Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1886-07-28

Greek and Latin chairs, and an agricultural col
lege only in name. ! do not decry our college.
I am proud that we have one, but it does not
come up to the old days of DR.. ThOrnwell, even
as a literary college, and I tell you in all candor
you cannot educate a boy there to agriculture.
The inducements to work are not offered, nor are
the facilities there. At the last examination 1t
was developed that only two students took ag-
ricultural chemistry in theirs, while all the rest
devoted their time to other studies.
Has the study of Latin and Greek made any of
you better farmers? 1 was not benefited as a
farmer by the study Of Latin and Greek, though
/ devoted three years to these studies. What |
advocate is, give a boy a practical education.
Literary institutions will not afford the relief de-
manded. There is a dread in the minds of some
farmers that an agricultural college will increase
taxation, but if you will send the right kind of
men to the Legislature we can have such a col
lege and yet reduce taxation.
The Department Of Agriculture has been in
existence six years, and how is it sustained?
Who pays the expenses of it? To raise money
for this purpose the Legislature levies a tax of
twenty-five cents on each ton of guano mined
in the State; but who pays this tax? 1t comes
out of the pockets of the farmers of the State
and yet no farmers were elected by the Legisla-
ture to manage this und-the board consisting
Of two political farmers and one a betwixt-and-
between farmer, who is really the best one Of the
three.
Men of this class have governed the State and
will continue to govern it unless the farmers Or
ganiZe and pull together. TO effect this let each
COUNT organize an agricultural society, hold
agricultural fairs, at stated meetings read essays
on subjects calculated to improve the minds OF
the farmers and above all, take the State Fair
out of the hands of the politicians and lawyers.
This may be called class legislation, but it is not,
nor do advocate any such doctrine. 1t is to the
interest of the lawyers and the merchants to see
the farmers prosper. A lawyer knows he cam
not obtain q big fee from a farmer on his way
to the poor house, and the merchant will not
! give credit to a farmer who has no means OF
paying his contracts.
How it is in York county l have no means of
knowing, but in the State at large it is estimated
that one-tifth of the agricultural land is tied up
in mortgages. Merchants, bankers, and foreign
capitalists have mortgages on this property,
and those making the debt will be serfs when
they ought to be lords. Blu if the lawyers Join
the farmers, where is the ostracism ? The doc
tors are with us, as they always have been, and
if all professional classes join us, where is the
ostracism? But we don't want them to get on
with us through the Legislature.
Looking at the faces of those before me, l see
intelligent men and beautiful women, but fear
as farmers you are not progressive. You do not
use YOUR heads. Organize an agricultural society
in York and come to Columbia next November
and discuss questions affecting your interests
and present your claims to the Legislature, and
put backbone in your representatives. Inc
members of the Legislature do not include the
brains of the State. If you will organize you
can control, but without organization you are a
mere mob without power or influence.
He next discussed at length the subject OF farm
ers' institutes, and read from published reports
the plan adopted in the conduct of these colleges
by Ohio and other States. After showing the IN
terest taken in the work by the superintendent
of the Ohio institute, he asked if there is any Oh
fetal in South Carolina taking similar interest
in the agricultural department of her college.
He then spokeo of having cited, in a conversation
recently with a gentleman ofthis State, the Mich
igan Agricultural College, by which the Missis-
sippi College is modelled, as a fine institution,
,,In, tLo Do~tla,,o, rarliol kkVaS hnt State
pride forbids our copying from a northern State.
South Carolina don't follow; we lead" Then,
continued Capt. Tillman, in the name of God 4!
what do we lead South Carolina did lead to
Secession, but in point of fact, as a progressive
State, we are at the rear end Of the column. One
Southern State-Mississippi-is copying from
Michigan, and such an institution in our State
as the Mississippi Agricultural College, would be
gilmore benefit to the State than in any other way
the money could be invested.
He then read extracts from reports showing
the manner of conducting the Mississippi Col
lege and the beneficial results of the institution.
He also claimed that forty-six agricultural in
stitutes in Ohio, conducted with a view of i'm
parting agricultural knowledge to the Students,
cost less money than the South Carolina College.
AS as an item of the thoughtless extravaganza
Of our Legislature, he mentioned the fact that at
the last session the sum of $500 was appropri-
ated for the purpose Of experimenting with to-
bacco, when every child in the State knows
from tradition that it has been successfully rals-
ed in every county except the coast counties,
and was once a staple crop. The scheme is an
other blood-letter, just as cotton now is, and
while we can raise tobacco, yet, if it too is to be
a staple crop, it will open another vein to bleed
our State. But why spend money to teach
us what we all know, and not spend any to teach
us something that we do not know?
In Mississippi they do not teach farming in
the house, but in the field, where practical les
sons can be given, and where the boys are
taught that it is not a disgrace to work at manu-
al labor Tho St11pnt 10 raunlrad TO work IN
the field three hours each day; for which he IS
paid eight cents per hour, and on Saturdays he
may work all day at the same rate. BY this
means some of them pay their way through the
college at a cost of not more than 800 over their
earnings, while in Columbia it costs a student
Sl75.
Farmers are all poor. 1t is estimate that not
more than five per cent. ofthe graduates OF liter
ary colleges turn their attention to farming. In
the literary colleges they get a distaste for work
and return home lazy drones. How many grad
yates before the war are to-day in York county
too lazy to work and expect to be kept up by
their relatives?
Nv Democracy needs no further endorsement
than l have given, but being Il Democrat, my
mouth is not barred against abuses in the party.
There is no danger of the Democratic party OF
South Carolina Remembering. There IS an
earthquake beneath our feet in the shape of l0O,-
600 negro voters that must keep us together.
But we must have wise laws. We need a new
Constitution. How did we obtain our present
Constitution In 1876 we went into the State
government at the window, but going that way
we got there all the same, and took the Radical
legislation and Radical rascality as we found
them. Did we have a house-cleanlng Inc Ola
cumbersome Constitution has been permitted to
stand, and bond-holders are afraid to speak OF
having it changed for fear Of opening the debt
question. But it needs amending in many par
ticularS nevertheless.
Where do your salaries go? 1t requires one
million to run the State government. Salaries
are too high. But when you talk about reducing
salaries what a howl is raised! 4 clerk for
two hours service per day gets Sl,ooo, while ms
big boss, for doing nothing except to sign his
name occasionally to papers,, gets 5000 per
year. Would not competent farmers DO this
same work for less pay?
There are several useless offices that ought to
be abolished-the County Commissioners, the
County Auditor, the County School Commits
sioner and the superintendent Of Registration.
AS to the poor County Commissioners they DO
get but little pay, but it is no less true that they
do but little work. This office in Edgefield has
paralyzed public spirit. Our County Commits
depends upon them to look after everything
because they are paid for doing it; nothing is
done, and the consequence is we travel III gull
lies instead of roads from one side OF the county
to the other. We go down a long stretch of nh
in a gully, cross the creek and go up another bill
in 4 gully. The pay of a County Commissioners
is so small that no body even wants the office.
Let us abolish the County Commissioners and go
to the old plan. We have no use Tor a county,,
School Commissioner or a County Auditor, and
in Edgetield the Trial Justices are another nuis-
ance, keeping the dockets of the Sessions Court
filled with trivial cases of negro fights and liti-
CATION, which they industriously look up, sum-
moning all the witnesses they can find, whether
they know anything about the case or not.
Ast to the free schools, from the Savannah to the
Saluda, in Edgefield, 1 will say that they are all 4
humbug. 1 am not opposed to education.
want the schools, but | want them made better
than they now are. would have the school dis