The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1873-05-22

which IS very close eSClnaCe, anu lueu esti-
mate that acre at forty bushels, which is a very
high estimate, that forty bushels at twenty
cents, which is more than corn will bring
throughout the State, we have $500 as the re-
suit Deduct $3.50 for the use of the land,
and we have $3.50. Just one dollar day for
man, team and tools, and we have fifty cents
left for our own labor. If we deduct twenty
five cents for our own board, we have twenty
five cents left for labor alone, out of which we
must pay war taxes and clothe and provide for
a family. Thus it will be seen that when we
pay man $500 month, we give over two
days Of our labor for one of his, and if we pay
seventy-fye cents day and board we give just
three DAYS for one. IF we give one dollar
day and board, we give four days for one. Now,
if these figures are correct, and we think they
are they are not only ludicrous but little
solemn, and we would be glad if they were the
worst feature of the case, but we fear we shall
have to go farther and fare worse. When we
employ an ordinary mechanic to repair our
houses or implements, we give him from four
to six days for one. Our County and State
officials from six to ten days for one. Our
school teachers, many of them educated at our
expense, protected from the weather in house
that we furnish and warm, buy with six hours
labor in the school room forty-eight hours OF
our labor, performed in snow and rain. The
physician and lawyer all the way from ten to
twenty for one. Estimate these prices in grain
and we shall find that many of them earn our
corn and oats as fast as man and team can
gather and deliver. The plasterer, the brick
or stone mason, that gets $3.50 day, which is
common, buys with that days labor an acre of
our oats delivered in market, the delivery of
which alone is equal to his work. The school
mistress with six hours work buys sixty pounds
of our pork, (if she wants it The doctor that
rides six or eight miles into the country to visit
our sick families buys an acre of our corn
which it will take two days at least tor us 10
'Is it possible that farmers are the only
human beings that cannot act in united capaci-
ty? Farming is wholly individualized, which
accounts for its prostration at the feet of every
occupation that is organized and cohesive. AL
great human achievements are the result OF
union. Our whole social system is union
from the country log-rolling to the confederacy
of States, and for farmers to ignore the agencies
that are moving the rest of the world forward
is more senseless than to attempt the cultiva-
ton of their fields without the plow.
"And farmers of our entire country, it Is
evident that we are now sadly behind, and that
whatever may be the cause of it, union can
do much towards removing it. If the cause be
over-production, union will help US all to
understand this and decrease our productions.
But this is remedy that should be resorted to
only in 80 far as we over work ourselves to pro-
duce large crops. When conditions are normal
the whole world, ourselves included, vii! be
benefited by the utmost our fields can yield.
If the cause is found to be mismanagement,
then q union can help this materially. If the
cause is that We feed others very cheap, while
they supply our wants at costly rates, then 6y
united action we can compel a more equitable
exchange, reaching back to the greater manu-
facturers themselves. We want q union to
protect our interests, as farmers; to elect men
to our Legislatures from among ourselves,
pledged to see that Governmental expenses and
salaries are cut down to farming basis, so
that the whole income of farm may be able
to pay the taxes thereon, at least; to exercise
what little power is left US over railroad charges.
so that the roads that we have mortgaged our
farms to build,s may be compelled to recognize
that they exist for us, as we'll as we for them,
chat they may be something more than anacon-
das stretched over our country, confiscating to
transportation charges the grain that bankrupts
us to produce, and which others are famishing
to receive"