The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1888-03-08
SOUTHERN AGRICULTURAL.
The Farmers of Georgia.


The report of the Commissioner of
Agriculture of Georgia presents some
very interesting and significant facts;
or, strictly speaking, it confirms GER
tain important statements which have
been published in Northern papers,
and generally denied by the Southern
press. For instance, it says that
thousands of Georgia farmers are pay
ing 80 per cent. on cost prices for
bacon for four months, equivalent to
so per cent per annum. or7I per cent.
per month; and that in their pur-
chases of corn they pay at the rate of
los per cent. per annum, or per cent.
per month. This is the result, as the
Commissioner says. of tho general
system of credit which pertains to the
agriculture of the State; but he does
not explain that said system is main
tanned and promoted by State laws so
framed as to discriminate most de-
cidedly and scandalously in favor of
the landowner and the storekeeper,
and against the farm renter and Ia
borer The Georgia farmers for the
most part cultivate land upon shares;
and the contracts which they are re-
quired TO sign, and which the courts
enforce with pitiless thoroughness.
leave them no chance to earn
more than q bare living. They
were poor TO begin with. and
the State has kept them so for the
benefit of other classes. Generally
speaking. they are little better off now
than they were twenty years ago; and
the conditions are such that no i'm
rrovement can be expected in the
twenty years to come.
1t is idle to say that the farming
population of Georgia has itself 10
blame for its want of prosperity. The
facts show too plainly that the fault
lies elsewhere. No people. however
Industrious and economical, could ever
get ahead in the world under such
burdens as Georgia imposes upon her
agriculturists. The mere fact that they
lack capital and are obliged to incur
debts while their crops are growing
does not account for their persistent
failure to accumulate any thing OF TO
become owners of homes and farms.
Farmers in other States are borrowers
more or less. and yet they thrive, often
times under far less favorable circunl-
stances as to soil and climate than
those which prevail in Georgia. But
in such States legislation favors and
encourages the poor man and the pro-
Queer by protecting him against the ra-
pacity of landlords and traders. where
as Georgia places him, absolutely at
their mercy. II is MOI question of
color at all. The laws If Georgia are
inimical 10 labor regardless of the
color line; and if the negroes suffer
most it is only because they outnum-
Der the white farmers and laborers.
She has a statute which authorizes
fugitive white workingmen to be adj
vertised as runaway slaves used to be-
and provides for damages against any
body who may employ him not only.
but also forbids any body to give
him food or shelter. And I'M
der another of her peculiar laws
a laborer out of employment,
white or black. may be sentenced 10
the chain-gang. Where labor is thus
oppressed and degraded, industrial
welfare and progress is impossible.
The poor will remain poor. and the
rich win grow richer by so much as
the poor can earn above the bare
necessities of existence. Georgia
should be able to understand this, as
a lesson of direct and practical expert
ence; and the sooner she adopts diff
ferent policy the better it will be for
her in every respect Louis Globe
Democrat