Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1896-01-04
CORRESPONDENTS.
Labor Troubles Need Farm RefOr

'hctHtytOb.
DEAR SIR:
| see in the Journal Of the Knights Of
L160r, OF the 10Th inst, II circular let
ter from you which seems 10 again call
for suggestions from the public as to
some adequate remedies for industrial
troubles.
About Is months ago | sent your
Commission my Farm Reform plan.
| from which | have heard no official
response but, in the meantime, the
| plan has received the recognition of
the press from Maine to California,
and from labor as well As captaIistic
papers--the Journal Of the hnights Of
Labor itself being ii ready recipient Of
all communications concerning it for
every mouth of the year following It's
presentation to your commission.
This pleasing reception OF the plan
from the very extremes known as
''capital and labor" is. of itself. suf-
| ficient recommendation of it.
In addition TO this, the publication
of it in the papers and through thous-
ands of circulars that have, as IL poor
man, undergone great self denias to
be enabled to send out myself, have in
splred thousands in strike and congest-
ed centres to pack up and leave for
farm colonies, or for individual hold
ings. All these, of course, had some
little means saved to make the move.
There yet remains the wholly depend
ent classes who need charitable, State
or national aid to get to the land.
AS you represent the government, |
would, therefore, suggest that you lay
before it the ACCESSIBILITY of at least
trying the plan of colonizing some of
the dependents OF the cities on bought
or government lands at once. Such
colonls;s should be furnished every
thing until able to help themselves
and, like people taken from sick DIS,
should be most tenderly and gradually
introduced to Ike work of the little farm
Baseball games, lawn tennis, schools
and all the fandangoes of idleneSs and
extravaganza should be excluded from
such farms-although allowing great
liberty in most respects-aud the ben
eficiaries should be instiled with the
necessity of first evading starvation
and securing the necessaries of life.
The Texas and Mississippi convicts
have been sue cessful State farmers,
and the Toledo Ohio insane asylum,
with l.3O0 inmates, has also aslonish-
ed all observers with the results of the
lunatlcs' agricultural accomplishments
on 300 acres.
Employment of the unemployed
upon public works can only prove a
temporary expedient. Such works
would, in great part, be of super
fetal character and in country where
there is so much want every slroke of
labor should be eXerted to the Secerest
practical ends until every man, woman
and child is utterly beyond the reach
of want. The industrial depression
concerns too many millions of workers
and has spread over too vast an extent
OF time and territory to admit of
pacitication through fanciful and
temporary eXpedients. The land alone
is the sufficient refuge of the people.
Since | addressed your Labor Com
mission | have been indebted to
scholar. and traveller, Col. Andrew J.
Rogers, of Philadelphia, for the in
formation that France, in the days of
the first Napole N, was suffering from
industrial depressions more ominous
than our own, and that great warrior
ildu tHe SiSdClly W itclee tndt In6
masses should betake themselves i'm
mediately to the land, and that their
doing so has proven the safety and
prosperity of that nation ever since.
Japan similarly sent its masses to the
soil.
The authorities of Washington and
the District advertised last April for
suggestions relative to the relief of the
poor, aud | immediately laid before
them Farm Reform and have heard
that my precise idea has been adopted
by them.
The large Fitzgerald colony in
Georgia is an indication of the alacrity
with which men will sewer themselves
from old associations and surroundings
when they are promised an improve
ment in their condition.
One of the first things also n. etltd at
! this Juncture Is a literature sown over
the country that will properly present
to all classes the need of IL Farm Re
form movement, and if | am so fo,tu-
nate us to secure the patronage of
some rich humanitarian, | will at
once propose the incorporation of my
numerous articles into pamphlet form
| for that service. Most respectfully,
EPANrJS Il ITyESry