Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1882-08-13
FACTS FOR FARMERS.
The Farming Community Of the south
Year Behind.
How They Got Into that Condition, ard
Row 10 Get Ont

L., AIM ~ no hand to wIi.e, but ef ys please
Henry S. Gooddle In HdrpeT.
To the Editors of the Appeal:
After admitting just enough exceptions to
prove the rule, assert that the farming
community OF the South is at least one year
behind time; that it will require the pro-
ceeds OF the growing crop TO pay the cost of
raising il together with the current expenses
OF the raiser. In March, 1888, it will be
just where it was in March, 1882, and the
vast majority are going along road that
seems TO lead nowhere, with huge mortgages
on their backs, which, in case of a tumble,
will crush them. How did they get into this
tx and still more important, how can they
get out of it?
After the war provisions were not exor-
bitantly high, while cotton commanded an
enormous price. A laborer (reuter or share
eropper) could support his family in resson-
was the proceeds OF just two bales OF cotton.
The great majority of laborers were content
with bare living and each made but four
bales OF cotton, two for his employer aud
two for himself, when he could easily have
M ade eight. As the price of cotton continu-
ally declined it required more bales of cot
ton each succeeding year to meet his wants,
and the laborer yielded to the necessity and
exerted himself TO raise the additional
price of cotton became 80 low that the la
borer had to stir himself and 10 put in q good
deal more time than he had been
accustomed to do, say 200 days in the
year. But where were these days to come
rom? First, there were the 102 Sundays (for
Saturday Is, or has been, for the negro as
holy day in the matter OF abstinence from
work as Sunday),, then thirty days between
laying by and picking; then another thirty
days between picking and ground breaking.
To these add rainy days, election days, pic
uic days, days of sickness, ETC., and there are
not zoo working days lsff. Thus the laborer
could not, or rather would not, find time to
do the necessary work, and the employer was
c. mpelled TO obtain outside labor to save the
crop, and the crop would not bear this adj
ditioual expense, which ate up the preft and
left him in debt.
l am afraid that at this stage of affairs
many planters became demon al zed. They
saw themselves cheated by day and robbed
by night; they found themselves heavily in
dt bted 10 merchants for supplies which had
been consumed by gang of irresponsible
and thankless creatures, and they went for"
the laborer in the way that Bill Nye went
for the heather Chinee; and when two peo-
pie undertake to cheat each other, and one of
hem has Caucasian and the other an Eth
opian brain, the result is easily foreseen.
Other planters worked on, doing the best
lhey could-persuading, advising, encourage
iug, and in all matters acting with scrupu-
lous hone sty toward their underlipgs. But
the end Is the same. The planters are in debt,
and how 10 get out is the QUESTION. Ready
money is not to be had; no amount of val
liable real estate will avail, seeing that
banks do not lend their funds on landed
properly, consequently the farmer must 60
nat in hand to the merchant, who 10 turn
goes hat in hand to the bank. To protect
himself the merchant exacts a mortgage,
which, if foreclosed, will secure him ulti-
mately, but in order 10 keep his credit up 10
the proper notch, he necessarily charges an
enormous profit on his advances, thus
making good debts pay bad ones. The planter
does the same in furnishing his troopers,
and with good reason, seeing that his only
security for payment is The crop growing at
the time. There is nothing abstractly wrong
in these things, but to suppose the country
can be financially healthy, or the people
happy, while they continue, is to deceive
ourselves. Should it please God, in His
infinite wisdom, to destroy the crop
now maturing in the Southern States, there
would be witnessed breadth and depth of
ruin, misery and suffering that would be
without parallel in modern history. 1t is
frightful t, stand on such possibilities.
Southern people are hopeful; every man
says to himself, "If have my health all will
come rights" but how if he has not health?
He says "H hen this crop is gathered shall |
pay OUT" but suppose there is no crop?
There is one way out of the difficulty; it |
lies plain to any one who carefully studies |
the matter, and it is this: A man must look |
his financial situation squarely in the face, |
and if he finds himself in debt in the degree |
L have been describing, he must vote himself |
a poor man and must live as poor man /
until he can improve his condition. There |
are hundreds of planters, whose families |
clothed in purple and fire linen) are at |
watering places, the expense of which dissi- |
patton is 10 be paid, not out OF the savings of |
last year or the year preceding, but from the |
proceeds of crops which are yet green 10 the |
ields Oilers are Identifying their houses,
purchasing carriages, furniture, etc, 10 be |
paid for in the same way. III is sll wrong.
If man has not the ready money TO buy |
carpet, or if the money in hand is needed |
to pay existing debts, let. him walk |
on piauks, and if he cannot pay cash for
plsnks let him be content with dirt floor
know it is hard for the owner of 1000 |
acres TO regard himself poor man, but if
his land 10 under mortgage he is poor man.
Whether it is wiser IN him 10 sell part OF
his land to relieve the rest, or whether he |
had better get out OF debt by strict economy
Is question for himself, but there is no
IL.
In slavery times there were frequent in
stances of planters in the South who held
property worth 100000, on which there were
to its full value, yet these men
lived like princes in New Orleans in the
winter and White Sulphur Springs in the
summer, and were regarded as rich men by
he entire community, except the holders OF
he mortgages. Their incomes were suff-
,ien;ly large 10 meet the annual Interest on
heir debt and furnish them besides with a
srge sum for yearly expenses, and thus mat
ers were tided over for years. Instances OF
his kind, at least of this magnitude, are rare
low, but there are too many of them on a
mall scale.
The only honest means of getting once
more on a safe footing is economy. Industry,
and economy will put Us right
gam. When once the Southern farmer has
ot one year ahead, and hes money in bis
'ocket to pay for the makingof crop which
ct lies in the seed in his ginhouse and corn
rio, he will be re reasonably safe, for he can
ben purchase his supplies at the price which
offers, and not at the arbitrary
CURES OF the merchant to whom otherwise be
IouId belong, and he may lose his crop and
till not be overwhelmed. No reflection on
lerch ants is by any means intended by
hese remarks, for they have acted fairly
nd honestly with their customers 80 far as
now, and if they charged high prices it was
ecsuse so many of their customers were apt
D fail them.
l will close this extended article with an
pothegm which Josh Billings, old Sam
ohnson or some other fogv might have used, !
neither they did or not. The good as gold"
ian, he VINO pays promptly at the time
greed upon, is good, but he who pays cash |
better. Tue f st has succeeded in control
ng his expenditures. within his reasonably {
income, but the other has con-
oiled his outsys until he has ready money
IT his needs. ARKANSAS.
THE people of the West owe a debt of
attitude to DR.. Aver for the production of I
yer's Ague Cure. lis timely use will save
uch suffering and much encouragement,
nd we recommend it with the greatest con-
ience in its ability to do all that is prom
ed for 1t.