Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1888-04-25
Stauntott Spectator.
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 25. 1883.
How the Farmer Looks at it.

No balance sheet will ever be rendered to
sEow the excess of its portion for the sup
port of the government, that agriculture
has been required annually to pay over,
through direct taxes, and high protective
tariff. Monopolies in manufacturing and
in chartered privileges have had wider
field in preying upon the resources OF the
tillers of the soil than it is likely they will
ever have again. Whatever may come out
of the agitation and discussion of the day
of practical shape for relief, and placing
agriculture in its true relations to govern
ment, one fact is self-evident-therew will be
no retrograde movement in the efforts
which have brought it to the prominence
it at present occupies in State and national
politics.
The policy which dwarfed commerce and
attempted to limit production in the fields
to the capacity of our population to con-
sumo, has had its day, and the sooner it is
dead the better.
The farmers and their rightful opportu-
mites are no more to be cast aside as worth
loss material, nor will they have to succumb
longer to State.craft which despoiled the
nation of it's power. Legislative and execu-
tive craftsmanship of higher order have
come to their relief. Draw the picture on
any scale, it is the same in its materiality,
and presents matter for thought to the in
dividual farmer in the same light that it
does to whole communities of his class
He sees clearly the mistakes of the past,
and is not wanting in evidences of coming
prosperity, as with wide-open and un-
trammelled commerce we begin to supple
ment the products of other lands with the
surplus of our own.
In the simple restoration of the trade
between Virginia and South America as il
was, to say nothing of the increased Ge
mand which twenty-eight years have made
for our surplus wheat, the Augusta county
producer of that cereal would be in posses
sion of far superior opportunities than ht
has now in marketing his surplus. Austro
Hungary, away up on the interior seas o.
central Europe, an inferior country in sur
plus production, controls there to oul
shame, though we have all advantages, in
Guiding coast-sailing, save the most i'm
portant-the ships to conduct the com
MERGE.
This reference is for mere illustration
Of that fatal national policy which has pre-
vailed, denying to American commerce al
entrance on hundreds of fields where it hal
been anxiously desired.
A government inviting its producing
forces to the full development of thei
power and in stimulating its tillers of TIT
soil to the achievements worthy Of oul
agricultural resources, creates an inspired
love of country known only in it's broades
sense to the American heart. The patron
izing care of government in the simple dis
charge of it's obligation to agriculture leads
the mind of the farmer to happy contem
plations of the responsibilities he assumes
as tie vicegerent of his Creator on earth.
We repeat, the belief that a brighter da.
is coming as result of different nationa
policy to that which has SO long enslavet
our energies and Knocked our hopes. The
the Augusta county farmer will not have t
speculate upon the effect of Providentia
dispensations in the West when forecastiDl
the chances of values for his surplus, bn
from higher standpoint admire the states
manship which has enlarged his opportuni
ties, and realizs the growing and proftabl
relations he sustains to the widening com
merce of the whole country.