The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1894-10-03
BILL APPS LETTER.;
william Seems to- be Farmer With Mon-
ey In Bank.
Atlantc, Constitution.

william Seems tc be Farmer With Nom
ey in Bank.
Atlanta Constitution.
Now is a good time to look on the
bright side and be thankful. The old
people who have memories of the war
can't help being thankful when they
recall the trials and tribulations OF
that awful time and the reconstruc-
tion troubles that followed in its
wake. There was poverty, desolation
and depression, while now there is
peace and plenty and political free
dom. For two or three years we have
been passing through that reaction
that always follows boom-an inHa-
tion. Just 80 depression always fol-
lows big drunk or protracted spree,
and the victim has to take medicine
and suffer from stagnation of blood
and brain. But the nation is now re-
covering and it is good time to look
up and get glimpse of the bright
side. Confidence is fast being restor-
ed, and soon the long hidden money
will come forth and go to work. OF
course, there is something in the tariff
and something in silver legislation,
but all this time there has been just
as much money in the nation as there
was five years ago. 1t has been hid
den and kept dormant from lack of
confidence. That was good medicine.
It put stop to the unnatural boom
that built great houses and put moth
ing in them. 1t forced economy and
made the people pay their debts.
This silver business about which our
greatest statesmen differ had but little
to do with it, and if right now the ra-
tio was suddenly fixed at 16 to l, or
any other ratio, the common people
wouldn't know the difference for
months to come. Does anybody sup
pose that it would raise or lower the
price Of cotton-a price that has been
fixed by England for half century,
and fixed according to the law of sup
ply and demand? If the farmers
make more cotton than the world
needs they must take the consequen-
ces. There are more consumers than
producers and cheap goods are COM
fort to them. 1 would rather be far
mer and make cotton at 6 cents
pound than be poor factory girl or a
hireling of any kind. There is no
privilege so precious as freedom-time
to come and go at your pleasure time
to rest if you are tired-time to lie
down if you are sick-time to visit
sick nabor or 60 to Church or camp
meeting, or even to the circus or a
hanging. All this the farmer has, but
the pale-faced factory slave does not,
and many of them feel like singing:
"Oh, but to breath the breathe
Ofthe cowslip and primrose sweet,
With the sky above my head
And the grass beneath my feet"
The discomfort and ingratitude of
these political farmers is sin against
Heaven. Shrewd and unprincipled
ambitious politicians sowed the seed of
discomfort among them, and from the
stump and in their newspapers are
everlastingly preaching the riches Of
Vanderbilt and the Goulds and Astors
instead of the blessings of peaceful
home among the hills or in the villages
where the sun shines and the rain
falls and there is nothing between
them and a kind providence except
their own discomfort. [ don't wish to
envy anybody, but I would to-day
rather be an humble farmer with a
''little farm we'll titled and little
wife we'll willed" and half dozen
healthy children to love me and make
me glad, and some roosters to crow
and hens to cackle and COWS and colts
and pigs and sheep and good garden
and orchard and some good nabors not
far away, than to be Vanderbilt or
Grover Cleveland; but most Of these
populists want Vanderbilts money
without his troubles. We all look
over the fence too much to see what
our. neighbor has got. Envy and self
ishness are at the bottom of our poll
tics, and good deal of it is mixed up
with politics and religion.
"What fools these mortals be-
about politics. A populist leader said
the other day that monument
ought to be built to Grover Cleveland's 8
infamy as high as the stars" What
kind Of talk is that from an intelligent
American citizen? With these bitter
partisans it is all love or all hate.
They idolize man or they denounce
him. Mr.. Cleveland is our President,
and while he is nothing but man
with like failings to ourselves he de-
serves the respect of the nation. The
Democratic press denounced MIR. Har-
rison the same way. There is too
much abuse and too much idolatry.
It is amusing to see the gyrations OF
these professional politicians. Here
we at the South have been congratu,
lating ourselves that the Secretary Of
the Interior has already cut down the
pensions $40, 900, 900 by searching out
frauds and perjurics in that depart
ment. That is what our papers said,
and we cried hurrah for our noble Sec
retary. But the Grand Army at Pitts
burg got hold of it and denounced him
for doing it, and it was hurting the
Northern Democracy, and the New
York World sent a man down to
Washington to see what the Secretary
was doing to the Union soldier and
make report from an interview with |
Deputy Commissioner Bell, who is the
chief officer under Lochren. And Bell
declares that not dollar has been
saved from frauds and perjuries any
more than was saved under Raum, and
that the s2O,OOO,OOO was simply the
plus of the appropriation and arose
from natural decrease Of arrearages.
The big headlines are ''No Dccreasein
Pensions, and there are now 969, 600
pensioners on the rolls. Merciful
Heavens The war has been over thir-
ty years and whole generation of
people has died, and yet there are
nearly million left to draw pensions.
I wonder how many of them our little
handful of Confederates did kill and
cripple 2
II -.