The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1893-10-04
Andersnss gnteltigetater,
AFRAID TO GIN.
Mississippi Planters Awake to Find Notl-
oes Pasted on Their Doors.
atlanta Constitution.

BRANDON, MISS, Sept. 2S.-The white
cappers in eastern Mississippi and in
western Alabama, have posted notices
on the doors of every ginhouse that If q
bale OF cotton is. ginned before the price
shall have reached 10 cents, that they, the
ginuers, will do so at The peril of having
their property burned. :,
In section of country within radius
of hundred miles of Brandon, 1t Is esti-
mated that there are nearly 1000 gins,
averaging an output of five bales each for
seventy days in the year. There are not
fifty of these gins now in operation.
There have not been hundred bales
of cotton received at the railroads in east
to say that unless absolute protection is
assured the ginners by the officers Of the
law, that none of them will steam up for
some weeks to come.
Mr.. S. D. Hale, living in the southern
part of this, Rankin county, received
notice two weeks ago to close down his
gin. He paid no attention to the order,
and last Sunday night his ginhouse was
fired and burned down. There arc over
q hundred gins in this county, each one
of them having piles of seed cotton ready
for the gin, but it will not be touched
until the orders of the whitecappers are
revoked. The merchants are completely
demoralized. Insurance companies are
Withdrawing their policies and this Sec
ton is terror stricken.
Judge Meyers, the criminal judge Of
this district, in delivering his charge to
the grand jury at Forest last Monday
advised the people to shoot down any
man prowling around their premises who
could not give good account of himself,
and promised the people absolute i'm
ulunity from the law. The cotton fields
are alive with pickers, and if the good
weather now prevailing should continue
for a month longer, the crop will be
gathered /; but when it will find its way
to the market, is hard to even conjecture.
Mississippi is distinctiveIy an agricul-
tural State. Beyond her wealth is tim
ber, much of which is unavailable under
existing circumstances, she has practi-
cally no other resources than the cultiva-
ton of the soil.
Along the line of the Illinois Central
railroad, fruit growing and truck farming
have become a considerable and fairly
profitable industry; but cotton is the
money crop Of the great majority OF the
people. Cotton IS popuIarly associated
in other sections of the country with
Visions of big plantations, but in reality,
very large part of this crop is grown on
farms which would be regarded as small
even in New England. The planters of
this State do not constitute numerous
class. They cultivate the rich alluvial
lands of the Mississippi, Big Black. the
Yazoo and the Sunflower, where they
maintain more or less amphlbious ex-
istence and are annually menaced with
inundation and other ruin. They live'in
the "black" counties 80 called, because
of the preponderance of the negro popu-
lation, attracted thither by the prospects
of high wages. But vast deal of cotton
is raised ID the bill counties of central
Mississippi on farms which produce
from one to ten bales. The cotton is
planted in the early Spring. The har-
yesting or picking and ginning begins by
mid summer and Is continued sometimes
as late as Christmas. Meanwhile, the
farmer is dependent upon his merchant
for supplies. The plapter deals directly
with a commission merchant In New
Orleans. He is supplied by a merchant
who does business In some neighborlng
town, and who makes the necessary ad-
yances secured by deed of trust on the
poor mans crop, stock and other prop
erty. In good times, that Is to say, when
prices rule nigh enough TO cover more
than the cost of production, the merchant
is paid and there is little something
left to buy the wornenfolk new calicoes
and ribbon, and Sunday suits for the old
man and his boys. Otherwise, our
horny-handed yeomanry have to face an
outlook in which scarcely any element
of despair is omitted. They have just
now reached, very nearly, that gloomy
end and years toll, prftation and Ankle
ty. The crop, SO far as quantity Is con-
cerned, averages we'll enough. but prices
are low and there is only faint hope
that they will rise to much higher
figure.
"A situation like this involves political
as well as material consequences. Men
who live lives of unr1mitting hardship,
and whose ways and means of living,
such as they are, threaten to disappear
altoge ther, are disposed to lay their
troubles at the door Of some sinister infiu-
ence. They do not regard their condition
as natural one, nor do they believe that
their lot would be SO hard under a gov
ernment directed for the common people.
The small farmers of Mississippi are not
socialists in the ordinary sense. They
are not conversant with socialiStic litera-
ture or Journalism. They have as yet
strong sense Of proprlety, and, as the
phrase goes, of the rights of property,
but on the other hand, they believe that
the government ought to take some part
in the control of business in the interest
of the masses.
They suspect that the laws of the land
are designed and administered In order to
make the rich richer and the poor poorer
and they are jealous OF all the seemingly
more prosperous classes. The merchant
and the professional man is tahooed by
the Farmers Alliance. At any cross
roads store groups ofmen may be found
at almost any time talking about the
courthouse ring as Of conspiracy against
the agricultural classes. These grievan-
ces and prejudices have given some
strength to the populist movement and
in possible conjuncture OF circumstan-
ces might give it more.
It is not unreasonable to expect that
men holding these views and cherishing
these. feelings would approve the notori-
ous s1btreasury scheme. Many of them
did accord it hearty support, but there
is after all an invincible grain of conser-
vatism in the southern character and
after prolonged discussion Of the whole
question on the stump in every quarter
Of the State, it was repudiated by heavy
majority. Still there is painful degree
Of unrest in the minds of all the classes
in regard to the financial situation.
There is very little money in Mississippi.
and in consequence of this fact there is
comparatively little stimulus for new
enterprises which might furnish work
and wages for the unemployed. AT this
moment there is uueasiness that the
movement of the cotton crop may be long
delayed through scarcity of funds. For
this reason the people of Mississippi
favor the free coinage of silver, or the
people would favor any other scheme
that would tend to increase the volume
of currency actually in use. Should
Congress adjourn without taking some
perceptible step in this direction their
allegiance to the democratic party will
be sorely tried, but would probably re-
main after all unshaken. The democrat
ic party has never been mere make
shift to the southern people, least Of all to
the people of Mississippi. 1t has stood
between them and anarchism on the one
hand and despotism on the other. They
have, moreover, a feeling that they have
nothing else to turn to. Therefore it is
that, while Mississippi democrats grum-
ble and groan from year to year, they
come up with the ticket in their hands
on every election day. But beyond the
considerations already mentioned there
is a growing conviction IN the minds of
the more thoughtful that it would be
dangerous to the peace Of society to en-
courape those third party movements