The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1892-05-19
The Farmers and the Factories.

To the Editor Of the Neaos and Courier ::
As one whose only occupation is farming
l am interested in those questions before
the people which concern the farmers
welfare.
The reasons assigned by the politicians
for the present depression are mostly
speculative. A change in the laws and
their administration may or may not be
beneficial, but there is one cause which
is plain and undisputed. That is, We
sre producing too much of one staple
crop and have thus depressed the price
below the average cost of production. In
other words, there is excessive competi-
tion in making cotton, and the natural
and practical remedy for our ills is to re.
duce that competition.
We have large and increasing negro
population which is chiefly engaged in
cotton culture. 1t is crop peculiarly
suited to them and they will plant it to
the exclusion of all others. Now if by
harsh execution of the laws We suppress
the factories, railroads, workshops and
other institutions, which employ labor,
We compel the white people TO continue
in competition with the negroes in max
ing cotton. Or the other hand if the
number and capacity of all such enter
prises is increased, now avenues of busi-
ness and employment will open for thou
sands of farmers Sons and white tenants.
The white farmers may then confne
their attention to provision crops and
leave the cotton to the colored tenants.
It Is we'll known that those farmers in
the South who have followed this plan
have been the most successful, and the
better the local market for diversified
crops the greater the opportunity there
will be for its general adoption.
1t seems to me that the Irishman who
sawed of the. limb on which he stood
was not more witless than the farmer
who votes to destroy the market for
which he is raising crops, and yet some
do this, while they grow fruit and vege-
table and send hundreds of miles in
search of a purchaser.
The protective tariff is the law which
discriminstes against the farmer, but
there are only :wb classes who suffer by
it, the grain gr""ers Of the West and the
cotton planters of the South. 1t is an
imposition on them because their crops
are priced in cheap foreign market,
while they are compelled to produce
them at "protection prices" for labor and
supplies. The truck farmers, dairymep,
fruit growers and stock raisers, as well az
wage workers in sll department of labor,
arc benefited. Whether these receive
their Just share of protection may be
mooted question, but in manufacturing
States all these classes believe in the
tariff.
Now if the farmers of the South and
West will not unite as Cleveland Demo
Gratis and reform the tariff, we may by
wise administration of our own State
Government and friendly public senti-
ment induce the mills to come to the
cotton. The white farmers may then
turn their attention to that system Of
farming which enjoys the benefit of pro-
lection and let the "wards Of the nation"
the devotees of the Republican party
produce the unprotected cotton.
There are hundreds, yes thousands, of
young men receiving good wages, with
the chances of future advancement, who
would now be on the farms helping to
depress the price of cotton were it not fol
the industrial and commercial enter
prises which employ them.
The Alliance, as non-political organ
ization, was our best protection against
trusts. The severest punishment for
them is to have the wares left on their
hands, and the experience of the Bagging
Trust proved the power of the Alliance
in this respect. J. 5. ).