The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1894-03-29
NEEDED REFORMS.
THE FARMER AND THE Gov
EMINENT.
DR.. Meriwether, OF Johns Hopkins
University, Writes About the
Farmers Movement---Unrest
of the Tillers of the Soil---The
Case Impartially Presented.

! OF CQ6 llll0rS OF inc OOll--- i Ut
Case Impartially Presented.
/ The farmer mo vement goes back tt
thebeginning OF city life and rests on tn.
struggle between urban and rural com
munltes.
The farmer is undoubtedly over
reached by his city competitor, bu
he has no just ground for complaint
except in those cases where the gov
erning powers aid the municipalitie:
to fleece him. He has only sounded
his grievance against middlemen-
commission dealers-but he has here
no cause to murmur except at his own
obstinacy and ruinous independence
He can cooperate with his neighbors
| and ship to an appointed agent, and
reap all the profits himself. If he will
not adopt this plan OF combining
against the tacit combinations ot
cities then he will have to stew in his
ignorant fumes until poverty brings
him TO his senses. The standard ol
life is higher in cities and the man
in turn has Commanding position in
the higgling in the markets.
Undoubtedly trusts are heavy dis
elimination against the farmer. No
"combine" can raise the price OF hi:
wheat, his beef, or his cattle for him,
and yet nearly every implement he
buys has fictitious value on it, and
it is put there mainly through the aid
of the governing power. Trusts rest
on two things, the tariff and patents.
Both Of these are a matter Of legal
regulation. In such instances the
farmer has his only genuine grievance,
a grievance against his government
because it extends special favors to
some. Legislation is SO often for
special classes, with sop now and
then to the great bulk Of the people
the patient agricultural masses. The
halls and corridors of the capitol at
Washington are being worn smooth
by the protectionisis Crowding and
clamoring for pet schemes, but the
solid tread OF the plowman is never
heard there.
1t is only when the supreme au-
thorlty that we all support turns its
beneflcent rays upon chosen few
that the farmer should raise his voice
in protest outside of government in
reference his contest with cities is on
an unequal plane, and if he is beaten
by cunning and compact voluntary
organization he can only blame him
self tor not uniting into an industrial
army. But when his representatives
are hoodwinked and bamboozled by
shrewd lobbyists and imposing dele
cations and cooked-up petitions to
pass statutes that gently but mercilessly
filch from his pockets the hard earn
ings of his labor, then he has right
eous cause OF indignation.
He has made an outcry about his
mortgages, but their amount and
number only show his distress. In
der our present social and industrial
system he has no basis of attack in
this matter, as he freely assumed those
obligations under the law of supply
and demand. The holding OF these
claims SO largely by eastern capital
lists on Southern and Western farms is
an unfortunate occasion for the devel-
opment of a sectional feeling.
But the farmer claims that his chief
burden comes from having to help
carry other vacations that the govern
ment looks on with partial eye. The
establishment of banks is peculiarly
facilitated and great power is put in
their hands. The expensive require
ments make such a business hopelessly
beyond the reach of nearly every
farmer in the land. Their control
over the volume of currency is COM
plete. Such sway is too potent for
evil to be delegated to another agency.
But it is on the silver question that
the farmer of the South and West is
stirred most deeply and resentfully.
He knows only too we'll that there has
been sad fall in the prices of COM
modities since the decentralization of
silver by the leading nations of the
world. He argues that this fall is
because Of the previous government
action, and no one can disprove this.
He has got his second wind. The re-
peal law last fall no more ended the
strife than Cleveland's defeat in 1888
was the death of tariff reform.
But the strongest counts in his in
diCtment against the government are
connected with the general appropria-
tions and the railroad question. In
the past cities have been created by
the breath Of rulers. ST. Petersburg
has sprung out OF the marshes of the
Baltic Berlin has taken on a second
growth through the confederation of
Germany. What is Washington itself
but the stroke of a Presidents peno
How much have the vast sums voted
by congress aided IN the the upbulid J.
ing Of New York? Then add the
millions that have been put into public
buildings, into river and harbor i'm
provemen,s. The half million people
in Baltimore have public buildings
many times the value Of such struc-
lures in rural community of the same
population down South or out West.
OF course in all wise internal improve
men,s the farmer indirectly gets the
benefits, but the prohts-which are
sometimes enormous-all 60 to urban
contractors and dwellers. We must
have these expenditures, bu, they
ought to be as widely distributed a:
possible. The congestion Of people
at few points is a poEtentous evil and
the engine of domination should be