The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1878-06-15
LETTERS FROM THE PEOPLE,
For The Cecil Wing
OR. C. MS" REPLY TO GO"

Mr.. EDIToR:-I find in your issue of the
Sth instant what purports to be reply to
my communication to The Democrat of May
18th. l hardly think your intelligent cor
respondent read that article carefully"
Or his reply would have been more carefully
considered. There is in fact no issue be-
tween G " and myself, for he admits that
wheat growing is no longer profitable in
Maryland.
Taking Eli Perkins letter to the New
York San as my text, | pointed out the
cause of this appropriateness. | showed
that, if wheat at sixty cents a bushel in
Minnesota meant wheat at one hundred
cents bushel in Liverpool and ruin to
English farmers, it was equally runous to
Maryland farmers at eighty five cents a
bushel in the Baltimore market. How
&C " gets States right heresy out of this
fact | am at loss to imagine. | claimed
(and the claim cannot be questioned) that
it was the giving away of the public lands
and the Endorsement of gigantic corpora
ton bonds that had made this State of
things possible, and | pronounced such leg
lSlatlon ruinou>, because most damaging to
the agricultural interests of the older States.
| claimed that overproduction is one of the
chief causes of our present and financial
distress, and there was nothing original in
the claim-else why do the iron masters
shut down their water gates or run upon
half time, and so too the manufacturers of
cotton and other goods? Simply because
the law of supply and demand regulates
the prices of all productions, whether of
the soil or of the mills, and consequently
overproduction must be at loss to the pro.
Queer. ! claimed that railroads should be
built as the needs of the country through
which they pass justify them, and that they
will always be built by capitalists when
there is an actual demand for them.
A word as to few side issues raised by
your correspondent and am done. In my
zeal for the prosperity of Maryland farm
ers | did not ignore the fact that We are
but part of a great country" but as | was
writing for a Maryland local paper, | ad-
dressed my argument to Marylanders. 1t
applies with almost equal force to every
State this side of the Mississippi river.
&C" says "the fact is the land never be-
longed to Maryland, and the whole coun-
try has reaped the benefit of the indorSe-
ment merely of railroad bonds" In my
ignorance had always supposed that Mary,
land, as one of the States composing the
Federal union, had quite valuable inter
est in the public domain; but | stand con-
yicted And how the giving away of mil
lions of acres of these lands can be termed
mere Endorsement of railroad bonds am
too dull to comprehend. | think | have
demonstrated that our farmers have hardly
derived much ''benetit ?" from their share
of these lands gieen array.
"Uncle Sam " takes a novel method Of
improving his ''big farm He first gives
1t away and then pays somebody to build
railroad through it-and sis he mot doing
what every land owner does?" Let " G "
try this experiment in political economy
and see if his remaining nine tenths, after
deducting the triiling interest of wheat
crop in the 9th district, will leave him a
clean balance sheet at the end of the year.
Now as to the animus of my article.
sc says it is little political capital
| desire to make. A few years ago heard
distinguished lawyer say in the course of
n trial in our onurt nayar oruua a caSe