Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1890-06-19
Butler at the Front.

stant. We make the following ex-
tracts from the speech:
Isknow what r am talking about
when I say that the farmers of the
South, and particularly of this State,
are getting on better than those of
any other section. In the North
west they have reason to bo dcspond-
eut with corn, their great staple
crop, selling at twelve cents bushel
or burned for fuel, and their farms
mortgaged beyond redemption. And
I can say to youthat those farmers Of
the Northwest have never realized
until now what has been tho matter
with them. But the scales are falling
from their eyes. Politicians have
cultivated their hatred against us.
But they are finding out that, like
our farmers, the chief cause of their
troubles is not in the State govern
ments, but in various Federal laws
which are taxing agriculturists to
death.
/ When wasspeaking in Greenville
two years ago 1 made reference to
the expressions Of the tariff A man
got up after me and pooh-poohcd.
He said it was not the tariff, but the
trusts which were making the trou-
bic, failing to see that the trusts
were the fruit of the vicious system
of taxation which the Republican
party had put upon us. This man
said that it was not the tariff, because
ploughs and horse shoes were cheap
er now than before the war. But
that it is because of improvements
in manufacturing because articles
which were then made by hand are
now made infinitely cheaper by ma
chinery. But if ploughs and horse
shoes are cheaper now, why, in the
name of common honesty, should
they not be made still cheaper to
our farmers by the reduction of ta-
riff taxes upon them?
Now | am going to astonish you.
| tell you that everything which
every man, woman and child in this
:. hall has to buy is taxed on the ave-
, rage forty-sevcn cents on the dollar
j You pay that much to the manu-
facturer or to the treasury of the
| United States. You don't feel it di-
rcctly in every coat and shoe and
dress you buy for yourself or your
wife, because it is an indirect tax,
but you pay it all the same. Yet
every effort We make to reduce this
tariff taxation fails. The large
manufacturers of the country have
raised corruption funds of millions
of dollars and placed men in Con
gress to prevent the reduction of
such taxes.
However, from recent develop
ments l am inclined to think that the
farmers of the Northwest will not be
influenced much longer by the sec
tional cry against rebel brigadicrs
and Southern hostility.
] believe I will claim the right of
an American citizen and South
Carolinian to express my opinion on
any public question. have some
papers on the sub-treasury scheme,
J and I intend to talk about it, but ]
don't think I'll bore you. ("Go
ahead !" ,eGo ahead /" eve want
r information about thatr') All
right. I will 60 ahead.
One of these bills provides that
!. the Secretary Of Agriculture Re-
r publican now-upon the petition of
one hundred citizens, with certain
+ certificates, in certain counties in the
United States, producing certain
agricultural products to the value Of
half million dollars-upon the filing
, of these papers, shall cause to be
built in each county government
, ware house, with elevators, bins and
weighing apparatus, and that when
j. built the products of my friend,
Jack Bates and myself, corn, cotton,
wheat, oats and tobacco can be
placed in one of them, wc receiving q
certificate to the amount of 80 pei
cent. of the value Of the products
: stored, and that we can send the
certificate to Washington and get
treasury notes at per cent. interest
The produce shall remain in the
warehouse not moro than eleven
month" The manager of the ware
house =, ast weigh the produce, and
Bates and pay the expenses of it.
, Now I maintain in the first place
that Congress has no more right to
build and operate warehouse than il
) has to send and have mine and your