The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1878-12-19
SOUTHERN SYSTEMS OLD AND NEW.
some Pretty Sensible Talk.

SUU1HGbN SIS96MS OLD AM NJ " Z
Some Pretty Sensible Talk.
Ne,r York Bankers Safeguard.
The continued cry of "hard times"
sounding in Southern cities, leads us to
investigate causes of depression and learn
the outlet to renewed prosperity.
The present stoppage of large and
hitherto fourishing commission houses,
points out one fact, that the South is un-
derpoing. radical changes in its system of
business, being, as it were, completely
shaken up, and until it. settles down to
the altered situation and understands its
bearings, inactivity must be expected.
Before the war the Southern planter
raised his supplies on q system of part
nershipSwith the factor. He was gener-
ally thrifty and industrious, but reckless
as to his.expenditpres, and. careless as to
how high the debtor side of the ledger
ranged against him, as long as he was
fortified behind growing crop and a
Fall "squaring up." He simply ordered
what he wanted, his correspondence with
his factor was a communicationlfof de-
mand on his part and Isupply on the
other. He never examined his account
until settlement day arrived, and then
he generally accepted and settled on
faith!I An instance of this carelessness
was shown in one of the large, houses
where, at the close of days business, "a
clerk reported to his employer that sad
die had been disposed of without being
charged, ,inor could the purchaser be
identified The proprietor instructed his
clerk to charge the saddle against every
customer of that day, who obviously
would have purchased such an article,
and 80 when settlement day came, the
party who had obtained it would pay,
while the Others would reject this item.
The saddle was accordingly charged
against eleven customers, and when set
tlement time arrived, without a dissent
ing voice or even a a.question asked, the
eleven men came up and paid for the
saddle.
At the close ofahis season, if the plan
ter happened to- fell behind, he could
easily recuperate by the sale of slave or
some surplus land, but even if he utterly
failed his lands would pass into seme
other hands, who would continue to util-
ize them; and so the pro rata of prodac-
ton in communities would continue uni
form aud steady. The factor, who acted
as the planters merchant, banker, friend
and trustee, who met him with such open
arms and welcome, met him also with
compound interest and charges: If he
bound son the good nstured producer:
burdens grievous to be borne, he did it
in an affable business manner, and with
the belief that his indolent country cou:
sin had nothing to do but bask in sum
shine amid seed time and harvest, while
the crop sprang up and brought forth: =
After the factor had sliced off his
charges for advancing, interest, storage
and commission, he delivered King, Cot
ton to the seller, who again, after de-
Quoting commissions, delivered it to the
buyer, who, after his commissions, either
consigned it to some exporter or else
shipped it himself, but meanwhile it had
been further clipped by samplers, dray-
men, shippers and transporters, each and
every one taking his bite from the rus
tics apple and illustrating Solomon's
proyerb tina. the king himself is served
BY the field. ; $50. sy1:a
This is the faithful picture Of the. old
ante beIlum system, those easy days of
jogging country wagons, and once year
settlements. A system so slipshod that
it shufled in easy routlines without even
the knowledge of running down or, cut
throat competition. This former system
of harmonious fleeing petished in its
midst under the iron chariot of war, and
since the revival of peace this star of
Southern prosperity has faded and waned
away in the glazing sunlight of direct
and internstional transportation.
This old timed class were succeeded
byas series of intermediate factors who
sprang up, and who like their predecess-
ors advanced heavily for high interest
and large commissions. They credited
up handsome fictitious profits until the
day of reckoning came, and then formed
a long procession to the court of bank
ruptcy. sl,s as al.
Meanwhile the planter who had re-
ceived his supplies honorably and with
good intentions, found himself amidst
dissolying prospects. A deranged labor
system and false idea of retaining former
proportions, showed him beginning his
planting campaign with large ideas and
forces scattered over larger area, and
ending with scarcely any ideas at all,
some stfagglipG and uncertain freedmen
and portions Of his undertaken crop de-
serted and blistering amid weeds and
sunshine. :. y
Now consider the present status of
cotton. factors, the Southern Antonios,
since the spirit of innovation and conpe-
tition has arisen. Commissions we're cut
down quarter, q half, then nominally.
Foreign importers ceased to employ and
utilize intermediate agencies and sellers,
and retained special buyers, thus exclud-
ing members of the old. regime from
further benefit and revenue.
And now even special local buyers are
largely discarded, importing houses send
ing their agents directly, who proceed
not to,the central market, where one or
more commissions have already been
sliced, but to the village or even the field
of the producer, and there paying his
stipend, thus excluding the extra inter-
mediate forces we have described, and
yet not beneitting the grower, as the
buyer has figured his quotations down to
the lowest fraction. And even where
the intermediate forces still exist, compe-
tition has shorn their business Of all its
former dimensions of profit, the strain
extending down to the very draymen
whose earnings are e3reduced two-thirds,
and the salaried skilledforces who were
gradually undermined by the wedging in
of lazy adventurous experimentists
When: we find in production and the
labor system so complete revolution
need We account farther for stagnation in
the fields from oyerreaching, or depress
ion in the cities, from the large numbe'
of idlers seeking employment from {
branch of business which is suspended i
not dead, and q hitherto prominent class
&c comnnprcia1 men who complain O