904 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Dec. 15. 



made a macadamized or stone road that would 

 last for years. This matter was yi-escmted again 

 and again to tlie farraei'S. but they united al- 

 most in a body and rejected it. They wanted 

 to stick to the old way of each one worl<ing his 

 road-tax, and they carried the day. Public 

 opinion was so against the law and the law- 

 makers, that it amounted to notiiing, and the 

 law was a dead letter. Are the fai-mers helj)- 

 less? are they the slaves of capitalists and i)oli- 

 ticians? They certainly were not this time. 

 In our town we have a bi'autiful stone road 

 from the depot to the court-house: but we had 

 to tight hard to get it. and it was not done by 

 each num putting in a day's work. It was done 

 by the town council. Said our honorable 

 friend in his speech. "My good friends, how long 

 it would have taken to build your stone road 

 from the depot to the court-house had you de- 

 pended on each man working out his share of 

 it? Why. the Jirst stone would have worn 

 'clean out' before the hist one was laid !" 



Now, this is true: and combination and capi- 

 tal is the only way to accomplish even a little 

 enterprise like the one I have mentioned. The 

 irrigation in California, that has transformed a 

 desert into the most productive land that the 

 world has ever known, is the result of combina- 

 tion and capital. So it is with the railroads, 

 with our factories, electric lighting, our great 

 steamboats, and almost every thing else. Therf 

 is no otliei' way. Are all these men who are en- 

 gaged in these things, who wield the capital or 

 who hold the oftices with high salaries, bad 

 men? By no means. The moi'e I b(>come ac- 

 quainted "with them, the more I feel ashamed of 

 myself for having misjudged them in former 

 years. I can well remember when I used to feel 

 bitter toward our banks and oiu' moneyed men 

 because they would not lend me money without 

 -proper security. 'Why, they did me a positive 

 kindness in making me submit to ordinary busi- 

 ness rules and regulations. Bdiikruiitcy and 

 tlie pcnitc}}tl(tru are oftentimes the result of 

 letting somebody have money by mistaken kind- 

 ness, when lie ought not to have it. 



We are tempted to criticise and find fault be- 

 cause we do not understand things. Some one 

 of our neighbors is lucky enough to get a posi- 

 tion where he gets a salary of two or three 

 thousand dollars a year. The temptation is 

 great for the less fortunate ones to say that he 

 got it liy wire-pulling or Ijy fraud. Such may 

 be the case .sometimes, but I do not believe it 

 happens very often. The chances are greatly 

 that he has worked hard (or studied hard, if 

 you choose) until he was fitted for the ])osition 

 and deserved it. I have been watching this 

 thing carefully for years. At the present time, 

 while hundreds are applying for something to 

 do, we are sadly in need of a man or woman 

 worth one (U' "two thousand dollars a year. 

 Now, none of you need ai)ply because I .say this. 

 There are no such people on the market. 

 Others besides ourselves ai'e, needing them. 

 There are (jood people, mind you. plenty of them 

 — people well educated, and with experience: 

 people who are hon(>st and true, and who will 

 do their v(M-y level best, but not people who 

 have worked' hard, who are l)road and deep 

 enough to see what our nation wants, and who 

 have the (d^ility to direct a lot of men and 

 women, or a large business. Such people do not 

 grow themselves. They must b(> n\(ide to order, 

 as it were: or, perhai)s."better still, make them- 

 selves to order: and wh<'n they are nuide, ei;erj/- 

 hody wants them. Some vei'y good friends of 

 mine have tried to lill tlu'se positions. They 

 have been very contident and sanguine, and 

 they have been true and Christianlike enough 

 to admit, when they found the work was great- 

 er than they could manage, to say so, and step 



down and out. Now, when one has the ability 

 to till these places, for Heaven's sake let us be- 

 ware how we let envy and jealousy get into our 

 hearts. Let us beware about speaking unkind- 

 ly or spitefully of him. 



Now. fri<'nd R.. jjlease believe me when I tell 

 you that the men who manage our railroads 

 successfully are the kind I have been describ- 

 ing. When they are opposed by laboring 

 people who will not take the time to inform 

 themselves in regard to these matters, they get 

 in the habit of being short •and perhaps over- 

 bearing in their answers, for they are by no 

 means perfect in all the Christian graces. I do 

 know this: That, when the managers of a 

 railroad find out that a man is disposed to be 

 fair and honest, and does not try to gouge and 

 cheat them wlunievor an opporiiuiity liappens, 

 they are very fair and liberal with him. It 

 gives me pain when I hear the expression to the 

 effect that railway corporations have no souls. 

 It is true, it is not" exactly like dealing with any 

 one man. But this corporation is made up of a 

 number of men — made up of our neighbors, and 

 the fact that they feel hard and indignant, and 

 many times biit(n- and ugly, when these things 

 are flung at them, shows they recognize the 

 insult is intended for them, and they often re- 

 sent it. as you. luy friend, would resent an in- 

 sult. I do not mean to say there are no wj-ongs 

 that should lie righted: and this organization 

 that our good friend call^the Independents may 

 be the right and proper way. providing it works 

 in the line of our text— " Not by might nor by 

 power." but by the spirit of Christ Jesus, re- 

 membering ti^at we are constantly dealing with 

 owY neiijhJiors, and that kindness and bi'otherly 

 love— p'erhaps I might say n<i(jId>(irhj]ove — will 

 accomplish what bi*terness and spite can never 

 do. Our farmers and laboring classes are by no 

 means helpless. I have given you an illustra- 

 tion where tiiey conquered, and had their own 

 way, even wher(> they were in the wrong, and 

 the law-makers in "the right. If our rural 

 neighbors can carry the day when they are in 

 error, who shall say what they may do when 

 their cause is rujht and justf Perhaps some of 

 you say, " Why, Bro. Root, how do you knoiv 

 we are in the; wrong? If we want to make our 

 roads as we have been doing for fifty years 

 past, by scraping the clay up in the center, and 

 lettingit flat out again in the winter time, is it 

 notour privilege?" 



Well, this maybe open to discussion: but I do 

 not think it is your privilege. You are in duty 

 bound before (lod and your fellow-men to con- 

 sider the good of the people at large, and the 

 good of tli<; peo|)le who are coming aftei' you. 

 You have no business to waste valuablestrength 

 year after year in something that does no 

 permanent good. You have no business to wear 

 out your horses, and keep your wife and chil- 

 dren at home when they might S])in over good 

 I'oads to come to town and attend fai'mers' in- 

 stitutes, to go to church and Sunday-school, 

 etc., just because you ai'c too lazy, or too little 

 and stingy aiul mean, to employ competent men 

 to make some r/oocZ substantial 7'oad.s. just as 

 you would employ competent men to make good 

 substantial houses and barns. I hope this lat- 

 ter clause is in the spirit of the text at the head 

 of my talk to-day. If it is not. may God give 

 me grace and wisdom to see my ouj)i want of 

 charity. 



You know how badly ivc have felt because 

 the great outside world would have it that our 

 honey was all manufactui-ed. comb ;is well as 

 extracted, and how reluctant oui' friends and 

 neighbors were to let go of the silly falsehood. 

 Well. now. I am sur(» that we on our side are 

 doing something of the same kind when we ac- 

 cuse those who handle the large commodities of 



