The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1886-03-31

that when lien is given the person must
trade alone with the merchant to whom the lien
is given and the result have already
shown.
One of the objections to this law is that to
a great extent it renders the labor OF the
country independent of the land owners, and
is the main prop to the tenantry system,
which is fast running our country. There
could be no objection to this system, II we
had good white men to rent our land to, but
as tenant, all must admit that the negro is
failure, and it is to him that our lands are
rented, and right here the lien law IS dong
most mischief.
To be made valuable the negro must be
brought Immediately under the eye and con.
troll of the owner Of the soil and this will
be hard to do, until we repeal the lien law.
AMULE AND AN OK THE BASIS OF CREDIT.
AS long as the negro can keep mule or
OK he can get credit and find some person To
rent him land, and not looking to the owners
of the soil for his subsistence he cannot be
controlled by them. Since there is no truer
maxim than that power over mans suosls-
tence is power over his will.
The principal objections to the negro, as
tenant, is his natural laziness, want OF ambl-
tion and carelesspess in cultivating the
soil.
WORN OUT LASDs-wAsTED FORESTS.
We have but to look around US and see how
much land has been worn out and how much
of our fine forests have been cleared, to at
once condemn him as tenant. Under this
system, our lands are planted year after wear
in cotton, which, added to bad cultivation,
soon renders them too poor to sprout peas,
r L - t1n n,nI q ~ n n
down of our forests is serious matter. AL
ready there is scarcity of timber and in some
places, fire wood. And besides this, we are
told that to clear the forest causes droughts,
tornadoes and sickness. The best remedy
for these evils would be to repeal the lien law.
The negro, no longer able to obtain credit
from the merchants, must look to the land
owners for his subsistence and the land
owners, no longer able to rent their lands,
must hire him and feeling natural interest
in what belong to them and being able to
less mode of cultivation and our land will be
improved and brought up to high state OF
cultivation and instead of clearing up our
forests much of our lands will be allowed to
grow up. The negro no longer left to his own
lnclinations, under the eye and control OF
the white man, will be vastly improved as a
laborer, and the result of all this can be east
ly seen. Under the tenantry SYSTEM, 1t is
easy to see that the labor of the country is
growing more ard more inefficient year by
wear. The time, that should begiven to their
crops, is occupied gadding over the country,
the women with their knitting, the men with
gun and dog, and the children playing or act
ing the farce of going to school. All sub
timely Indifferent to consequences.
We hear on all sides that the country will
never prosper until we raise our own supplies;
but it is utterly useless to talk of raising
supplies until the lien law is repealed and
the tenantry system abolished. The negro
tenant being without ambition to accumu-
late property, only cares to make enough to
pay his lien and to do so, planted nearly his
whole crop in cotton.
But let this system be broken up and the
negro be brought under the control of the
land owners and you will see change.
Standing between the negro and the merchant,
the landowners feeling the additional res
possibility, will be urged to renewed energy
and the negro stimulated by the presence OF
the white man, our fields would blossom as a
garden, and you would no. longer see the
streets of our towns filled with wagons haul
ing to our farms supplies raised in coun-
try where no negro tenantry exists.
To prove this fact it is only necessary to
notice those farms worked BY the owner, and
compare :hem to those rented to negroes.
CREDIT TOO EAsY-K1LLs HONOR AND PRIDE.
Another great objection to- the lien law is,
that under it, credit is too easily obtained aud
too little attention paid to the personal char
acter of those demanding it. In other words,
lder the lien law, credit is extended more
under the authority given bys the law, then
the good character Of the persons asking it.
And the effect of this is bad. 1t kills out
the honor and pride of the citizen. A negro,
who is known to have no honor, rs given cred
it under lien and a man who has always
borne good name and paid his debts, goes to
the same merchant for credit and he must
give lien, and the good man finding himself in
the same boat with the dishonest negro must
lose his pride and, as his good character does
not give him some advantage over his less
honorable fellowmen, he will in the end have
less regard for character. This very want of
homo. growing out Of the lien law, is one ofthe
principal reasons so many of our merchants
break. Under it they extend ere dit to those
without honor, and these men having no
character to lose, or property to be sold, make
it their object to buy all they can and pay as
little as possible. Many only rent farms
as a basis of credit and spend most of their
| time Oafng about and using all of their tai
ents in raising supplies for the merchants.
And vet our merchants have gone blindly on,
wear by year, worrying themselves about the
repeal of this law and looking no further than
the fact that it gave them security, and
stiles competition. am glad to see, how
ever that the eyes of manv have been opened
and the only thing that stands in the way OF
gaining the consent of all to it's repeal, is the
homestead law.