The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1890-07-03
BILL ARp,s PHILOSOPHY.
atlanta Constitution.

0lLL AGI'S Il1lTVSVI AIs
Aaanta Constitution.
Now that the political horizon is
clearing away and we are settled. down
that we are to have farmer for Cover.
nor, it seems that everybody is satisfied,
and they ought to be. Mr. r.rNorthen is
good man-an honest man, and bis past
record is without reproach. He is no
demagogue, and will be the Governor for
all of US, whether We are farmers or not.
The effort that has been made to array
the farmers against the rest of mankind
has had bad tendency, but we hope that
it will pass away. It had its origin in
the sel6shness and political ambition of
demagogues. The very fact that the Alli-
ance is an exclusive, oath bound, secret
organization implies distrust of their
fellow men. 1t implies that they have
been persecuted and oppressed and have
to band together in secret order to get
their rights. This is mistake. In all
my life have never known an enemy to
the farmer-not one. There are enemies
to lawyers and bankers and merchants,
and manufacturers, and editors and even
to preachers; but nobody has anything
against farmers; they are the universal
fayorites. If they suffer from the protec
tion given to manufacturers everybody
else suffers with them.
There are some inequalities that have
TO be endured. The tariff on sugar helps
the sugar planter, and brings in eighty
millions of dollars in revenue. The tar.
iff on rice helps the rice:planter. This
ought to make me mad, for am very
fond of both, and would like to get more
pounds for dollar, but will do with
less sugar and less rice before | will break
up the farmers who are engaged in that
business. They are southern farmers,
and need all the protection they get. It
takes sight Of sugar right now to run
with the blackberries and dewberriea.
bought whole barrel the other day at
seven cents a pound, aud the next day it
jumped to eight cents, and l felt good
over my luck. 1t keeps Jumping up and
down like grasshopper, expanding and
contracting, and blackberries are doing
the same thing and it's all because there
are no warehouses here to store the
blackberries. T reckon it must be that.
If there were refrigerator rooms in the
warehouse, the berries would keep, and
the pickers could store and draw eighty
per cent, and sell when they. got high
enough to pay for picking and scratching,
and ticks andre bugs. What the coun-
try wants Is some national arrangement
that will enable everybody to sbuy sheep
and sell deer" as the Dutchman said. |
boughta load of fodder yesterday from
farmer and had to pay one dollar and
fifty cents hundred. Last fall it was
only seyenty-fve cents. Corn is fifty
per cent. higher now than it was then.
The farmer who has it to sell is happy,
and the one who has it to buy is unhap-
py How arc we going to fix these
things so that everybody will be happy
Mr.. Carlisle has shown 30 clearly that the
warehouses won't do it, that don't know
what is the next worse thing for our
statesmen to invent. All our present
congressman seem inadequate to the task,
and I reckon ne will have to try new
set.
The Alliance of Barlow county met the
other day and nominated two farmers for
the Legislature. There were tixty-four
men in the meeting, and we all expected
to acquiesce in their selection. They are
two very good, solid, respectable men,
and our people are content to risk them
in the Legislature, but no outsider likes
the way that this thing was done. There
is kind of dictation about it that is not
pleasant. II Eis reflection upon all other
occupations. The Alliance claims to be
bigger thing than party. The tail is
wagging the dog. A proper respect to
the Democracy of Barlow County would
have suggested different course. Sup
pose the merchants had have banded to-
gether and held secret meetings and
nominated two merchapts-what would
the farmers say? Suppose the negroes
should do the same thing-what would
the white folks say. Our people are
willing to take farmers, but they would
like to have some choice in the take.
Glass domination is as bad as class legis-
lation. We want harmony and co opera
ton between all classes. The farmer
raises the corn, but it is not worth cent
without mill to grind it and a wagon to
haul it-but the miller and the wagon
maker are excluded from CO operation.
The blacksmith shoes the horses and
sharpens the plows. The merchant ad-
vances the supplies and all trades work
together. The farmers complain that the
merchants charge them too much profit
on their advances. That is another
mistake The merchants have got poor
at that business. Their books are full of
bad debts. Every merchant in this town
who made a specially of advancing to
farmers has lost money and quit the bus.
iuess. The wealthy farmer don't want
the advances, and the poor one can't pay
if the crop in poor.
But re are going to try the farmers.
We want them to build up the country
schools. We want them to fight the
trusts. We want them to tax income and
get rid of the protective tariff. There is
no other way to reform the tariff. The
government is obliged to have the reve-
nue. from some source. The eighty mil
lions received from foreign sugar has got
to come from somewhere. An increased
tariff on the luxuries won't do it, for the
tax will be 50 high they won't come here
at all. There are two sides to this tsriff
Uuelu6S5s u CD en0LO dlC AaAA q aoAoA
sides, and the wisest men in the nation
are perplexed over it.
Two hundred million dollars year for
pensions. That much as reward for
whipping US and they make US pay a
third of it and don't give dollar back
nor say thank you. Since the war the
south has paid over three hundred million
of that pension money and her part will
be si1ty.six millions a year from now on
without end. When will this thing stop?
Is it fact that northern pensioners
never die? One year ago there were 4S9
thousand and now there is 525 thousand.
They "get more thicker, more denser" as
Cabe says. There are over 400 thousand
invalid soldiers who have survived the
last war. They must be sickly set, or
else our boys hurt them mighty bad. I
thought that in twenty-five years most of
them would either die or get well, but
they are the outlivingest soldiers ever
heard of. The strangest thing about it
is that while the number of the men in.
crease so does the number of the widows.
How is that. Nobody dies, and yet there
are 116 thousand widows on the rolls.