The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1886-03-24
d few are passed for our bene-

NlDCS we Cdme 1uIO tJONS: tO'o
Eve Governors have held Office, three
Of whom, Hampton, Hagooa and Jeter
We're planters or farmers; Governor
Simpson was lawyer and land own
er, and possibly farmed some; Gov
ernor Thompson was selected by the
farmers themselves, at least we must
suppose so, in preference to General
Bratton, Simon pure farmer There
are now four State officers, Lipscomb,
Richardson, Stoney and Manlgault,
who are landowners and farmers. So
much for State officers. Scores OF
county officers are farmers also.
The House of Representatives, hav-
inc about seventy-six farmers against
thirty lawyers, (who have the misfor-
tune Of being accused of every species
of tr;ckery, &c, by our political econ
onlists,) and very nearly a two-tblrds
majority of the whole body, they sure
ly ought, in all reason, to be some
thing of power in Legislature. Do
seventy-six farmers in every one hun
dred voters just sit still and have no
voice in such matter? I have never
witnessed such a case, and am sure
such thing would be impossible IN
any community. We are bound to
admit then that the farmers them
selves selected and electad these men
who have been very indiscriminately
charged with stmisrule,'' robbery"
and corruption" their assailants,
however, taking good care to Ignore
special charges against single indi-
vidual.
In the second paragraph of this
acalp it is said thousands are over
seeing their opn plantations for their
victuals and clothes" AS am no gen
ius, I would ike q little light on this,
to me rather enign1atical sentence:
Does it mean that these thousands"
have been so incompetent, idle or i'm
provident that they failed and other
thousands have rented their places,
and feed and clothe them, like prodi-
gal sons, to do for others what they
were incapable OF doing for them
selves? Or does it mean that they
have sold what ,cas theirs, and are now
simply working for other thousands.
who, we must suppose, for want OF
proper laws, SC, must inevitably soi-
low the same downward course? But
how did they get the money to buy
the land?
The third paragraph commences
very candidly, if not very fatteringly,
by asserting that "an ansane system Of
farming largely prevails, and our lands
are growing poorer year BY year, x
while the landowners, giving no
thought to themselves and children,
stand idly by, or assist and direct this
skinning of a State x which
might be made a veritable garden of
Eden" Continuing, it says: "But
nothing is done by our Legislature or
its creaitues G. to stop it, or to try to
teach the people a better and wiser
system" Would these gentlemen, if
elected to the Legislature, take any
steps to stop the hotel-keepers and
storekeepers from supplying them
gratis with anything they called for ?
They might call them ssinsane," but
thew would not consider them keepers
of an asylum, nor would they COZ
their creatures" be loath to profit by
other peoples folly. "Forty thousand
dollars are spent annually in the State,
three-fourths OF it paid by farmers, to
educate men for professions and other
pursuits; the. farmers gel nothing, and
are left to grope their way in igno-
rance and poverty" Even the pit
tance donated to educate farmers by
the United States government is TAX
en- from US and is appropriated to
sustain the institution where our fu-
ture masters are being trained" Is
the statement true?
Now, these are some rather start
ling statements, and if true, certainly
a remedy should be applied at once
both for the admitted insanity" and
the misapplication ofthe funds. So far
as the ':insane system" goes, this is
said to be free country and every
man can do as be likes with his own.
You may put lunatic in an asylum
but you can't warrant cure, neither
can any legislation cure a vicious or
insane system, OF more correctly, the
want of any system, of farming. 1t
is charged that the farmers pay $50,
900 annually for college, &C., and that
'they getnothing" Is this a mere fight
of rhetoric, or is it intended as state
ment of facts capable of proof? VIII
these farmers, or the composers of the
'call," be kind enough to tell their
fcllow-farmers if there is, or ever has
been, any discrimination practiced
against the sous of the farmers when
entering the College or Citadel? Do
not they stand on the same plane as
the sons of other citizens who are to
become 'our future masters Don't
the farmers in every county in the