Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1882-07-04
THE FOOLS OF THE COUNTRY
Who Pay Enormous Prices for Corn and
Bacon, and simply Outrageous Ia
GeresI for Money.
They Are lazy snv, kre Poor Managers,
Who Seem TO Prefer POveriy-Pefted
and Spoiled by The Pres.
To lhe Editors of the Appeal =:

To the Editors of the Appeal:
AEFRDEEN, Miss, June 30-Indsed ! ha,
| to laugh at your edi ior.aI remarks witt
reference to my 'lecture," which you consid
eratelv publish in to-day's issue, Tor | know
far more about newspaper editing han farm
ing. am not altogether "a non-proiessiona
| person." and that | am not ian asa, prove
to you by not coming 10 your sanctum with ;
six-shoofer, as in the old days. for calling ms
IAN ass" But l have farmed some, and
! profitably. Southern soil can be farmeC
proitably by anybody that will take hal
! the trouble-I had nearly said onefouih the
trouble-that the Northern farmer takes
and the fact that our Southern farmer DOM
take that trouble gals me into disgust. 1t
"riles' my very soul to hear you
FLATrERING AND PETTISG THEM
! necessarily; making them to sympathise with
! themselves and their hard lot-"hsttered 10
| to tears" like the pious old monk ia Keats
| Ere of ST. Agae0, in thinking OF the
DAYS that are No more. You, the Courier
Journal, and a few other newspapers, utterly
spoil the Southern farmer, and while have
not the cheek to dictate the management OF
paper" As you say | would, have the
rigat to protest against your perniclOus
course. You hold very important position;
nay, you occupy an exalted position-the
very highest in the land. Newspapers make
and uumake presidents. Thousands read
and accept your perhaps carelessly written
opinions every day. ! ask you then whether
it ia not your duty to tell these people-our
people-your people-my people, that they
are lot of foois-downright fools, to be 80
confoundediv poor ct this date-twenty years
alter the war. Are they not poor? God
knows they are. And whose fault is il?
Their own, their own, their own.
THEY APE lazy
They are poor managers. They are fools
Or do they love to be poor? Do they prefer
poverty? l know they do not. They are
eternally bewailing their lot, and you chime
10 with them, like a father to his children,
and say: 'Therei therel there! DON'T cry!
You are princes, and il Is hard, | know.
Times will be better some day. How absurd!
How wondrously absurdm Why don't you-
or rather wouidr't it be better for you to say:
"Let US have no more oil this nonsense. Shut
up aud go to work. You have two seasons
TO the North's one. You have oceans of
Iaud-one-third OF it is not cultivated. You
have The cheapest labor in the Uuited States,
and lots OF il. II you can't raise enough TO
eat YOU ought o starve, and il you will in
sist upon raising too much cotton TO get a
good price for it You deserve to be poor"
That's what l beg leave to suggest as the
basis of your editorials. II you don't do it,
you are not serving Inc country IaltnIuIiy, but
you are working it positive injury. l say it
with all due respect. A four years loss OF
crops during the war ran cotton up 60 a
dollar pound Five hundred dollars a
halei Th,ak-=Ut =fs.=sW oulda,t four half
crops run it up TO fifty cents? We'll, it-iust
would. l don't think anything about it.
Two hundred and fifty dollars bale for
cotton! Think Of the iubilant planter with,
say
ONE BALE, WORTH $3.50!
and clear profit OF 500 against him, with
FIVE bales at 500, and not single red cent
profit. Admit that the latter has a profit of
IS. The former has forty times the profit,
on one fifth of the labor. An idle dream,
you say. Very well. Say four half crops
would put cotton up to fifteen cents? There
is profit OF $50 bale on half the number
# bales now raised at no profit. The mer
chants, and the brokers, ami the cotton fac
tors might not ike the scheme. They profit
very largely by the number of bales, and l
know almost invariably argue for increased
But 70 the mischief with them ali
its the planters l speak for. The fools OF the
who pay enormous prices for corn
and bacon, and simply outrageous interest,
that they may engage in the pGstime-for pas
time it IL, with no money IN it-of raising
cotton, that rules them with an iron hand,
breaks them all, and keeps them broke, that
he may sit upon his throne. Why don't you
pound something into their heads? Teach
them how TO manage. NEW CONFEDERATE.