The Newberry herald and news. (Newberry, S.C.) 1884-1903, 1888-03-08
DON'T GIVE UP TIE SHIP.
President Norris's Appeal to the Farmers
of the State.

To the farmers OF South Carolina: I
believe that the lively interest manifested
by YOU for the past woyears in the press,
in public meetings, in the by-ways, at
home and abroad, and in three State Con-
ventions, held in Columbia, attended with
loss of time and considerable e1pendi-
ture of means, which many could Ill
afford, meant something more than
capriciousness of purpose.
The first of these conventions consid-
cred many things.
TIE second, more clearly perceiving our
necessities, narrowed its deliberations
materially, specially recommending
separate agricultural college, the estab-
ishment of an experimental station in
connection with the said college, that the
board OF agriculture should be divorced as
far as possible from politics and its men,
bers chosen by the Farmers Association,
and that the law organizing the board
should be so amended as to increase its
members from five to ten, with the power
of electing it's own secretary The last con-
vention, held after the lapse OF twenty
months from the first, and after the rec
concentrations emanating from the second
had been earnestly discussed both public
ly and privately, unanimously closed its
session by affirming the above recommen-
dations, although, before the vote was Or
dered, an earnest exemplifcation had been
made them of the plan afterwards follow
ed by the Legislature.
It is for you to say whether or not your
wishes have been met. Instead Of one
strong, wen-equipped experimental sta
tion, in connection with the agricultural
college, we have three weak ones, at
which large per cent. of their income
will be annually expended in "duphca-
ted" officers. Instead of real agricultural
college, separate and apart from the inhu-
ences of the South Carolina College,
where it was hoped boys would not only
be educated and trained in the mysteries
of successful agriculture and made &C
quainted with the powerful levers OF pro-
gressive farming, but where the allure
ments and inspirations of farm Life would
be constantly instilled into their minds
and from which We might hope to have q
fair percentage Of them return to the avo-
cations of their fathers, We have an en-
largement of the annex only. Instead OF
a board of agriculture reorganized on the
plan outlined by your convention, the
legislature has enlarged the present
board, denying it the power to elect its
own secretary, thus fatally crippling its
efficacy.
Without claiming that all wisdom Is
with the farmers, it appears to me, as 1
feel it must to you, that in these matters
affecting US and our interests first and
foremost, our judgment and wishes
should have been concurred IN, not In the
grudging and halfway manner IN which
we have been recognized, but cheerfully
and heartily. The more so when the en-
actment OF these measures into laws
would have entailed little OF no additional
tax, as their maintenance would have
chiefly come from money now approprl-
ated by law for similar but unsatisfactory
use. Congress has given to the farmers
of South Carolina, in common with those
Of other states, $4,000, and has secured
to us besides sll,500, both sums to be
paid annually. nesides this the farmers
of the State are paying about S25,0eO
year, inspection fees on fertilizers, 70 fur
nish fund to be used in their interest and
for their protection.
Who gainsays their right to say how
this s51, 800 should be expended, or who
so bold as to deny that it would not be
expended as it should be? It is largely
through your labor that the State has
collected it's taxes during the five years
Immediately following our redemption
form Radical rule, not counting the above
annual tax on fertilizers, nor the con-
stantly increasing income from phosphate
royalties, the poll tax, the ordinary and
special county taxes, nor the constitution
al two mill school tax, from which sources
many millions have been extorted from us
since 1876. I repeat, in those years the
State has collected for its ordinary pur-
poses the enormous sum of S2857,OOO,
and in the past five years, QS87 not made
up,) the increasing sum Of S3,626,5OO.
These vast sums have been freely gwen
to every variety of purpose, from ice tick
cts to canal digging, from soap and towels
and matches to gliding the State-House,
and from extra clerical services to $780,
600 in salaries.
And yet We are told that the State is
too poor to give the meagre sum OF $780,
900 to commence to build up this institu-
ton upon which the farmers were begin
ming to look as to their Mecca The ad-
vocates Of the scheme, adopted by tie
last Legislature, made no issue with the
justness of the demands made by your
convention, as witness the laws enlarging