The Marietta journal. [volume] (Marietta, Ga.) 1866-1909, 1889-01-10
THE FARMERS ARD THEIR FIJI
TURE.

| TURE.
Since the war the farmers of Geor
gia have produced and sold more
than one thousand million dollar:
worth of cotton, says the Constitu
ton. This has been the basis Of
Georgia's prosperity and growth. II
has built her cities and maintained
her commerce. For the first fifteen
years after the war it was almost
our sole resource. We had not then
begun to mine extensively and man
ufacture scarcely at all. What the
farmers raised from the soil-that
was the sole capital with which we
rebuilded our homes and establish
ed our prosperity. Since then,
though supplemented by mines and
manufactures, it has carried the
main burden of the growth and has
been our main capital and CONNER
cial medium.
AS stated above, the Georgia
farmer has made nearly one thou
sand million dollars worth of cotton
since 1865. II he has been able to
save from this vast, this almost in
comprehensive sum 20 more than
barely support life, and not enough
to keep his farm from under mort
gage-if he has been growing poor
er while out of the enormous wealth
he created others have been grow
ing richer-then, assuredly there is
something wrong in his own meth
DDS or in the adjustment of his rela-
tions to the other classes of society.
What is it? And, no matter what
it is, how can it best be remedied?
There are three classes of wealth
producers in the State. LIST. The
farmer, who produces from field and
pasture. I'd. The manufacturer who
creates value by adding to the
value of raw material. Sd. The
miner, or quarryman, who digs or
cuts the raw, rich ore from its place.
Of these classes the farmer stands at
81 per cent, the manufacturer and
miner combined s per cent. The
smaller classes are prosperous and
growing rich. Steadily they en-
large their operations, increase their
dividends and accumulate wealth.
If the larger class the max
ing % per cent of the whole-lan-
cuisines or does not advance, the
smaller classes, and all other class
es of society must suffer and Ian
guish. For the farmer not only pro-
duces the wealth but he is also the
main purchaser in the market.
Another point to be considered is
this. No section can prosper, the
profits Of whose industries are sent
into alien purses. Ireland is impov-
erished because Of her absentee
landlords. The rent of her land is
sent to the English owners, and thus
stripped Of her earnings Ireland
languishes. the Hon w. j. North
ern estimates that forty thousand
dollars of foreign money is loaned
on Georgia farms-mortgages. If
this be true, and the estimate is
probably smaller than truth, this
means that 8 per cent, Ga third less
than the real rate, commission add
ED three millions, two hundred
thousand dollars is stripped from our
farms every year and sent to foreign
mortgage holders. 1t is probable
that the land on which the money is
loaned is not valued at more than
two dollars and a half an acre. The
total loans would thus cover sixteen
million acres-more than half our
improved acreage. 1t is said that
one-third of the farm lands of Geor-
gia are under mortgage, and this is
probably fairly conservative esti-
mate. In one of the western states
80 per cent Of the farm lands were
at one time under mortgage, and in
many of them more than so per
cent. 1t is sad thing for Georgia
that three million, two hundred
thousand dollars is sent annually
out as interest to absentee mortgage
holders. 1t will be very much worse
for us if the troubles under which
they were brought about deepen.