Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1886-08-03
PLANTERS UNION.
The Only Hope for Their Release
from the Thraldom that is Sap
ping Their Energies.
They must Unite Like the merchnns II
They wOuid Free themselves from
Their Present Position.
Momphls Appeal.


decline. The whole country is in q
financial strait; but It is only tempo
rary; or, rather, the cobntry Is only
going through the ten years periodic
hard times, due TO causes entirely differ
emit from those producing the steady de-
cline Of the South. Everywhere, tray
eler going North can TIL from car
window when he crosses the cotton liae.
The old red gully, the brisr feld, the
sorry fence and squalid cabin immedi-
ately change TO blue grass, good build
ings and fences, good stock and every
evidence Of comfort. And the better
living and the absence Of the mortgage
equally attest the greater financial pros
perity. Nor is II caused by want Of
labor in the South More, far
more, work is done by both males
and females in the cotton district than
north of It, Once, this was not the
case. Once, the most wealthy country
mansions and the most wealthy farming
class in the world were found IN the cot
ton South. Now, the poorest, most in-
debted farmers are there, and that, too,
exclusive Of the negroes, who are not
considered in this statement. What dire
full influence has wrought this appalling
change? The first thought is that 1t is
the war, which has destroyed so many
millions of slave property. But that has
been long past; and besides, the wealth
producing quality Of the slaves, which
consisted in their laboripg capacity, still
remain. IL that alone had caused the de-
preston, IL would have appeared more
wildly Immediately after the war, and
would nave faded as time elapsed. The
opposite appears. And, too, Missouri,
Kentucky and Virginia, which lost their
slaves, would, In like manner, have
been declining But they are not. Was
IL the ravages of peace, In the form of re-
Cancellation, that did IL? II so, the
border states would show the same de-
cline. But they do not. Can 1t be tnat
that great crop which clothes the world
and enters the home OF every civilized
man; that crop which once constituted
the bulk Of our exports, and always
was, and now Is, the great money
crop Of the country, is inherently
destructive2 Certainly not; although in
every part of the South where that is
the almost exclusive crop prostration, TO
utter Gbasement, has spread all around.
A curious spectacle is seen all over the
cotton South. The finest and richest
lands have fallen the most, are covered
the deepest in mortgages, and in such
portions the decline Is greatest. In the
poorer parts prosperity has lessideparted,
as will appear by q comparison of the
rocky hills of East Tennessee with the
level lands Of West Tennessee; the rocky
hills OF Northwestern Arkansas with the
absolutely ineXhaustible lands of Eastern
Arkansas and Western Mississippi. North
Georgia Is more prosperous than South
ern Georgia and South Carolina. The
Incompatible counties at the mouth of
bhe BTaZos, Texas, are far behind the less
favored portions In the same state. Won
derful IL is that in the same government,
among the same people, the greatest gifts
OF God TO mana rich soil, Il genial eli
mate, an abundant rainfall and abound
ing fertility always In the South
be found in sections.
WHERE sQUALLoR AND ADVERSELY
ABOUND,
and that, too, whilst such soil pro-
duces lavishly all the great products OF
the temperate zone, and TO absolute per-
lection that great staple by which the
world is clad and which was once crowned
absolute king. Has some Attila, who
boosted that no grass ever would grow
where his horse trod, tramped out our
life2 our conquerers lsng since ceased
10 tramp out our grass. The people have
had for years complete control Of their
state governments, aud still the decline
goes steadily one. Is 1t federal taxation
that prOstrates our industries? Doubt
less q war tariff does bear heavily on
purely agricultural people. But it bears
equally heavy on the Northwest and in
spite of that they grow In wealth and
greatness. IL cannot be internal taxes,
for we pay none, whilst our border SIS
ters pay enormously on their tobacco and
whisky and still prosper, Our staple
pays no Internal tax nor export duty nor Is
1t taxed abrosd, but is highly priced every
where In the commercial world whilst
other farm products, such as tobacco, are
taxed enormously in most foreign coun.
tries, and in some pork is prohibited, and
beef Is retarded and delayed IN others
But cotton has nowhere any uniriendly
legislation. Then 1t is not laws, at home
or abroad, that crush our product.
The credit system has done much, very
much, to produce the present difficulties.
But IL prevailed (without the mortgages)
before the war, and TO q great extent,
prevails In other sections now without
producing such calsnlties as now afiilct
us. General renting, instead Of cultiva-
ton by the owners, Is damaging. But
that prevails all over Europe, and has
been universal there for centuries. We
have seen tina. none OF these is sufficient
so cause the decline In the cotton states.
Nor are all Of them combined sufficient
to cause IL, The prime oVershadowing
csuse Is the great production
EXCESSIVE PLANTING
has carried our staple so low that II can
not be probably raised even in the rich
Mississippi lands or the black lands Of
Texas, where fertilizers will not be
f.t In hp
poorer lands needing fertilizers. Cotton,
from excess alone, has gone below the
the bottom, and carried with IL wool and
other cloth-making fiber. Whilst they
are clamoring for Increase OF tariff We
have the means OF protection In our own
hands, and none but ourselves to blame
II we fail, az we have seen that no where
is our cotton depressed by legislationi
nor Is Its use declining. Now such crops
gre consumed annually as would dwarf
into llttleness those produced by our an