OCR Text |
Show A PROSPEROUS COMMUNITY. I It is an nxiotn in political onomy, that, to become prosperous and rich, a community '"Hat produce more than it i-nnsimies, and must utihn tho exeeaa. S long ..s it is compelled compell-ed to send out its acquired wealth for tlic purchaso ot articles to bo consumed, con-sumed, while selling fuw or none of its own pioUnts, so long is it growing grow-ing poorer instead ot richer. This is true alike of individuals and of communities. com-munities. Tbo niun who consumes a thousand dollars worth of products yearly, and produces only nine hundred hund-red dollars worth, is slowly but surely drawing upon his reserve capital, il he has such reserve, or running into debt if ho has none. Take tho sum total ol highly civil- w,I nallnna mill t !j J . 1,1,. T.,iVtn say that tho largest class of any com-j niunity, at any period, is tho debtor class. Such aro tho exigencies and necessities of civilized life, that it is quite impossible for any cousideVnble part of a population to be euiilinu.itiy out of debt. The various systems of credit are so inierwoven with the anairs of life, that dealing, upju the basis of full and complete settlement I of all transactions as they occur, inj next to impossible. This credit cue torn is a fruitful wmt'cc of improvidence improvi-dence and failure. It tends to ox-trav.iganee ox-trav.iganee by inducing purchases which couid be dispensed with, and which would be dispensed with, if the consideration expected were demanded demand-ed on delivery of the thing's bought. 1 It is oiBy for most men and women to expend money which they have not got but which they expect to have. The history of the financial finan-cial world shows that it is easy to speculate with the money of others; that greater risks will be taken with other people's money than with the treasure of the party speculating. The wrecks of defalcation seen all along the highway of commerce and trade, re mainly traceable to this fact. It is the old adage of "catty come easy go,'' wrought out to the full. The money of the corporation has cost its cusUfdiau nothing iii toil and hard knocks, and it i a small matter to rik it in a speculation chances of success anion nt almost to a certainty, and the money !orrowed can be easily replaced. Hope tells its usutl Hattering tale, and Juris its victim to the same inevitable destruction. destruc-tion. It is unquestionably the fact that habits of luxury and extravagance increase in-crease the demand ibr ci'-diu, kt-ju production and enlarge the consumption consump-tion of tiie le ncces.--arT articles, In a euaiJiiion if Nature man's wants are few and simple. G:irso fuel and clothing;, rude shelters and convey-' convey-' ances answer Ins bmail netds. With added knov.kdg.j there Comes the demand for i.ddul comforts and in-creasfd in-creasfd luxuries; upon enlarged wealth th.;re fallows enlarged necessities: neces-sities: with the accumulation of great wealth in a community classes aro formed, and penury and opulence stand side by side. If we would secure for ourselves the highest success in life, we should increase in-crease the number of ojr home products, pro-ducts, so that other communities may be supplied by the labor of our hands. To this we would add the utilization of such of o ir own products as aro now suffered to run to wa-to. We need not send U California or New Jersey for canned peaches or tomatoes, or a hundred other articles which wo either do Jor can produce in supply equal to our needs, or in excess of them. Wc ought not to be compelled to rely upon the far c.ist for our iron, when wc have mountainsof the crude material on our own domain. W'c should be ablo to supply ourselves and our neighbors with salt, since wo have enough in our great lako to season sea-son tho world, and it cannot bo said that it "has KM its savor." Tho bowels of our land are lined with lead; yet we send abroad for manufactured manu-factured lead in all iU forms, A great political economist once said that England owned her supremacy suprem-acy among nations to tho fact that she was able to make Hulphuric acid cheaper than all tho rest of the world; to which it was retorted that hfir abilitv In M.mnlv M.rvm nlL-i.li jhmdc her mistress aliko of sea and land. Yet England hns no natural facilities for the production of these two essentials in all the arts, sciences and industries, which aro not pos- Beset d in un equal degree by Utah. She h;is abundant sulphur for her i acid, and tho vast stores of salt and i lime for her alkali. Tho supremacy i which is afforded by cheapening these tinportniit products, is within her grasp, if she will lay hold upon it. In short, if we would becomo great, and rich and independent, we must become a community of producers, not a mero colony of consumers. We must not cumber the ground uselessly; useless-ly; wo must exact from it tho utmost ut-most farthing by generous culture, ami by a fostering- care. W'c mustr squander less for imported luxuries and useless extravagances. We must imitate tho moderation of tho Puritan, rather than tho viccs'of the "fast" peoples of modern tiinen. As fur us possible, wo most patronize home industries, and h jnie.institutions and hoiirj pro hicU, imtuid of Bonding Bond-ing our substance iibroud for the meretricious products of other lands. What wo can produco as well and ns cheaply as others wo iimn juouueu. vvnai we uo nut :necd wc must dispense with. If wo : would heed tho lessons of tho past and jOf all nations we should never bo I lrci:d to complain of hard times. I W'c bimuld rather shortly find our ; selyex Ihu most prosperoiiM community communi-ty tindi r the Hag. |