The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1875-09-15
Wednesday, Sept, ID, 1878.
Tho Condition of Georgia-lts Manu-
featuring and~ Agricultural Inter-
estS-The Homestead and
Lien Laws.

The C0nQlCl0l Ol u6ol6id- hionu
featuring andx Agricultural Inter-
estS-The Homestead and
Lien Laws.
Mr.. Chas. Nordhorf, the well-known
correspondent of the Nee0 York Heratd,
gives in a recent tletteranything else than
8 fiattering report of the agricultural m
terests of our sister State, but on the
contrary, predicts for it bright future
as a manufacturing country.
The chief obstacle in the way OF its
agricultural prosperity, he finds in the
thin. worn. lands of the State, which
have forced the people to emigrate to
Mississippi, Arkansas and Louisiana,
where they are able to take possession
of new and fertile soils, where they need
no manures, and can get greater returns
for their labor. He finds less evidences
of wealth among the farming class, and
the land owners generally less enterprl-
sing, less prosperous, less inle1iieeht,
and less expert in adapting themselves
to the new system of labor, than IN any
other States. AS an evidence OF the lack
of prosperity, he states that. since the
war Georgia has lost at least 81, 900 peo-
~. L.
Z On the contrary, as a manufacturing
conntry. Georgia has ali the elements of
f,Iture greatness, in its valuable Ewater-
mower. in its-coai. iron, and other min
eral wealth, and in its numerous popu-
lation of poor people, whose daughters
make the best operatives. AS an eHl-
dence of this, the few cotton factories
are, even in the present depression, very
remunerative. and have been paying
over twenty per cent. dividends, whist
the iron and coal works are in good con-
dition. The superior advantages en-
ioyed here by the manufacturer, ana ms
prosperous condition, are thus set 1orth:
"He needs no sLch solid ana costiy
dwellings for the work people; lana is is
still cheap; lumber for building IS stlll
cheap; fuel is unusually cheap; the op-
erative class is, l suspect, more manage
able and more easily made Intelligent,
than the rude, imported labor now used
at the North; food is and must long re-
main cheaper; the mildness of the WIN
ter is certainly an advantage, and there
is an air of comfort and contentment
about these Southern factories which is
very pleasing. The operatives are usu,,
ally very nicely lodged in cottages, ana
are evidently happy and pleased with
their life.
1t is among the factory workers and
the small farmers Of Georgia that we
find the chief prosperity of the State.
Here there is little or no debt; money
circulatcs rapidly; improvements are
seen, and there is patient, hopeful LABOR,
thrift and enterprise, which affects, as II
seems to INC, the whole population. l
heard here and there of instances or
Door Young mechanics working steadily
and earnestly, in New England way
at their trades. making labor respecta-
BILE, accumulating property and taxing
honorable places in their communities ;
and some such men talked to me OF their
past and their future, of the hopeful
change which the extinction OF slavery
had produced in the prospects of their
class. in language which showed me
that there is a newborn hope of better
things in the poor white people of the
State"
The agricultural interests, he thinks,
have suffered from the operation OF two
bad laws; the homestead law exempted
So. 600 of real estate, and 81 600 OF per-
sonal property from seizure by creditors;
and tile lien law, which offers preml-
um upon incapacity and want of thrift,
enables men to undertake planting with
insufficient capital, and deranges the
whole industrial system. TO show the
ruinous effect of the lien law, he makes
the following statement:
"To show you how the lien law work
ed, here is a statement made to me by
planter of the charges which he had
known to be paid for advances made by
a factor. He instanced to me the Case of
q planter who required from his factor a
loan or advance of 81, 500 to make his
crop. For this ne paid one per cent.
per month, TO which was assured seven
per cent. per annum was sometimes az
ded, making really nineteen pei, cent
Then the arrangement was that the iac-
tor should buy all the planters supplies
for him, and for this service he charged
him two and half per cent, and oilied
the goods to him at time prices" which
added eight or ten per cent. TO their
cost. Then the factor sold the planters
crop, and charged for this two ana
half per cent again. / should not nave
believed such a system possible, had
not seen the same thing regularly, done
by the sugar planters in the Sandwich
Islands two or three years ago. VI
course, no business except the slave
trade could bear such drain. Some
planters complained to me that they
could never get advances from the banks,
who preferred to lend to the factors, but
this will hardly surprise any business
man. The profits were great enough
for the bank and the factors to divide" !"
The consequence has been universal
discomfort among the laboring class, and
large emigration to other States. Geor-
gia has repealed her lien law, and
though The repeal has operated with
some hardship upon the poor ard lnl-
provident planters, it has been attended
with the best results in forcing the peo-
pie to plant more provisions, so that
more corn will be made this year than
in any year since the war. We ourselves
experienced the evils of this ruinous
credit system, which has led to the eX-
cessive cultivation of cotton, and driven
our people almost to the verge of bank
ruptcy. The road to independence lies
lin the maintenance of system OF dl-
versified industry, and especially in the
cultivation of provisions and other artl-
cles of necessary home consumption.
The first step to this end would seem to
DO. the repeal of the lien law, upon
which the credit system and the over
grown cotton culture depend.
The liabilities of Georgia are said to
be double those Of any other Southern
State, whilst those of Georgia and South
Carolina amount to nearly one-half OF
the liabilities of the entire South. These
estimates refer to individual liabilities,
and not to Stute debts.
THE public school question in its con
nection with the Roman Catholic