Middletown transcript., 1892-01-28

individuals selected from the cloud OF
witnesses who surround US on every
side, to relate the distress and pinch
ing want among agriculturists in every
state in the Union. l will only refer by
way Of illustration to two conventions
held since he new year opened-one
of the cotton planters of the Mississip-
pi valley at Memphis, and the other of
the presidents of the Farmers Al
liances in the several states, which met
at Washington on January Slh, repre-
senting 38 states and territories.
The same report was made by each
of the ruinously low prices of their
products, and the grevious condition
Of their industries, only too plainly at
tested by the prices current in open
market. Cotton lower than for 40
years past, and less in price than the
cost of its production. And the con-
dition was epitomized by the declara-
tion that the south must make less
cotton or 60 hungry" with the echo
from the teeming fields of the north
west {" The west must grow less corn
and wheat or go unclad."
Restriction of product was recon-
mended, yet to advance prices by
compelling scarcity is surely blind
and desperate resort, in world
that needs all its productions for the
support of it's inhabitants, where free
exchanges, while increasing demand,
furnish equally means for its abundant
supply. \ 4
To my mind, the causes of the
gradual but steady impoverishment of
the agricultural classes of our country
men and the decline in value of farm
lands and products and the influx to
the cities of our rural population are not
doubtful or obscure. Certainly, it is
not sudden or temporary, but it is a
result slowly but surely arrived at,
and for reasons not difficult to discern.
Many important conditions to-day
existent ought to be full of favor to
the planter and farmer. Our home
crops are the most abundant ever
known, coupled with bad seasons and
short crops in Europe and India.
Our able bodied men are all self-sup-
porting, and voluntarily engaged in
productive labor, aided by the
BEST AGRICULTURAL MACHINERY,
while in Europe they are largely with
drawn from the fields to swell the ranks
of forces armed for destruction and
maintained in costly idleness, awaiting
military orders. Thus, with diminish
ed competition abroad, and abundant
production at home with unequalled
facilities for transportation by river
and railway to the seaboard, there |
ought to be a wholesome degree of |
prosperity attending agricultural pur-
suits, which, however, is lamentably |
lacking.
Now fellow-countrymen, one part of
our country cannot continue to Ian
guish, and another part continue to
flourish without disaster to the whole
and I am sure that the prosperity of
your important and influential associa-
tion is not founded, nor is it sought to
be founded, upon narrow or selfish
basis and that if injustice in the ap-
portionment of the burdens of taxa
tion causes just diseontent, you will
be ready, in spirit of justice and en-
lightened self-interest, to aid in the re-
lief.
1t is my opinion and judgment,
founded upon an experience of nearly
a quarter of a century in the public
service, as a legislator and an admin
official, that the currents of
public taxation have for many years
been running adversely and unjustly
against the natural industries of the
country. That the artificial industries,
as contra-distinguished from the
natural have been stimulated, to the {
neglect and detriment of the latter, {
and our laws Of taxation have been so
that an unjust distribution t
)f governmental aid and favor-and I
he wealth that follows where such t
'avor is bestoWed-has been and is the L
result. /
The balance of our foreign trade Il
las been all along and is to-day MAIN t
aimed almost entirely by the exporta- o
ion of our natural products, and the c
,rices which the farmer obtains for his v
cotton and grain in the home market 0
re regulated absolutely by the price of Il
lis surplus when sold for export to II
oreign markets-markets in which u
ur municipal laws of tariff taxation II
ave no other influence than, while in
reasing the cost of production here, P
0 handicap the producer when he 1t
ONES into competition with his more q
ghtly burdened foreign rivals. \ D
The right of individual contract is u
q essential element of freedom-a Y
of personal liberty from r.
he contract of Christian marriage e,
own to the purchase of an apple-this
lle Of action runs essentially through u
le life of free man. a,
Having secured his contracts from la
Impairment, our fathers proceeded to tr
.cure the full use of his earnings and ia
and provided there should :.
, no tax or duty on exports-and thus
} was left free to sell or exchange in
le country. or to sell or exchange out -
ho ..or..lLr