The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1883-05-31
ARP'S REFLECTIONS.
HE Philosophy Turns into the Tarin
Channel.


| it's tricky horse or mule that bucks his
rider or gun that kicks backwards.
What we all want to do, you know, is to
get into Office and run the government.
and capture the treasury, and grow fat
on the spoils, and incidentally save the
nation. We Democrats want revenue,
and we want protection, and if anybody
knows which is the best way to secure
these great blessings Why Of con se I'm
for that way, but I'm getting powerful
dubus about The horse. The tariff has
always been an unpopular thing with
the people-sorter like death aud taxes
everybody tries TO postpone the one and
dodge the other The very name of il
sounds like an oppression while free
trade carries with it an idea of liberty
and equal rights to all. History says
tha, long time ago a barbarian, whose
name was Tariiia, came over from Africa
and settled on the bluff by the straits OF
Gibraltar, and he made every boat tha,
passed pay toll on everything it carried,
and he and his clan got rich off of these
spuis, and alter awhile these tolls were
called the tariff. and all such exactIons
from the trading people have had that
name TO this day and it is locked upon
all civilized governments have 4 tariff
Tor revenue, and our people have lived
under this sort of machinery for over Il
hundred years aud reckon we can con
tinuc to live under it, What Pm dubus
about is the proprcty of our Southern
people raising much OF rumpus against
a little protection just at this particular
time. We are trying to encourage man.
ufactures and manufacturers need pro.
lection, and they can't live without it.
Foreigners can deliver pig iron in our
ports At seven dollars Il ton and we can't
make it at home for less than twelve
dollars. 1t is all stuff about our iron
men at Birmingham making it mt nine
dollars. They never have done it and
they never will while they pay fair, liv.
ing wages to the workmen. But sun
pose that Birmingham can make it at
that, no other place can, and we mus,
take the average. Georgia and Alabama
and Tennessee have got millions invested
In that business, and we don't want to
cripple our own people. If they are
making too much and are getting bloated,
let us take off a little protection-but do
1t by degrees-Fegulate 'em like we reg
uiate the railroads, but don't cripple 'em
tor there are thousands ofpoor families
dependent upon these iron works.
Farming. don't pay poor farmer on
poor land, and farming wants protection
more than anything, but don't sec how
1t is to get it, and because it don't nay
any better, our poor people have to work
In this iron business. don't believe
the average farmer gets more than fifty
cents day for his labor. There are
thousands of them who don't get the
half of it. l heard a Talladega man
say the other day that farm labor was
the poorest paid labor in north Alabama
and would not average more than thirty
cents to the hand. He didn't mean
hirellngs, but meant the farmer who
worked for himself on his own land or
on rented land. The papers make much
ado over MF. FurmaH's success, and d
few Others, and over truck farming, and
peach growing, which j. all very well
and very encouraging, m.l hopeful, but
the average farmer has no such advan.
tages. Joe Brown pays his niggers q
dollar a day to dig ore in his mines
Railroads pay about the same, car build
ers and foundrys pay it. but the farmer
can't do it. He can't pay more than the
half OF 1t and come out even and he
wouldent get any hands at all if the
darkies dident have families and wanted
!" work where their children could help
'em. Farming is slow way TO make
money, but then there is a law of com.
pensation about everything in this life,
and farming has it's blessings that other
pursuits do not have. The farmer be.
longs to nobody. He is the freest man
upon earth and the most independent.
He has more latitude and longitude.
He has house. in the country with
plenty Of pure siT and good water. Ii
he makes but little in the field, he has
no occasion to spend but little. He can
raise his own hogs, and sheep, and cattle
and chickens. His wood cost nothing
and the luxury of Dig back logs and
blazing fires in open fire places all winter
long, is something that city people long
for, but cannot afford. Ny own farm
cost me seven thousand dollars. have
120 acres of open land in good condition,
and it yields me on an average about
five dollars All acre over NIL expenses.
Say nine per cent. upon the investment.
Well, that is mighty little, considering
my own labor and supervision. I've
seen the time when made five times as
much without any capital except my
head. But then we have to keep pair
of horses to ride around and they have
TO be fed from the farm.
There are little leaks all round, but
still we are happier on the farm than
we were in the town and feel more Sc
cure from the ills of life. We fear no
pestilence or disease, no burglars or
ihioves. We lock no doors, and Mrs.
Arp has quit looking under the bed for
a man. love to hear the churn dashes
splashing in the butter milk. / love to
hear the roosters crow and the peacock
hoiler, and see the martins sailing round
the martin goards. I love to hear a
nabor stop and chat about the growing
crops. love to take the children with
me to the water mill and fish below the
dam amid the roar of falling waters, OF
paddle around the pond in an old ieaky
bateau. love to wander through the
woods and glades and wear old clothes
that can't get no older or dirtier and get
caught in q shower of rain IL want 10.
Old man Horace remarked about two
thousand years ago that the town was
the best place for rich man to live in,
and the country was the best place for q
poor man to die in, and inasmuch as
riches we're uncertain and death was
sure, 1t becomes prudent man to move
to the country as soon as he can get
there. Farmers have their ups aud
downs of course, but they don't collapse
and bnrst up like tradesmen. They
don't go down under panic. Ten years
ago nearly all the iron men broke or
suspended, and they are on the lookout
now for another squall, and don't want
the squall to come from anything our
al l.