The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1886-03-11
FARMERS TO TIE FRONT.
Call For an Agricultural Convention Mt
Columbia,

Columbia.
To the Farmers of South Carolina Sew
enty six per cent. of our States popula'
tiou are actively engaged in agricultural
pursuits AT least one half of the re.
mainder are directly dependent upon the
farmers for The meals of a livelihood.
We may justly claim, then, that we
constitute the State, yet we do not govern
it, nor are the laws administered in our
interests, and few are passed for our
benefit.
We pay taxes and vote and there is no
further use for us. These taxes do not
grow any less, while our ability 10 pay
them grows smaller year by year, and
nothing worth naming has been done to
foster and encourage that interest which
feeds and sustains all others. The ne
groes used to be the "mudsills" of our
economic fabric but thousands of white
men n-land owning fariners-6nd them.
selves slowly but surely sinking beneath
the waves to be added to the foundation
upon which few men and corporations
are erecting their fortunes. Impending
bankruptcy stares thousands in the face,
while other thousands are overseeing
their own plantations for their victuals
and clothes.
An insane system of farming largely
prevails aud our lands are growing
poorer year by year. Large areas of
South Carolina are being made a desert
to feed negroes, while the land owners,
giving no thought to the future of them.
selves and children, stand idly by, or
assist and direct this skimming of a State,
which, by reason of soil; climate and
geographical position, might be made a
veritable Garden of Eden. The negroes
will ego West" when the bones are
picked. What will we do? We are
farming towards despair" in thus con.
tinuing to impoverish our lands by igno-
rant culture, but nothing is done by our
Legislature, or its creatures, to stop it,
or to try to teach the people better and
wiser system. Forty thousand dollars
are spent annually in the State, three
fourths of it paid by farmers, to educate
men for other professions and pursuits;
the farmers get nothing, and are left to
grope their way towards the grave in
ignorance and its consequent poverty.
Even the pittapce donated 10 educate
farmers by the United States Govern
ment is taken from us and appropriated
to sustain the institution at which our
future masters are being trained. How
thankful we should be to the good Lord
for such generosity and wisdom among
our statesmen, so-called!
Again, we pay s25,OOO annually by
specific tax, which comes out of the
farmer alone, to sustain department of
agriculture. A good slice of this is
spent to collect the phosphate royalty,
which goes to support the State Govern
ment, and the restis frittered and wasted,
SO far as we can see, the only benefit
received by the farmers being partial
protection against fraudulent fertilizers.
a majority of the board of agriculture
are not engaged in farming. Who won
ders, then, that SO little has been done by
it to benefit our farming interests?
Four bad crops out of FIVE and the
consequent poverty of the farmers cry
aloud for economy and reduction of taxes.
But this cry, which came from every
County, was ignored by the last Legisla.
ture, which also persistently refused TO
obey plain mandate Of the Constitution
to provide for reapporionment Of
representatives by holding census. 1t
is small wonder, then, that nothing was
done to protect farmers against robbery
by dishonest fertilizer manufacturers.
The Legislature which recently ad-
journed, though not corrupt, has been
very negligent of the public welfare.
The thoughtful and intelligent farmers
of the State cannot afford TO elect anoth.
er such body of lawmakers and Consti.
tuition breakers. Nor can they afford to
allow the agricultural interests Of the
State to be subordinated to everything
else, and 30 effort made to foster and
protect them. Other States with less
expenditure than we are making, are
doing ten times as much to encourage
and assist those engaged in farming.
But the money spent is not entrusted 10
politicians or to those elected by politi.
clans. The farmers manage and control
it themselves.
Believing, therefore, that the crisis de-
mands prompt and united action on the
part of the true and loyal farmers of the
State, and that convention of such can
only rebound to the benefit of .agricul-
ture and consequently Of every other
interest aud calling, we call such con-
vention to meet in the city of Columbia,
Thursday, the 29th of next April, to take
into consideration the question touched
upon in this address, together with such
other matters as they may deem of i'm.
portance to the political, social, educa-
tional or industrial interests of the far
mers and of the State.
Each County agricultural society is re-
qaested to send FIVE delegates.
Each local or township agricultural
club is requested to send one delegate.
The farmers of each County are re-
quested to send FIVE delegates over and
above those from organized societies, and
to effect this it is suggested that those in
sympathy with the movement call mass
meeting or County convention of farmers
in their respective Counties to appoint
said delegates.
IF the wisest and best of our farmers
%hn. o,,anhla u.a fool ond hol;ayo thera