The Caldwell tribune. [volume] (Caldwell, Idaho Territory [Idaho]) 1883-1928, 1896-09-26
INDEPENDENCE.
Civilization Has Destroyed It-Au I'm.
possible Condition InterEependenCe
Is the OnlF Possible Condition
In Civilized Communities.

a friend sent us the following arti.
Gle taken from the Outlook of Sentem
Der 5 and il contains so much good
sound sense in small compass that i Is
reproduced for the benefit of TRIBUNE
readers: -
independence is a word much plor.
lied in the United States, but indie.
pendence does not exist. We are de-.
pendent on each other and as ciyiliza.
ton increases dependence increases
The Indian family is complete in It.
self; 1t comprises warrior, farmer, man.
ufacturer, tailor, boat builder, archi.
tect; its various members fight the bat
Ties, cultivate the garden, grind the
corn, make the garments, build the
canoe, construct the wigwam. AS we
grow in civilization this Independence
disappears; each man, and later. each
community, renders one service and
exchanges the product of its labor with
some other man or some other com
munity. Waltham and Elgin make
watches. Lowell and Lawrence make
cotton cloth, Lynn makes shoes, Grand
Rapids makes furniture. No civilized
community uses more than small
fragment of what it produces, and no
civilized community could live on the;
products of its own labor. at break.
fast we drink coffee from Java and tea
from Japan; we eat meat from Chica-
go, and bread baked in New York of
-four manufactured in Minneapolis
from wheat grown in Winnipeg. The
Western farmer cannot eat the corn he
cultivates, nor keep warm without
clothing manufactured in the east; and
the eastern manufacturer cannot wear
the clothes he manufactures, nor live
without the breadstuffs brought to
him from the west.
"Thus grows up an interchange of
industries. We serve one another
whether he viii or no. Our necessities
coerce us into brotherhood. 1t is liter
ally, materially, commercially true
that no man lj0eth to himself,
"This interdependence finds its in.
strument, this Comradship its express
sion, in the merchant We use this
word merchant, in lieu of better
term, to designate the man, to what
ever branch of trade he belongs, whose
business in life it is to facilitate this
exchange of the products of industry,
to transfer wealth from points where
it is in excess and would be wasted to
points where it is needed for the main
tenance and promotion of life. We in
clude in this general term the railroad
worker who is carrying food from the
prairies to the manufacturing towns,
the wholesale dealer who is purchasing
in one overloaded market and distrib-
uting in another which but for him
would be famine-stricken, the much
abused 'middleman' who carries the
supply to the individual home, the
banker who supplies the currency and
creates the credit system by which
these complicated transactions are car,
ried on. If Jacob had lived in our
time, he would not have sent his sons
up to Egypt to buy corn. He would
have drawn draft on Memphis, and
bought his corn at the railroad station
in Hebron. Where distribution is
easy, famine is impossible. = When
thousands have died of hunger in
China and India, it has not been be-
cause there was no bread in China and
India, but because there were no rail-
roads TO transfer bread from the prov
inces where it was in abundance to
those in which were thousands dying
| for lack of food"