The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1879-04-03
HARD TIMES.
Too Much "Ready-Made" and not
Enough Home Spun" One Of
the Main Causes.
We Dom, PatrOnize Home Industries.

1 LhuNH dOOuI udiu lIHGS anu Ihe
scarcity of money, it would not be
out OF place TO investigate the mat
ter and search for other eau ses than
those to which money scarcity is
attributed
Twenty years ago when you at
tended church, in the country, es
pecially, you saw most of the young
men as well as old ones, clad in
suits of decent home spun, while
their feet were shod in good sub
stantial boots and shoes, the work.
manship of some neighboring me
chanic. To-day you may attend
church in the same neigh borhood,
and you see all ages, from the
beardless youth up to the gray.
headed patriarch, clad from head to
foot in glossy ''ready-made," and
when you come to town you find
our stores filled with every article
of ready made clothing, from pa
per collar or cotton sock to an over
Coat-all bought cheap, it is true,
but the money that bought them
will never again circulate in that
community. 1t is gone to enrich
those who manufacture them.
You meet a young man and you
hear him complain that times are
| hard and money SO scarce that he
is not able to lay up anything, and
as be stands you take a survey Of
| him, and you find he rs dressed in
suit that cost him perhaps fifty
dollars, and while he speaks the
| fragrant smoke from ten cent Ha
vana curls from beneath his waXed
and well trained mustache.
Who helps to make these hard
times? Before the war the farmer
cultivated his farm in wheat, oats,
corn and tobacco, each trying to
make enough breadstuffs and meat
to do him. You never heard of
Western bacon, Cincinnati lard and
such things, being bought by the
farmer-but how is it now? Then
who ever heard of rawbone super
phosphates, commercial fertilizers,
and the like. Mortgages and deeds
of trust were then rare, but they've
come along with the other things,
and help make hard times. The
product of the farm will scarcely
pay for the fertilizers that are
bought, which should be made. But
fertilizers are bought in large quan-
titles and the money paid for them
never finds its way back into the
farmers hands, but goes to enrich
the manufacturer. What makes
hard times-who makes money
scarce?
Before the war you rarely ever
heard of life insurance companies.
But since the war millions of money
has been expended on life policies
in these gigantic swindling schemes,
where the holder, unless lucky
enough to die before the company
broke. bewailed the loss of hard
earned dollars, which he too confid
ingly risked that he might leave a
competency to his family. This
money will never find it's way back
to the community. Who is respon-
sible for hard times?
We have honest and skilled me
chanics in our midst. But they are
not encouraged. They can make
good plows, wagons, buggies, car
riages, threshing machines, boots,
shoes, &c, and in fact everything
necessary for our use, and to make
us a self sustaining and prosperous
people. Yet we buy bnggies made
in Cincinnati, wagons made in Ra-
cine, Wis, boots and shoes made in
Boston, plows manufactured at
distance. In a word, nearly every
thing we use comes from the North.
We have good crops, are reasona
bly, industrious, and in a way, eco
nomical, and have a country rich
in natural resources, but we don't
get rich. We buy from the North
because we think we buy a trlae
cheaper than we can at home, and
we never stop to consider that we
are sending the money where we
will meyer see it again, where it will
enrich some other section.
Are we not responsible for the
scarcity of money and the hard
times2
Cur hotel men complain. They
say that travel is falling of, and
country hotels say they make moth
ing. But we aH>know that the old
fashioned taverns of olden times
were places of resort and made
money for their keepers, and your
bill those days was not as much as
the traveller now ''tips" to the ser
want as an extra. We say to hotel
men, in all conscience, cut down
your prices to suit the times. What
man whose memory carries him
back to the good old ante-bellum
day s does not recollect the princely
entertainment for man and horse
fer one dollar per day? To day
you start out to travel through the
country. you stop at the village ho-
tel to lodge for the night, and after
faring none of the best, your bill
next morning is from Two to three
dollars. Is it not natural that Gus
tom is driven away from such
places?
The war came as mighty
scourge. 1t tried us as a people,
and it ought to have taught us wis
dom and economy, but it only seems
to have learned US extravaganza
and selfisbness. No doubt the ef-
forts in Congress in opposition to
the money horders of the Eastern
States may finally better our condi
tion, but all the legislation that can
be packed on statute books will
never do us any permanent good
until we learn the lesson to be a
seIf-sustaining people and take care
of ourselves. Let us amend our
own ways, then we will hear less of
'ahard times"