The Newberry herald and news. (Newberry, S.C.) 1884-1903, 1890-06-05

can statesmen 1alleQ 10 TeSpOnu 20 tue
invitation for their views, but DEM
ocrats like Senator Vest and Represen-
tatives Carlisle, Hatch and Mills jump
at the opportunity to get in a whack at
the protective tariff. Yet quite as note
worthy are the concise statements OF
four OF our best known agriculturists.
George T. Powell of New York State,
the President Of that new but power
ful organization, the National Farm
ers' (PoliticaU League, points out
that manufacturers have absorbed Ia
bor at high prices, leaving much Of the
poor and inefficient labor to cost farnl-
ers altogether more than it is worth,
, and suggests that farmers must "again
las in the earlier history Of our nation)
have more representation of their great
interests, in both State and national
legislation, which they have largely
lost"
The master of the National Grange
of the Patrons of Husbandry, J. H.
Brigham, Of Ohio, believes that the
farmers should have ample protection
against the foreign products that they
now have to compete with in the home
market, that gambling in farm pro-
hibited, adulterations suppressed, tax
alton equalized and reduced, trusts
and combinations prevented, the water
squeezed out of railroad stock, fees and
salaries of officials reduced, the volume
of currency increased by coming FIVE
millions of silver monthly, and the
getting out of debt and keeping out
of debt by the individual farmer.
Professor ". A. Henry, director Of
the Wisconsin station, and one of the
best known agricultural scientists in
the country, considers "the chief
causes to be overproduction and re-
strictive markets" He points out the
rapid progress of diversified farming
in the West and the gradual contrac-
ton of the range cattle business, and
concludes by advocating products of
better quality and direct communica-
ton with consumers. THE words
| American or United States, attached
to butter, cheese or meat products,
be sufficient guaranty of purity and
! healthfulness and a password to any
country"
J. H. Hale, master the Connecticut
State Grange, protests against the too
much immigration, the failere of farm
ers to cooperate and concludes with
the sensible remark II have little
faith in making agriculture profitable
by legal enactment until the farmer
himself comes to a realizing sense of
the source of his trouble"
Summing up these articles theAmeri-
can Agriculturist editorially gives the
following as its judgment of the funda-
mental causes of the present situa-
| ton:
neutrality-suspicious., caused by
"Second-The governments free
land, and
"Third-Its immigration system.
"The tariff, no doubt, has an i'm
portant bearing on the issue, but still
more potent influence is domestic tax
alton and the combinations of buyers
and transporters that largely govern
the movement and prices of produce.
An unbiased scrutiny of the last de-
cade reveals the extent to which these
influences have combined to cunningly
divert attention from themselves by
directing the public mind toward the
tariff. The farmers at last seem to
grasp the situation. While, like the
workers in other industries, farmers
hold wide divergent opinions as to the
duty on imports, they are now unity
ing their efforts upon reforms relative
to land, finance Cncluding taXation)
and transpcrtation-the three great
problems which in their multitudinous
details affect so vitally the producers
and therefore the welfare of the entire
United States. Instead of opening
new lands to settlement, which would
| add abnormally to the over produc-
ton, the time has come to call halt.
The proposed scheme for retaining
the arid region may be wise proviso
for the distant future, but no abnor-
NAL stimulant should be applied to the
actual development of really new lands
until the census of 1900 shows that ag-
ricuIture has fully adjusted itself to
the new conditions imposed upon it by
mushroom progress of the past quarter
of century.
"Let population catch up with pro-
duction. Let the comparatively small
area Of public land still unsettled be
held in reserve. Let the now un-
worked but cultivated areas in the
various States be resettled. For the
next decade this will afford an abun-
dance Of cheap lands to our own in
crease and such immigration as it is
wise to foster. Let the farmer, mean
while, see to it that he bears only his
just proportion Of the public burdens.
Let MIN secure the home and foreign
market fol his own productions in such
manner that the supply and the quail
ity shall govern the prices, rather than
the dictates of any combination. Such
policy, wisely administered, should
make agriculture not only the mcst
honorable, but, to modest way, the
NOSE surely remunerative Of all occu-
pa.ions. 10 effect this change de-
mands not only better farming-better
crops at less cost, better sales at create
pr ,tits-but the earnest fulfilment by