The Cecil Whig., 1878-06-08
LETTERS FROM THE PEOPLE.
THIS COLUMN Is OPEN TO ALL.
For The Cecil Wing.
A FARMERS REPLY TO s.R. c. NJ"

TO THE COUNTRY OR MOTOR MORE
| LAND.
We have read carefully a communication,
signed - II. G. NJ, " which we happened to
see in copy of The DemocrGt of May 18th,
with reference to our great crop and the
possibility of breadstufs being very cheap
the next year, and are rather amused at his
strained effort to scod somebody or party
for this gift of Providence. They must be
hard put for a subject, out of which to
make an argument, or on which to build a
little political capital, that they should thus
expose their ancient weakness. He may
find that pile of wheat is poor founda-
tion and his premises are even more unsta.
Bile, and his structure needs but a very
slight shake to bring it down on their own
heads We may not possibly do this, and
we would prefer not to, but may show some
of the most glaring absurdiJes, and leave
it to mark the grave in which the past
twenty years have buried SO many of their
old household gods
That the business energies of the coun-
try have been unsettled we all know, but
this writer neither gives cause nor REM
edy. If there is any thing that shows out
more conspicuous than another in his rea-
soning, it is his old sectional prejudice and
States rights ideas. In his zeal for the
prosperity of the farmers of Maryland, he
entirely ignores the fact that we are but
part of a great country, whose whole inter
ests are intertwined and bound together
so that no part can prosper unless ali be
tlourshing, and We cannot shut ourselves
up in the narrow limits of State lines, if we
would seek individual prosperity.
10 nha If I'm
energies to "unwise legislation;" and then,
as a matter of course from his stand point,
the Republican party is to be charged with
all the mischief in State as we'll as Nation,
we presume), even though the Democrats
have had unlimited control in this State
for many years, aud also a fair opportunity
to show what great, wise and beneticent
reformers they intend to be in national
affairs.
His charge about Glands and bonds taken
from the people by his (the Republican,
party, to the ruin of Maryland farmers"
may sound very nice as war cry to rouse
the sleeping elements of ignorance to
strengthen Democratic ranks. The fact
is, the land never belonged to Maryland,
and the whole country has reaped the beue
fit of the Endorsement merely of railroad
bonds. In State like Maryland, which
has had SO large a share Of the benefits
arising from her encouragement to her pub
lie works, it is surely in very poor taste to
prate about subsidy to our national rail
roads, which have made our otherw Use worth
less public domain into homes for the mil
lions. That few dishonest contracts have
been made is no reason for his wholesale
denunciation. Why does he not look out
for the subsidies and political plunder,
State Legislature?
IfUnce Sam owns big farm and chooses
to open road to the far side of it TO haul
his grain ont to market, is be not doing
what every land owner does? And if some
of these far fields produce wheat better
than the old ones near home, will he not be
looking up some improvements or other
crops for these, or advising his farmers to
raise more of other things, and not try to
grow wheat exclusively, when he and they
will be benefited more by other crops or a
more diversified industry?
Wheat-growing in Maryland has not been
a very profitable business for the past TWEEN
ty years, and very few of the farmers of
the Ninth district, even in the best wheat
years, now depend upon that crop for
tithe of their income. Wheat is grown in
many places as an adjunct, necessary to a
rotation of crops, when there is no profit
in it. Truck farmers grow wheat and
clover to put the soil in good condition,
though it is a temporary loss to them, the
wheat never paying for labor and manure.
1t is this short sighted policy of depend
ing upon corn, wheat and peaches as the
only sources Of revenue. which has been
impoverishing the farmers of the First
and Second districts to great extent and
all in yiStn
And these very railroads are the only thing
which has made it possible for Maryland
farmers to build up this peach business to
such mammoth proportions. The very cars
that come to Baltimore ladened with grain,
carry our peaches to Ohio and Chicago for
a market. And yet this business has been
overdone by Speculative peach growing
right here in our midst.
That agriculture is the basis of national
prosperity, is very true, as are the deduc-
tions ar. C. NJ" draws from it; but that
1nheat-grolotng is the hedrt of agriculture in
Maryland is no longer true-hence he has
most assuredly written this long letter in
vain"
One of the greatest failacies in his letter
is in charging that the price of wheat in
Baltimore is entirely governed by the cost
of pr0ducti0n in Minnesota. If Baltimore
and Ohio Railroad pours into her elevators,
then she could fix the price of grain by the
unvarying rule of supply and demand
That railroad has no governmental support,
and if we are taxed te support it, we alone
are to blame for sending incompetent men
to Annapolis, and not to Washington.
But Baltimore does large export business
in grain, and the handling of it gives EN-
ployment to men and capital and adds di
rectly to the prosperity of the city. The
foreign demand, or the price in Liverpool,
or wherever our surplus goes, regulates the
price here. The freight is deducted, auu
the farmer gets the reside it much or lt-
tie, in Maryland or Minnesota.
The charge that we are now being taxed
to pay the freight on wheat over our great
freight routes from the Mississippi to the
Seaboard is very pretty compliment to pay
TO our Democratic House of Representa-
tives, who, in these years of their ascend |
ancy, have found no way to undo the
vicious legislation " of their predeces-
sOrS
That our Government did build a railroad
to unite the Atlantic and Pacific across the
interve nng territory, where land on the
average was not worth five cents an acre
before this road was put through it, was
craftsmanship. That the Northern Pacific
was urged faster than the advance of civil
liZatou required, was but a natural result
of our impulsive nature as a nation. We
would have recuperated much faster from
these panics, but for the ignorant inter
meddling Of Democratic tinkers at Wash
ington, whose only aim seemed to be to
keep values unsettled by tampering with
the honor and currency of the nation, and
then try to make political capital out of
their own blunders. The fact is that the
ma iority of those who are talking about
hard times and taxation have necsr paid
any ta.r at all, and surely none to the United
States directly, and only indirectly on their
phiSky and tobacco. We once saw a young
orator of this school tripped up very short
on this question, after he had been blow
ing about 1.-The poor man ground down by
taxation"
1t is foreign to our purpose to enter on
the merits of a protective tariff in this pa
per. That subject has been abundantly
discussed, aud is now well understood, and
the heavy duties made necessary to pay the
expenses of a slave holders rebellion have