Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1892-11-23
TIE Small Farmer and his Troubles.


There is no subject of more interest |
in the United States, or in any country, |
for that matter, says the Norfolk
Landmark, than the condition of the
for upon the prosperity of the farming
class rests, in large degree, the
stability of the country.
We have frequently discussed the
to it again as an appropriate theme in
view of the coming change in the
policy of our Government. The honest
farmer, who has worked and failed for
stand what it was that handicapped
him, and he has become restless and
weary, and hence was ready to adopt
almost any theory presented to him for
relief. Professor r.. Means Davis,
speaking in the Forum for November,
of this very aspect of the farmers stu
alton, says =
''If he has toiled faithfully all these
years, as many farmers have. and is
| vet penniless, he feels that misfortune
| has come not through his renissness,
| but is the result of some extrinsic bane-
| fui influence. There is injustice some
where some one is walking off with
the surplus that he sees accommodating
and believes should be his. The next
step is to catch the thief. The small
farmer believes he has found him
skulking in Wall street. or hiding be-
hind railway entertainments, OF lurking
in the vaults of national banks. The
plutocrats of the land, leagued with
'debauched and bamboozledn politi-
cianshave so managed the Government
and manipulated the finances that the
poor man has no chance. He is told
that if he can capture the strOnghOlds
of political power and use the Govern
ment for his behoof, as his oppressOrs
have used it for theirs, he can solve
the problem and make himself and
everybody else happy by coming
/ plenty of silver dollars to lend to agri-
culturists at nominal interest. Hence
his eagerness to leave the harvest for
the political field and to seek, through
legislation, panacea for his ills. This
seem to be a just presentation OF the
problem of the Southern small farmer
to-day. 1t is well to see whether his
solution of it is correct.
mo one can successfully deny that
legislation by Congress for the past
generation has not been in the interest
of agriculture or of the small farmer
Other classes have been helped, other
interests built up. That this was q
necessity to preserve the Government
at a critical period must, to certain
extent, be admitted. But it is no less
true that in accomplishing some good
results this legislation ushered in a
brood of evils Simple justice requires
that political inequalities be abolished
and that class legislation not in the in
terest of the farmer be repealed, and
that class legislation in his interest
must not be attempted. He must have
his equal rights before the law. In
: deed, as he cannot enter into combina
tions so easily as other classes can, il
may be proper to provide that they be
watched in his behalf. This is all he
should demand or receive from the
law"
This we think a fair view of the
question, so far as legislation affects it
When the laws which have been en-
acted under the rule of the Republican
, party, which have taken from the far
mer his profits, through prices of nee
essaries of life and of the firm, estab
lished by the operation of the high
tariff, have been repealed, and he is
put upon an equality with all other
men, the solution of the problem will
then be matter of intelligent indus
try and methodic farming. We have
always believed, and believe now as
much as ever that, with a given
amount of land, the intelligent farmer
free from any of the artificial restraints
and burdens of class legislation, is full
ly as capable of making good living
with something to spare, as any OF his
fellow citizens, III whatever branch OF
department of life they may be. We
want to see the farmer have fair play
under the coming Democratic admins
tration, and then, if e works as he
should do, we sincerely believe that
the most of his diffic ulties will pass
away.