The clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1883-1888, 1885-12-02
FoH THR CLARIosl
State-Craft-Lien Law.

Are we Improving OF lOSlOg ground
in Mississippi; growing richer or poorer
developing our resources or wreckinp
our patrir1ony; beqneathing better OF
wore heritage TO our childrenr' yery
abruptly, very poiutediy, asked one OF
our most earnest, most thoughtful. most
nublic-spirited men, of the writer few
5avs ago. II. continued be, "haye
been trying to find a satisfactory answer
"a the problem. IL perplexes me- Like
the brave, thoughtful man he is, he has
dashed directly 'in medids res" and
0rapoled the question at the citadel. To
6nd the answer we must traverse the
whole field. 1t matters rot at which
end we begin, upper or lower. Down
grade is the easiest travelling; suppose
we begin at the upper end. We have
our superb system Of railroads; multi
plied millions of untaxed, extra State
capital, doing all our public carving
for US, and making our corn cribs and
smoke houses more convenient. We
have our Oxford, educating at State
EXPENSE, the Young men who are rich
enough TO furnish IS fer board, etc to
every 81 of tuition, in sufficient number
for the learned professions, and poll
ticians. We have our A & NJ. College
with its 400 students learning scientific
farming, TO profit other States. We
have our beau ideal Industrial College.
and scores of chartered colleges
for the CHER education of both sexes
without regard to race or color; pro
yided always, they are rich enough to
nav. the $5 to ST. We have eur hun
drrds of chartered towns and cities with
their heavy, solid corner stores, and
portrolios plethoric with deeds of trust
We have orr Mississippi, Natchez, ETC.,
cotton mills. We have few foundrie.
or blacksmith-shops, on grand scale
We have scores of patronage pap Judge
and Chancellors, and commissioners, and
surgeons, and public officers-with
salaries ranging all the way from 50, 500
TO $4,000 We have our Exposition
room by the 1000 feet; our excursions
our pageauts, our prize-driIls, our con
gratulatory eplstles, our laudatorN
addresses, our oppositionless Democracy
etc, etc. "Prima facie" we are certainly
on a Grand Boom" a boom worthy the
genius of Louis XV's Calonne, or, per
chance, Foulon, or Lomenie.
But Mississippi has her millions of
acres of farm lands; of forest land; of
grazing land. Strictly she is an Agricui
itsraL State-the richest in possibilities
upon which God has ever let the beautiful
sunlight fall. Its rich aluviums are equal
to the worlds demand for cotton, while
enough of its rich prairie, beautiful
wales and loamy hills, would be left t.
grow bread and meat to feed the laborer,
that made the cotton, without seriousl,
encrosching on her pineries and hel
mechanical hard woods, such as oak,
hickory, beech, magnolia, red gum. etc.,
themselves a limitiess source of wealth
and happiness All this with bright
clear, beautiful, laughing watercourses,
concealing beneath their playful currents
enough of force to turn the spindles and
lathes of the universe. Not a nickle'.
worth of mining possibilities save little
jug-ciay and two (2) sickly coal beds. So
emphatically is her tax supply draw
from her soil, that il her every factor,
was dynamited, her every railroad
d rallied, her every mine blown out, hel
Boards of Supervisors would scarcel,
have mill to aud per $1,000 to max,
good the hiatus left by their oi'literation
In word we are an Agricultural State
The fat of our Maker made us such and
none but "A mad man would essay tn,
refutation, or perversion of the fiat
Thus we have the crowning anamoly o
the I95h century. Mississippi, a strictl,
agricultural State on II grand boom" anc
her landlords, her farmers, her farm labor
e1s growing POORER EVERY DAY. Argu
ments and reasons" says "CopiahP ]
Observed data, history, results, ''frmf
TRUrH, is "a dogmatic to-day as it WA
when "Nicodemus came to Jesus BY
night"
The opening question becomes prob
lematic on one hypothesis, to-wit: Tha
oligarchical interests are the desiderat,
in com radistinction TO popular interests
If our government is for the people, i
the units" as Carlisle expresses it, tina
taken separately make up the aggregate
are Co be considered in connection wit
results, then the question answers
itself: We are a failure. Per contra
if oligarchical interests are the object
sought. If our government is for tn
few; if the consolidation of wealth AM
power is the end considered, the objec
sOught-in that event, the problem !
rs TO whether the prosperity of the teV
is real or only seeming; if they are no
sowing the wind to reap the storm; !
the very methods by which they ar
wrestling the homesteads from tn
struggling masses, are not so demorall7
ing the productive forces as to max
their huge landed estates elements
weakness, rather than of strength
"Land broke" was the answer wei
informed gentleman gave me last sum
mer, when | expressed surprise at tn
Simultaneous suspension of two yer
strong houses. at takes Ned Richard
son to tote the amount of land that the
have gobbIed up" And we'll may
when "Copiah," and 'Ex Reb, an
poor old "Const rvative," grandmother
aud grandfathers of the wondrou
Lien LAW" tell US that under II
fostering care labor has SO deprecated
that upon its repeal good hands wi
have to hire at 'S5 to So per month"
tits said that "the way of the transgre
sor is hard" Equally hard is it for tn
advocates of a bad cause to keep frol
stultifying themselves. Yes, it is fr'
that this share system of labor, and 4
posthumous the Lien Law
have SO completely demorallzed iaoo
and farming, that hands who readll
hired at SIG per month, to work II
same soil, and made cotton profitable
cents, are now to hire at so. IL
system was adopted twenty years ago
the Yankees for cemoralization's sax
1t wrecked the men who bit at 1t;
completely disheartened farmers
energy that this spawn of "ring streak'
Radicalism." was called in to suppo
and strengthen the system. Is 1t q wo
der that we'll informed writer OF Nor
Mississippi has said that this law cos
Mississippi more than the freedom
its slaves. Figures: On well regulate
intelIigently directed, self-sustaini'
farm, IL months in the year. six days
the week, SIS l2mo.-$lSO; less "a
l2mo-S60 (Copiah, etc, present vaiuati
of wages) -k120; now multiply THIS
the number of laborers, and the amou
by Is years and we approximate the co
Remember that this am cunt represei
a ,ceH grounded possibility, sacrlhced
a sickly sentiment. Who will rise
and saw that the estimate is unreasonal
in the face of early history, M
especially that the laborers into VIII
hands this profit might have co
would pot have been the chief pronte
or that backed by such condition
reality Of the "boom" would be pr
lematic. hate to be SO long, put tn
is so much to say. FLOW HANDLES
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