
labor's proper share of the joint prod
uct of labor and capital. For he
takes it all. With half the pluck, the
close economy, the careful and dill
gent husbandry and housewifery with
which generations Of New England
families have been reared on five acres
of sterile clay, painfully rescued from
the rocks, 10 acres OF the rich soil OF
this section would be fortune to the
labOring man in comparison with the
straits to which every season of de-
preston reduces him in the city. The
tillage Of 10 acres may no. bring great
wealth in money, but it will yield to
the tiller richer compensation in the
sense of that manly independence and
in the cultivation Of those sturdy vir-
tues which are worth much more than
money to himself, to his family, and
to the State OF which he is q citizen.
More than this, the tillage Of 10
acres OF ground would not so occupy
his time as to deny him the advxn-
tages of intellectual improvement.
He could read the newspapers and en-
joy them, devour the monthly maya
zines and digest them, accompany his
family to places of popular resort, and
assist it to get out Of life some of the
luxuries God intended men, women
and children should enjoy.
In short, the most independent
man in the world is the owner of q
small farm, with just work enough to
keep him busy and time enough left
to see and enjoy the good things
which surround him. If all our work.
ingmen would strive to own . five OF
ten.acre tract and cultivate it, not
many years would roll by until we
would be a country of independent
farmers, and the occupation of the
calamity .howlers would be gone.
Workingmen, get q small tract Of
land within q reasonable distance oil
this city, and you will never fear tha.
you will want for the necessities OF life.