Daily tobacco leaf-chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1890-1895, 1890-08-12
FOR THE FARMER.
The Fifty-First Session OF Con-
gresS Has Been a Great One.
In 1t He Has Been Lauded and
Commiserated in Turn.

What is Being Done in the Interest of the
Agricultural Glasses Measures That
VIII Ne Far-Reaching in Beneficial Re
suits, hut VIII Not Relieve the Farmer
| From ArduOus Labor.
INDIANAPOLIS, Aug. 19. The Jour
nails special Washington correspondent
sends the following:
Greater anomalies and contradictions
exist nowhere than in the halls of the
| National legislature. Let it be sug-
gested that given bill under considera-
tion smacks of class legislation, and en-
| thusiastic members will tumble over one
another i'll their eagerness to make their
way into The Record in opposition to it..
Suggest that another may even i'll q re-
mote way, be of benefit to the farmer,
and the same individual will, with equal
earnestness, hasten to champion it, in
blissful forgetfulness of their invective
against special legislation.
Pro and Con.
The Fifty-first has been great con-
gress for the farmer. EIe has been
Landed and conmiserdted in turn: now
pictured as weighed down by a burden
of mortgages upon the farms, with crops
for which there was no sale. save at
such ruinous loss that he preferred to
burn his corn. and i'll turn held up for
contemplation as prosperous and con.
tented. with no enemies save the frOsts,
the hail, the drouths and floods. When
the tariff bill was under debate the
farmer, fully as much US the manufac-
tuler or laborer, afforded theme for
eloquent advocacy or denunciatiOn.
Was bindIng-twine to be subjected to Il
heavy duty, the farmer Of the north
west became u sorely oppressed indi-
vidual but a tax of three cents Il head
on cabbages was that he might rise to
even more prosperous station.
Well Represented.
The farmer is well represented upon
the floors Of congress by many able
members, who are graceful to him alike
for favors past and favors prospective ON
the day of election. 1t is therefore to be
expected that the legislative mill will be
full of grist for the farmers benefit, in
which there should be found much Of
practical bene2t to this class of our citi-
zens. 1t is entertaining to see the
weighty measures which have
found sufficient merit in the ewes of the
members of the committee on agricul-
ture to have reached place in the
calendar and are therefore likely to be
brought to the attention Of the house.
The number is not appalling nor their
nature so complex as TO make them
difficult Of comprehension, and accord
ingly brief outline of them can be
given from which may be gathered the
vast aid about to be legislatively be-
slowed upon farmers and the moment
ont propositions for their benefit which
the Solons have been able to evolve.
They are seven in number, though Co
attain this one measure is practically on
the calendar twice, the second bill
having but few slight verbal changes
from the bill as originally reported.
This'is what is commonly known as the
Conger lard bill, and after devoting one
section to the defining of the subject in
q manner that would make Webster or
Worcester squirm, it provided, in sub
stance, that any lard made from. diff
ferent material from that mentioned in
the defining section shall pay an in
ternal revenue tax by the means of neat
little coupon stamps and be labeled be
fore the world as compound lard" to
be followed by list of the ingredients
of the compositions. That is all thcreis
to it. except verbosity, in which fines
and forfeitures, pains and penalties
abound for its infraction. and the usual
machinery for the collection Of an in
ternal revenue tax. 1t is little more
than a re-enactnent for lard, and the
various articles sold under that name. Of
the supposed restrictive features of the
oleomargarine bill passed by previous
congress.
Yet for this the committee have made
elaborate majority and minority re-
ports, aggregating fOrty-three closely
printed pages, and abounding in tables
showing the number Of hogs slain in
each year for quite Il series of years,
with the number of hams extracted
from them, the prices of wheat and
corn, beef and pork in various forms,
and numerous other entertaining things,
though by some oversight, probably. the
tabulated election returns of the various
members of the committee seem to have
been omitted. The law, however, aims
to be exact, and provides that com
pound lard" shall be branded on tierces.
barrels. half barrels firkins, tubs or tin
pals, and says nothing about the hog
himself, so that while under this bill the
dweller in the towns or cities who is
wont to get his compound from one of
the various reCeptacles mentioned is
guarded against aduteration. The
farmer, who had been in the habit of
relying upon the inmates of the family,
must take hls chances as heretofore,
The bill will, of course. encounter oppo-
sition, and an eloquent debate sho ld
follow. when the American hog Is in
volved. and if it becomes case of hog
versus farmer the issue may well be
doubtful.
The Bu;terworth option Bill,
Mole important even than this, in its
possible effect, is what Is known as the
Butterworth option bill This has called
oEt since it was reported. n storm of
protest from one end of the country To
the other Starting with the idea Of
breaking up gambling in futures and
options, it proposes To make Illegal all
sales fpr future deliveries No. not
quite all, The farmer and he alone. is
allowed to sell his crop still ungrown;
but the man who thus advances his
money on it may not. in taIp. dispose of
his nebulous property. This is. of
course. intended directly for the benefit
of the farmer. since II restricts tp hlm
the right TO gamble in future sales. and
With the field thus narrowed l.. ought