The Caucasian. (Clinton, N.C.) 188?-1913, 1892-02-11
THE EDITORS CHAIR.
HOW THINGS LOOK FROM
OUR STAND POINT.
The Opinion OF The Editor and the
Opinion Of Others which we
Can Endorse on the Various
Topics Of the Day.
WE HAVE BEEN DIVERSIFYING.

Some of the resolutions being pass
ed by CT tton conventions make US
right tired. The men composing
these conventions are honest hard
working men, but 50 persistently and
adroitly has the money power, aided
by the partiZan press, told the farm
er that he himself WAS alone to
blame for the low price Of products,
that it was not his laziness any long
er but his too great industry that
brought on hard times, that he had
made TOO much wealth, that he had
made so much that it had made him
poor, it short that it was all caused
by over production, but that he must
'n0t stop work, but that it is his duty
to cconomize and to diversity his
crops, yes, they have preached this
stuff until they have gotten some Of
our people to believing it. We clip
the following from resolution pass
ed by the Augusta Cotton Conven-
tiOn, which is a sample Of many
others tbat we have seen:
"Whereas, The enormous extern
sion Of cotton culture has so cheaper.
ed that product as to cause wide
spread financia! depression serious !-
affecting all branches Of industry"
ste, etc.
The resolution then goes on and
calls on the farmers to diversity their
crops. The passage Of such rasolu-
tiona must be highly pleasing to the
money power and the stock Gam5!ers
and make them highly value The pa
rers that serve them, for the farm
er8 take all blame off Of them and
modestly shoulderit themselves. In
the next place we would like to know
where the farmers are going to diver
sify. What can the farmer AM la
borer make that will yield d fair
profit under the present infamous
and corrupt financial system. The
fact is the South and West have been
diyersilying for the past ten years,
The percentage of increase il
the cereals and other crops
from 1880 to 1890 has out-shipped
the increase per centage in cotton.
The statistics show this. But they
say that everybody planted cotton
in 1891 instead Of raising cora and
o;her cereals, and that that was the
cause OF the great fall in cotton. Let
us see. The following are the figures
given by the crop statiscian to the
world:
The cereal crop in 1891 amounted
TO uearIy S4O3, 800, 900, thus exceed
| inc the value of their cotton crop
! (33G0, 1913, $3.50 by some 543, 100000 !;
moreover, although both crops show
a large increase over the figures of
1890, the increase Of cereals was over
SIS, ,0OO, 900 against $50, ,000, 900 in cot
ton, "a growth in the value and pro-
ductiol of grain nearly four times
as great as the growth in cotton.
Their last years corn crop alone
amounted to $40, 1880, 900 bushels,
some 106, 400, 900 bushels mere than
in 1890, and more than double what
the yield was IN 1881; oats reached
TITS, ,000, coo bushels, an increase
over 1890 Of 16,000,000; nearly 40,
OOO,000 bushels OF wheat were raised,
an increase of Il, 5000, 600. The value
ofhay produced in 1891 was S23, 500,-
900, an increase Of $2,F07, 200; Of po-
tatoes $I6,644,000, an increase OF 81,
5S1, ,162; of tobacco $50, $50, ,405 an in
crease Of 81, ,472, 600, and of fruit $40,
526, 100000 an increase OF $780,
800, nearly 40 per cent.
If the above is true, any fool can
see that 'over- production Of cottcn'
is not the cause, and that diversity
ing the crops is not the remedy f0l
the present cause Of scarce money
and low prices.