Smyrna times., 1890-07-09
Not a Governmental Function

When the agricultural sub-treasury
proposition was first made public it
was not supposed that it could enlist
many serious advocates among the
farmers. The idea of establishing pub
lie warehouses for the storge of agri-
cultural produce, upon which the Gov
ernment is to issue notes, appears so
preposterOus to those familiar with the
theory and practice of the Government
that its Endorsement by any number of
intelligent persons can only be ac-
counted for on the supposition that
self interest blinds them to the conse-
quences that must inevitably follow
such a system. Farmers are, in many
parts of the United States, suffering
from cases which have, at some time or
other, seriously affected prominent in
dustry in the country, chief among
which are speculation and over. pro-
duction.
1t may sound strange to speak of
speculation in connection with farming
says the Baltimore american. but all
who trade on capital are more or less
given to speculation, and if a man
mortgages his capital, be it land,
houses, bonds, or any other form of
property, with the hope of subsequent
ly making enough from the borrowed
money to pay off the mortgage, it is
speculation, 70 matter how sanguine
may be his expectation. If the expec-
VatiOn has not been realized the mort
gage remains. There is less specula-
ton, and if man mortgages his capi-
tai is involved, and, as a consequence.
there are fewer absolute failures.
Over-prOduction is next to specula-
ton, the most serious obstacle to the
success of the farmer. In the East
those who have clung to the system
which prevailed thirty years ago. be-
fore the great West was opened up and
transportation facilities provided, have
gone behind. This was inevitable.
The inexhaustible graneries of the
new States have so reduced the price
OF wheat and corn that it scarcely paws
to raise them. Over-production is not
confined to farming, however, but to
all sorts of industries, and the only
remedy is in the gradual adjustment
OF farming to the public demand.
When farmers have learned as bust
ness men to do, by bitter experience
in other branches of trade, and after
numerous failures, what crops pav
best in certain localities, the problem
will be solved, and not before. There
Is not much comfort in this to those
farmers who have grown gray in fol-
lowing absolute methods, and who are
too old or too feeble to try others. but
neither is there for merchants, manu-.
tacturers and other enterprising meu
who have spent their lives in aborative |
attempts to achieve success, and who |
at the end find themselves no better
off than when they started.
Life is laborious work for the major
ity, no matter how it is viewed. but it
cannot be made easier by calling upon
the Government to do what it was
never intended that it should do. and
what if the request was granted. it
would be sure to do much worse than
the formers could do it themselves. If
the Government has the right to do
the tinanceiring and managing for the
farmers, it also has the right to under
take the regulation and management
OF all other industries, and if this were
done, the result would be that in a
short time individual enterprise would
disappear altogether, and State So
cialism would be substituted. The
troubles of the farmer, though hard to
bear, are temporary in character. and
will be removed by increased expe-
rience without the intermeddling of