The Ohio Democrat. (Logan, O. [Ohio]) 1886-1906, 1894-11-24
Thoughts for the Thinking.

respondence with environment. That
Is, we live just so much as we are
sensible Of and appreciate the things
around us. The vegetable world Is
as truly alive as is mankind. The
trees draw their life from the earth
and air as does man; and inasmuch
havethe same life as to kind. But
the tree Is all unconscious of the mu-
sic of the brook that ripples by.
sparkling and cleaning and laugh
ing, as it leaves the thirsty roots that
drink up life and strength from its
waters. Yet the bird that nests
among the branches of the tree, not
only Is In correspondence with the
same environment the tree is, but
more. The murmuring winds, the
clapping of the forests leafy hands,
and all the music and beauty of
awakening nature, enter into the full
ness of bird-life.
And SO as we ascend the scale of
organic life, we find that ever widen
ing sense and appreciation of n full
and vet fuller environment.
This same truth holds good in all
departments of life; physical, moral,
spiritual, social. And 1t is to one as
pect of this law in the social life we
cation to social life, the law is:
We iUe in proportion to our under
standing, appreciation and righJul
use of our environment.
The more we know what is about
us; the more we understand the sour
ces of all that minister to ourwelfare
and happiness; the more we appreci-
ate our privileges and duties; the
more we use our opportunities for
right pleasure and the giving of hap
piness to others; so much the more
do we live and enjoy life. The uni
versal scramble after more than a
competence, has closed the avenues
through which much of contentment
and pleasure had otherwise come. 1t
has made us selfish people, and to
a degree destroyed the comm on bond
of sympathy which should obtain
among men. And SO we see every
day, worked out by our own hands,
the truth that
'Man's nhumanity to man
Makes countless thousands MOURN"
We believe that every right-mind-
ed, thinking man knows that we are
not making the most of life and that
society is at fault. We all, at times,
wish that things were otherwise;
that we had more time for self-im-
provement, self enjoyment of the
home and for a better fellowship in
the community. But before our
thoughts effect anything, or we can
formulate any laws for our own
emancipation from our discomfort,
we are again caught in the turmoil of
work and again assume our indiffer-
ence to happiness. And SO we go on
in the same existence, missing the
good things OF life in foolishly trying
to accumulate wealth. Now wealth
is only useful in that it can procure
other things necessary to happiness.
He who loves wealth for its own
sake not only misses the true idea of
life, but is harmful eXcrescence of
the body polite, and should be rooted
out of the community. The seeking
to hoard up, from the nature of the
case, deprives man of the power to
either enjoy or to give others pleas
ure, because the concentration of en-
ergy after any one accomplishment
makes men of one idea, warps them
from perfect manhood and units
them to perform the duties of man
in the world: SO these simply OBJ
struct the development of true social
life.
A true life-and by this we mean
the full enjoyment of our privileges
and the full performance of our du-
ties as factors in the social organism
never was, is, nor shall be attained
by a continual struggle for existence,
either grand or humble.
What shall we say, then, ought to
II f{0 b. II H. Ill -,
the community? The answer is of
such Importance and extent as to
preclude us from doing more than
The agricultural world is in state
of rapid evolution. The methods of
sowing, reaping, and marketing of
to the demands of to-day. The farm
er, in common with all classes of
producers, must evolve new plans
and new methods or fail in life.
The whole system of transportation
and markets is entirely different
from that of half a century since.
The whole economic world is in tur-
moil, trying to gain equilibrium; SO
fast as has been the advance along
the lines of mechanical invention
that the industrial world has not
been able to keep pace. The natural
wealth of the soil has been gathered
and the farmer is handicapped. with
starved fields. The effort to make
the soil, deprived of its natural fer
tility, to pay back the same generous
crops, has deprived the farmer of his
time for social culture. The present
necessity of being in the market at
the right time is hardship by reason
of poor roads. So turn where he will,
the dismayed farmer finds hardships.
There can be no competition in wheat
with the great farms of the north
west, plowed and reaped by steam.
Wheat will never again, in time of
peace, bring one dollar q busheI in
our markets. The soil must now be
fed that it may feed mankind. These
are some Of the evils in the agricul-
tural world and their causes. And
here let us emphasize the fact that
politics do not affect these things in
any way. They must be worked out
by us as communities. Fifty years
ago the spinning wheel and the loom
We're familiar pieces of household
furniture. Every person in the farm
home produced something. The
spelling schools, singing schools and
meetings" were great creators and
conseryers of fellowship and good
feeling. Life was lived simply and
innocently and sympathetically.
But the world has moved. New
ideas, new sources of wealth and of
pleasure have been brOlpht to hear