Fort Worth weekly gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1890-06-05
CARLISLES VIEWS
Addressed to Friend on the Proposed
Government Warehouse Scheme.
He Bitterly Opposes Its Adoption, and Ell
plains all Ris Reasons for Such
Opposition.
Cnrlisle's views on Governlnent warehouses


WASHINGTON, May SI.-To B. F. Howard OF
Muscogee, Ala. Senator Carlisle has written a
letter in response to Towards request for the
senator's views upon the bin providing for
system OF government warehouses
for farm products upon which pro-
ducts treasury notes may be issued. Sena-
tor Carlisle says that Towards statement
that he and those associated with him are in favor
of equal justice to all and special favors to none
embodes sound Democratic doctrine, and II II
had been strictly adhered to in congress IN the
past twenty five years the evils ofwhich farmers
and others justly complain would have been
averted and the whole country would now Do
prosperous and contented. but says the senator,
farmers have been taxed so long for the oeneht
of other class. and there has been so much legis-
lation for ACKNOWLEDGEMENT for corporations ana
syndicateS that their patience Is exhausted,
and finding it impossible, for the time being At
least, to abolish q system which has oppressed
and despoiled the greatest industrial interest OF
the country, they were now demanding that the
very policy which they have heretofore an
nounced as unjust and rutnous shal De
applied to them, or rather part of them, for no
scheme has been vet suggested that would oper-
ate alike upon all farmers. But no evil can be
corrected or no wrong righted by increasing
Of its operations. There is but one
effectual remedy for the evil which undou btedly
exists, and that is 10 reverse the policy WHICH
produced il. The senator, after rehearsing the
features of the proposed sub-treasury plan, not
ing the fact that the farmers themselves Will pay
more than their share OF the cost OF erecting
with them will be partisgns of the admInistra-
ton in power, says: ''There are more than
2OS3 counties in the United States, but not mote
than one-third OF them, II that many, produce
annually $500, 900 worth of wheat, corn, oats and
tobacco, and therefore not more than one-th1rd
Of them could possibly avail themselves OF this
plan if it were adopted. for the bill provides
that a county, in order to secure warehouse,
must produce and sell annually, farm
produsests valued :. a, at Ssoo,oOVi IL WI 5 be
interest of the government to issue and distrib
ute money for the benefit Of the people living in
rich and productive counties, at The expense Of
ones; moreover, it is plain to en-
able INSCRIPTIONS speculators to take
extort exorbitant prices for food from people
who reside in cities, towns, and from people
who reside in the country but don't own these
particular agricultural products. 1t is evident
that no farmer will subject himself to the labor
and expense of transporting his products to .
public warehouse and to all the charges which
taking care of them while there when he has q
barn and granaries at home, unless he Is
in debt and absolutely needs the money which
the government is to advance. In great
majority of cases he will never be
able to reoeeni them, but will be forced to lose
the remaining 20 per cent. OF value OF his pro-
ducts or sell his warehouse receipts for Whatever
be can get for them, which will be very little,
for it must be remembered that after he gets his
Ieasatehpse receipts he has remaining interest OF
only 20 per cent. 'less charges for interest,
storage, etc. and this is all he can dispose OF.
He will find the time rapidly approaching when
he mast have money TO redeem his products or
sell his small remaining interest in them, or
allow them to be sold at public auction by the
government, ard this will be the golden oppor-
tunity of SPECTATORS, whose agents will swarm
all over the country ready to take warehouse
eeipts from embarrassed owners for merely
nominal sum. The receipt is simply privilege
of redemption, like pawnbroker's ticket, and
the farmer being himself unable to remain will
be forced ultimately to dispose OF 1t at
any price offered do not think
any considerable number Of intelligent people
in this country viii unite in asking the govern
ment to establish a system which will compel
them, in large number of cases, to sacrifice
the products OF their labor.
Senator Carlisle argues at some length to show
that the plan proposed would produce an annual
expansion and contraction OF currency which
would result in absolutely destroying the market
upon which the farmer must depend for the sale
of his crops, and that cotton farmers.
who are supporting the scheme, would
writer's estimation would close every cotton
factory in the country. No such facilities as
this project will afford for controlling the mar
existed in this or any other country, ana no
more perfect system for oppression Of the poor
could be devised. The exact Quantities of pro-
ducts on deposit in the several public ware
houses will be known in every commercial and
financial center, and combinations to purchase
and hold receipts could be easily made, and es-
pecially when they can be procured by pay
ments made percentum of the value OF deposit.
In conclusion Senator Carlisle says: az have
the subject would permit some of the
reasons why I think the proposed plan for the
relief of farmers would be injurious instead of
beneficial, not only to them, but to all other
people of the country; but it W ould be uncandid
not to say distinctly before closing this commu-
nication that even if il could be conclusively
shown that this or any othe similar scheme could
be pecuniarily beneficial to any particular class.
OF our people, 1 would still be unalterably OPP
posed 10 its adoption, because in my opinion it
would be but another wide and dangerous de-
parture from the principles upon which our po
fitical institutions are founded. 1t would be, in
fact, the longest step yet taken in time of peace
towards the consolidation of lower in the hands
Of the Federal government and subsection Of
private affairs of the people to the supervision
and control Of central responsible authority.
You and are Democrats, and as such we be-
lieve that the government should scru-
puIousIy abstsin from eli unnecessary
interference with personal and domestic
concerns and confne itself strictly to the ad-
rninistration Of purely public affairs. 1t is
dina principle of our political faith that people
are best governed when they are least governed
and that they are most prosperous and contented
when left to the free exercise of their own iudg-
fient in the management OF their own business,
subject only to such reasonable regulations as
may be necessary to preserve the peace and good
order Of the community. These propositions
are not conditional without repudiating all the
traditions of our party, and all distinctions be-
tween constitutional government and paternal
despotism.'