The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1893-01-11
THE SMALL FARMER.
seme OF the Disadvantages Under Which
he Labors-A Thoughtful and Cons"rva-
tive Discussion.

Prof. Il. Means DariS, in the November Forn1s.
Whatever may be the condition of ag-
ricultural interests elsewhere, there is no
doubt that the small farmer who plants
cotton in the South is embarrassed, and
the future holds oat little hope of relief
through established methods. He knows
what it is to work hard and live scantily,
for from choice or necessity he has tried
it for years. Every spring he has set to
work With all the hope that is insepara-
bly, connected with the turning up of the
mellow soil with the plough and the new
birth of nature, and yet every autumn
his chief harvest has been disappoint-
ment. He fads himself in summer with
a mortgage on his land and his mule and
a lien ON his growing crop, while "fu-
lures" are quoted at less than the cost of
production. He Is not theoretical
economist; indeed, his ideas of econo-
mics are often rs crude as the erudest
raw material he produces yet he knows
that he cannot 60 ou losing year after
yea. without winding up in the aims
house. Hence his resilessness, his will :
ipgness to listen to any plan of redemp-
ton, provided it has never been tried
before. He has heard, he thinks, enough
of the old ways. They cannot help him.
If he has toiled faithfully all these
years, as many farmers bave, ard is yet
penniless, he feels that misfortune has
come not through his remissness, but is
the result of some extrinsic baleful intu-
ence. There is injustice somewhere {;
some ore is walking off with the surplus
that he sees accumulatiag 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 behind railway embankments,
or lurking in the vaults of national
banks. The p!utocrats of the land,
leagued with "dsbauched aud bamboo
zled" politicians, have 80 managed the
Government and manipulated the
finances that the posr man has no
chance. He is told that if he can cap
ture the strongholds of political power
and uae the Government for his behoof,
as his oppressors have used 1t for theirs,
he can solve the problem and make him
self and every body else happy by coin
ing plenty of silver dollars to lend to
agriculturists at nominal interest. Hence
his sagerness 10 leave the harvest for the
political field, and 70 seek through legis-
lation panacea for his ills.
This seems to be ust presentation Of
the problem Of the Southern small
farmer to-day. 1t is we'll to see whsther
his solution of it is correct.
No one can successfully deny that leg
islation by Congress for the past genera
ton has not been 10 she in. crest of agri-
culture or of the small farmer. Other
classes have been helped other interests
bailt up. That this was necessity to
preserve the Government at a critical
period must, to certain extent, be ad-
mitted. But it is no less truo that in
accomplishing some good results this
legislation ushered in brood of evils.
Simple justice requires that political
inequalities be abolished, and that class
legislation not in the interest OF the
farmer be repealed, and that class legis'
lation in his interest must not be
attempted. He must have his equal
rights before the law. Indeed, as he
cannot enter into combinations so easily
as ether classes can, it may be proper to
provide that they be watched in his be-
half. This is all he should demand or
receive from the law
Bat grant all the remedial Legislation
nssesssry to put the farmer on equal
terms before the law; abolish artificial
monopolies, prevent illegal e'mbi-
nations, increase to ils proper vel
ume the eurrency-and vet the problem
is not solved. There are natural causes
operating moro potent than alleged plu-
tocra,ic legislation for good or i'll TO the
farmer. So long as they exist he may
be relieved of the ipjustise of man, yet
his prosperity is not assured. His ciior;s
must also BIZ t, strengthen those forces
that aid him and to couuteracl those !hat
operate to make him poor. Without
attempting to advance any new truths, L
desire to point out how some emharrass.
ments have come about regardless CT
legislation. and how some facts abduced
to prove Determinations against the
farmer are actually to some extent pron's
of improvement in his condition al d
productive power. 1t is we'll to begin
with this latter class.
1t hiss been held al proof of the fact
that the farmers are growing poorer, that
farm values were ty Per cent. OF
all the wealth of the country in 1850,
about fifty per cent. in 1860. aad are less
than twenty FIVE per cent. ncw. Abso
lutely, the value of farms increased from
four billion dollars in 1850 10 eight bill
ion dollars in 1860, eleven billion dollars
in 1870, and twelve billion dollars in
1880. The statistics for The las. CENSUS
have not been completed. While am
firmly convinced that the tariff has been
a vary potent factor in this comparative
diminutisn of agricultural values, and
that other legislation also has contribu
ted to the same result, yet natura causes
are enough t, account for large share
ofthe change.
In q new country the Industries are
chiefly exsractive, because of the ferti:-
ity of the virgin soil. AZ civilization
progresses industry is diversified and
wealth is tursod 10 other investments.