The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1893-01-24
AGRICULTURAL DEPRESSION.

The Charlotte ObSerUer comments at
length upon a portion Of Governor
Carr's inaugural address, The editor
knows that therei is something radically
wrong. He says: Our new Governor
does well to bring to public attention
the situation Of our farming class and
to suggest that something needs to be
done, if anything can be done by legis-
latlOn, to restore the profits of agricul-
ture and thus restore our farmers to
their former condition of prosperity
and cOntentment. It will not do for us
all to forget, now that the election is
over, that there is something radically
wrong, when we see the prices of agri-
cultural property steadily decreasing
while all other classes Of real estate
are advancing. Something wrong?
Who can deny it, Let us take a case
at our own doors: Within the past
two weeks throe was in Charlotte
day a Mecklenburg county farmer
trying to borrow money on his farm
wv PAN Pr CSAN' Lie lI w ASSSAS
to do so, and whether he finally sue
ceeded or not we 60 not know. Yet
ten years ago he gave $50 per acre for
that farm and did not pay too much
for it. It is distant from Charlotte
only eight miles and is in certainly as
good condition as when it's present
owner bought it. 1t lies we'll, has been
well kept up and its owner is a good
farmer and an industrious man who
makes good crops of cotton, grain and
grass. Yet through no fault of his,
indeed, while he has been doing his
best all the time, he finds his farm
worth so yer cent. less than it was ten
years ago.
Will somebody explain why this is?
The Observer goes on and asks states
men, philosophers and editors to study
it and find the remedy. The Observer
says it would give five years of its life
if it could solve the problem.
This is strange talk to come from
that source. We don'G think Editor
Caldwell aver has admitted this much
before, He always believed that the
writer was an unsophisticated ''calam
ity bowler, but we claim that the Oh
SeTUeT man is now pulling for the
shore" at a rate that will startle
nervous people. He a get a good
position on any calamity paper in Kan
sas or Nebraska. This all goes to show
that truth is mighty and will prevail"
Those who have called the reform men
Of the State demagogues and o.her
things are getting their eyes open at
last.
But before finishing this editorial the
Observer declares that we believe it
is the tariff alone that is the matter"
Ali the Observer has fallen back into
the old rut again. We do not deny
that the tariff has much to do with it,
but we are in favor of tariff reform.
The Observer is in favor of tariff for
revenue" or something of that sort,
which means no reform, for the tariff
and everything else is not sufficient to
raise revenue now. The Observer didn't
say a word about pensions. What is
the matter with the Outrageous"
pension system we heard so much
about during the campaign9 This re
minds us of an incident of the past.
Prior to the election of Mr.. Cleveland
eight years ago the internal revenue
was the prime trouble. When Cleve-
land became President he said the
was all right, let it alone.
From that day to this the internal
howlers have been strangely
quiet. Now it seems that the pension
question has been relegated to the rear.