The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1889-11-21

AND now as 10 crops. In 1900 the
wheat, corn, rye, barley, buckwheat,
hay, oats, potatoes, cotton and tobacco
sold for $2,oo7,462,231. In 1884,
eighteen years later, when the culti-
vated acreage had been nearly doubled,
the number of farms and farm lands
had doubled, and agricultural imple-
ments and machinery had been vastly
improved, these same crops sold for
S2,o43,5oo,48I, an increase of only
thirty-six millions, or less than per
cent. more than they were sold for in
1866.
But we are told that this is due to
overproduction. There can be no
overproduction SO long as the cry for
bread shall be heard from a single
child in the land. 1t is not overpro-
duction, but it is the want of a proper
distribution or equitable disposition of
the products of labor.
Again, we are told that we can buy
more with dollar than ever before.
But we ask, where is the dollar? And
how much of the products of our labor
will buy that dollar? And when OBJ
tanned, will it pay more INTEREST," Will
it pay more taxes? A pertinent en-
quiry might be appropriately intro
duced just here. Why should United
States bond bearing 4 per cent. inter
est, be worth 127 cents on the dollar,
while good farms cannot be mortgaged
for more than one-third their value, at
! to 10 per cent. interest?
And how stands agriculture in the
race of progress with manufacturing?
From 1850 to 1860, agriculture led
manufacturing in increased value Of
products, ten per cent. From 1870
to 1880, manufacturing led agricul
ture in increased value of products, Fl
per cent, difference of AZ per cent.
IN favor of the increased growth of
manufacturing.
With these significant and alarming
facts before us, can we wonder that
our young men are deserting the farms
in favor of other vocations? In this
fruitful land, where should be heard
the husbandman's happy song of plenty
and contentment, is it any wonder
that we should hear the universal wall
of "hard times'' among the farmers
Our national treasury is overaowing
with millions and millions of dollars,
needlessly wrung from the hard earn
ings of the people, while the business
of the country is clogged and stag
mated for the want of an adequate cir
culating medium. With an agricul-
tural population, whose energy, enter
prise, industry and skill is recognized
the world over, with generous soils,
adapted to the successful growth of all
the leading crops demanded by com
merce, with the teeming millions oi
the earth as our customers, with trans
portation facilities equal to the pro.
ductive power of the country, why
should agriculture languish and de'
cline?
But again. 1t is said that the strength
and glory ofa country is in the home'
of its people. Look at France, tina:
erratic but gallant, brilliant, prosper
Gus people. When in 1870, her PROUD
standards went down in the humil;a
!: tion and defeat of Sedan, her secone
!: Waterloo-an electrical thrill of aston
ishment shocked the civilized world
And when the victor imposed an in.
demnity ofS1 900, ,ooo,o 900 in coin to be
paid cash, that astonishment gave way
!: to sympathy, for both to be forgotten
) in the applause which greeted her a
she came forth staggering and bleed
ing and promptly paid every dolla
5 of it. Whence her power to perform
: this remarkable achievement? 1t la,
, in her myriad humble but prosperou
homes, the castles of her yeomanry
where vas fostered diversified industt
: and diversified intelligence.
In this vitality important matter wha
is the tendency in our own country
t Let official statistics furnish the answer
From 1870 to 1880 our farms unde
: three acres decreased IS per cent
f while farms of 100 to soft acres in
creased 200 per cent. Farms of 3 t
10 acres decreased IS per cent, while
farms of 500 to 1000 or more acre
= increased ITO per cent. Although ou
4 population had increased SO per cent.
: there were in 1880 1858 less farm
f under 50 acres, than in 1870. Wha
= do these startling figures suggest?
e John Locke said: "Whoever own
! the land, owns the people" Th
: figures quoted are but another power
y full witness to prove that through th
J., rapid congestion of wealth our popula
= ton is being resolved into two classe
the extremely rich and the extreme
: ly poor-classes, which, in all age
: have been the weakest defenders (
7 civil liberty and human freedom. Tt
:. middle class, that mighty bulwark
d liberty, the great conservator of tt
t. highest civilizations of the ages,
S gradually but surely fading ava
l. Centralized capital allied to irrespons
9 BILE corporate power, is the most formiC
h able and dangerous evil that threatel
t. the preservation of our free institution
e and the perpetuity of our form of fir
t. government. It annuls the ancie
= law in trade of "supply and demand
it overrides individual rihgts,it contro