The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1888-03-07
"DON'T GIVE UP THE SHIP"
PRESIDENT NORRIS's APPEAL TO THE
FARMERS OF THE STATE.

! PRESIDENT NORRIS'S APPEAL TO THE
FARMERS OF THE STATE.
The Situation Reviewed and the Farmer
Urged to Keep Up their Fight for a sepa
rate Agricultural College.
To the Farmers of South Carolina:
believe that the lively interest manifest
ed by you for the past two years in the
press, in public meetings, in the by-ways
at home and abroad, and in three State
conventions held in Columbia, attended
with loss of time and a considerable ez
penditure of means, which many coulc
i'll afford, meant something more than s
capriciousness of purpose.
The first of these conventions con.
sidered many things.
The second, more clearly percelvlne
our necessities, narrowed its delibera
tions materially, specially recommend.
ing separate agricultural college, the
establishment of an experimental station
in connection with the said college, that
the board of agriculture should be di.
vorced as far as possible from politics
and it's members chosen by the Farmers
Association, and that the eaw organizing
the board should be so amended as to In
crease it's members from five to ttn, with
the power of electing its own secretary.
The last convention, held after the lapse
of twenty months from the first, and
after the recommendations emanating
from the second had been earnestly dis
cussed both publicly and privately
unanimously closed its session by affirm
ing the above recommendations, al
though, before the vote was ordered, an
earnest exemplification had been made
them of the plan afterwards followed by
the Legislature.
It is for you to say whether or no your
wishes have been met. Instead of one
strong, well equipped experimental
station, in connection with the agrlcul-
tural college, we have three weak ones,
at which large per cent. of their income
will be annually expended in s'dupli-
Gated" officers. Instead of a real agrl-
cultural college, separate and apart from
the influences 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 acquainted with the powerful
levers of progressive farming, but where
the allurements and inspirations Of farm
life would be constantly instilled into
their minds and from which we might
hope to have fair percentage Of them
return to the avocations of their fathers,
we have an enlargement of the annex
only. Instead of board of agriculture
reorganized on the plan outlined by
your convention, the Legislature has en-
larged the present board, denying it the
power to elect it's own secretary, thus
fatally crippling its efficiency.
Without claiming that all wisdom IS
with the farmers, it appears to me, as l
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 enactment of these measures
into laws would have entailed little or no
additional tax, as their maintenance
would have chiefly come from money
now appropriated by law for similar but
unsatisfactory use. Congress has given
to the farmers of South Carolina, in
common with those of other States,
SIS, 900, and has secured to us besides
Sl1. 500. both sums to be paid annually.
Besides this the farmers Of the State are
paying about S25, 900, years inspection
fees on fertilizers, to furnish a fund to
be used in their interest and for their
protection.
Who gainsays their right to say how
this S5l, 900 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 its taxes during the five years
Immediately following our redemption
from Radical rule, not counting the
above annual tax on fertilizers, nor the
constantly increasing income from phos-
phate royalties, the poll tax, the ordina-
ry and special county taxes, nor the con-
stitutional two-mill school tax, from
which sources many millions have been
extorted from US since 1876. l repeat,
in these years the State has collected for
its ordinary purposes the enormous sum
OF 50, S57, 900, and in the past five years,
QSS7 not made up the increased sum
of g, ,626, 500. These vast sums have
been freely given to every variety Of
purpose, from ice tickets to canal dig
ging, from soap and towels and matches
to gliding the State House, and from ex-
ira clerical services to $4,000 in sala-
ries.
And yet We are told that the State is
too poor to give the meagre sum of
$50, 900 to commence to build up this
institution upon which the farmers were
beginning to look as to their Mecca.
The advocates of the scheme adopted by
the last Legislature made no issue with
the business of the demands made by
your convention, as witness the laws en-
larging the board of agriculture and the
annex, and the establishment of expert
mental stations. They diverted the
breeze you had stirred to the sailing OF
their boat You are called upon to say
if the Legislature, which has just ex-
pired, voiced the sentiment Of the ma
iority of the people Of the State on these
questions. These measures were not be-
fore the people when it was elected, and
as consequence it was voted for with
out reference to them. VIII you, once
disregarding the taunt that farmers will
not stick together, unite in your strength
numerically, financially and politically,