The herald and mail. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1873-188?, 1875-10-15

to participate in the business of the So
ciety.
w J. Andrews stated to the So
| ciety that Mr.. Horsly had informed him
that he would be glad to have any com
municatiOns from any of the members
on the subject of bees, which would be
| Ofa local nature.
1t was moved and adopted that Mr.
David Staples, be requested 20 deliver
a lecture at the next meeting, and in
the event of his being unable to be
| present that s. D. Mclean should do so.
The Society then adjourned to meet
| again the first Saturday in January, 1876.
WIN. J. ANDREWS,
| Secretary 81 Treasurer.
DIR. Lees Speech 10 the Farmers OF
| Many.
| NASHVILLE, Oct. 5th, 1875.
To the Editor of the Herald and Mail:
| L have received polite note, request
ing me to furnish for your paper copy
of my address at the recent Fair near
Columbia. / spoke from the impulse
of the occasion without notes, have
| feeble RENE entrance of what was said,
and am unable to recall my remarks.
| They were, however, complimentary to
the enterprise and intelligence of the
| farmers of Maury, to the stock exhibit
| ted, and urged the Importance of CULTS
| waiting a love of the farmers calling
| with progress and improvement in all
| that pertains to tillage, husbandry and
| dom este economy, including the wise
| culture of our own species. But the ims
| provement OF homes, fences, fields and
| roads, the drainage of swamps, and the
| permanent fertilization of the soil, call
| for cash capital, and the constant use of
"a sound currency to employ labor, buy
| and sell all breeding animals, and carry
| on an industrial business whose returns
are often very slow, it sure. l endeav-
| ored to make PLAIN the fact that cils
| culating medium is as much tool to
work with and create property, as
| pillow or steam-engine.
| The pillow has been improved from
| century to century tor thousand
| years, while our hard money currency
| ideas and practices are substantially the
| same as those OF the Hebrews, three
| thousand FIVE hundred years ago, when
| Abraham weighed out four hundred
| shekels of silver current money with
| the merchant" to pay for field and
| cave as burial place for Sarah, him
J self and family. Want of enlightenment.
OF the subject ofcurrency in the pOpu~
| lar mind, and want of progress from
this lack OF useful knowledge, are the
| true causes that throw out of employs
| ment so many laboring men and wo-
men in the United States and in Eu-
rope. Let US consider few of the
more prominent facts of the casa. Ac
cording to the census OF 1870 the people
| of the United States owned property
worth over thin ty thousand million dol
lars. These are the figures: $50, 06S, 51S,
900, thirty billion: sixty eight million:
five hundred and eighteen thousand dol
| lars.
Our currency in actual circulation,
gold in California, and paper elsewhere,
has probably never exceeded seven
ri GIN ff,a
This is restricting all agricultural in
dustry that extends over a territory
three thousand miles from east to west,
and a thousand miles from north to
south, to one dollar cash of any kind, to
some forty-five dollars of wealth or
real property, Ali manufacturing, me-
chanical, mining, trading and CONNER
cial industry is equally limited and re-
strained by uncalled for and unWise |
laws. Whenever the circulating me-
dunn becomes scarce the tendency is to |
hoard it as something precious. 1t mat |
tiers not whether the currency is gold or |
silver, geeenbac or federal bank notes |
secured by Government bonds. The |
banks discount business paper and re- |
port a large sum as in circulation; but |
without their knowledge, ten men in |
every hundred may hold curI ency to |
purchase property OF some kind, in the |
future, at a great bargain. In addition |
specializing purposes, there is strong |
temptation for all national and state |
banks to do the same thing. Thus it is |
seen that, while our circulating medium |
is nOminally equal to one dollar in cur |
rency for forty five or forty of property, |
it in fact is not equal to one dollar in |
seventy, nor hardly equal to the sum |
paid into the federal treasury every |
year. A tool so restricted in lis use, is |
Gushing to all productive labor, and ru-
nous to other interests except those of /
a few .bondholders, banks and capital |
lists.
Take another view of this subject. |
Our population during the last thirty |
years has averaged some thirty million, |
and they have constructed i've thou
sand miles OF rail way in that time, more /
than three hundred million people have |
done in Europe with the accumulated |
wealth of thousand years industry to /
help them.
These facts speak volumes for our en-
terprise, industry and credit at home |
and abroad. The New York Central |
Railroad reports having transported six !
million tons OF freight last year at an |
average cost Of nine mills per ton per |
mile, or ninety cents has been the cCE
of carrying ton one hundred miles. |
On narrow gauge roads tLhree feet) |
freight has been carried forty per cent |
cheaper than the amount above stated; |
or at five and a half mills per ton per |
mile. 1t takes fourteen average men to |
weigh 1000 pounds, and at the price |
last stated, they might load and unload |
their bodies as freight, and be carried |,
one hundred miieg tor Gity-tiVe cents on |
tho most economical railway now in ev- |
cry day use. Some statisticians esti- /
mate the crop of corn this year at three |
Thousand million bushels. / put it at |
half that quantity. There is a great de- i
mand for this grain ] 4 Great Britain to |
feed tap sheep. hogs and horses. Beef
is four times higher in London and |
Glasgow than it was fifty years ago.
Let our farmers feed and otherwise |
consume thousand million bushels of
corn at home, and this leaves bali that
large amount to export 10 Europe and |
elsewhere. We have scores of RAILROADS ]
that pay no dividends, whose stock and |
bonds are worth less than fifty cents on /
the dollar, because tAere is no adequate
CURRENCY 10 move corn, wheat, cotton,
tat animals, meat, tobacco and other
staples of American agriculture, to dis
tant consumers. Our pres ent currency |
belongs to the stone age, when our own i
progenitors cut firewoOd with stone AK
es, having nothing better, and expect
ing nothing better. Why cling longer
TO a tradition that makes the poor poor
er, and a few rich men richer, as all i
may see, which traditions are as much
older than Atrahata, as he Is older, in /
tAe march of time, Than President |
Grant, Regarding currency as an instru-
tnent of labor, how shoula4. be construc-
Ted and managedS To develop properly |
their agricultural, mineral, forest, man,
utscturing and compe rcial resources
and advantages, the people need a
thousand million dollars available for
circulation. If this were all in green
backs, it would cancel gold tax of six>
ty million dollars year, now paid on
six per cent. government bonds What
ever may lie our circulation, beyond all /
question tie taxpayers should have the
benefit of every dollar of it. There is