The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1895-12-03

Il
.. CarOlinians, or the sons and daughter
It OF South Carolinians and never hav
d seen one of them who was not prou
,f to acknowledge the Relationship an
o to send back the greeting that we Low
o our mother, and are proud of her.
Mr.. President, / have had no OF
= portunity as yet TO look at your expo
= siti0n. have been only able to get
a glimpse around the grounds in drivin
through them In carriage, and Il
coming In on the train yesterday after
noon, and to read thes account of tn
papers and hear from my friends VIII
have been here and looked at thi
! grand collection OF the resources an,
! manufactures Of the Southern people
which you have here. The mos
natural thing for q person who visitet
the Chicago Worlds Fair is to make
comparison between the two, and sa,
to you, cir, that from what have beer
able to see OF what you have done tina
you have come up to their magnificent
and most glorious expedition; and
say here again that mo- city except the
Chicago Of the South could have done
1t. To whom is credit duei Your
Governor says that Southern men did
1T, Southern genius and Southern CAD
ital. don't think this Is altogether
well, won't say that he has not given
due credit to some outside help from
those men who have come from the
North and cast their fortunes with
you, and2are today as good Southern
ers as am; and want to call your
attention to one thought, and then
shall stop. 1t is this: We hear and
we read aGgreat deal nowadays about
bringing Northern capital and induc-
Ing Northern brains to come among US
and develop our waste places. The
newspapers harplon this in the South,
and Northern newspapers twit us with
our incompetence and lack of progress,
and laziness; aud too many Southern
papers have become the echoes of this
unworthy thought. But pause and an
alyze the conditions which have ex-
listed here since the war and consider
for moment. to enlarge upon the
thought which my friend, the Cover
nor of South Carolina has just touched
upon, the pension tribute which we
pay and you will see that we haye not
| received back from that source or
from any other source than q tithe of
the money chat the Southern people
have dug from the earth and sent
northward to remain there. Now will
give you few figures and this ia the
only thing took the trouble to look
up to tell you about. The entire
amount paid by the United States gov
ernment since 1851 for pensions has
been 81, 1861 100000. or that sum the
amount paid to the veterans of the
war of 1872 and the war of Mexico and
the Indian wars, S59,O00,00O, so that
the Union soldiers have received $l,-
sou, 900, 900 from tide United States gov
ernment. The number of pensioners
In the South all told, / mean the cot
ton States, Is $4,000. The number in
the United States is 96O, 600, so you see
that less than one-sixteenth of this
money comes back to the South. How
much do we pay? Statistics will prove
that these eleven cotton States count
1t in ANY shape you please, and mea-
sure it by any yard stick you want,
pay not less then one-fourth and nearly
one third of 1t. II you deduct rea-
sonable amount for the sum paid back
to the Southern pensioners, and the
Arkansas, Virginia and Tennessee, 1
say to you that the total sum that is
coming to the South since the war
from pensions from any source has not
exceeded $l5,000,000; that will leave
81, $50, ,000,0 900 that has been paid to
the Northern soldiers and you have
paid one-fourth of that, which amounts
to more than $40O, 100000 of tribute to
our conquerers.
Am l getting up new revolution in
talking about this? Not at all.
know full we'll. that the Southern peo-
pie as people will never govern this
union any more. We only want to hold
the balance of power between the giant
West and the greedy North that are
now marshalling their forces for the
control of this country on the tariff
and financial issues, and we must look
to natural alliances to those whose
interests are identical with our own
and identity ourselves with them and
endeavor to bring back the conditions
that will give us fair chance. So
that our farmers can receive some COM
pensation for their labor besides bare
existence.
"But to- carry out the thought which
lions hu, the North invested in the
South. Coming here for their own
selfish purposes to get largo returns
from their Investments. would n .ke
an even guess that it does not exceed
$400, 100000. Therefore,, when you
talk about Northern capital and brains
coming down here say that they are
only sending back 10 Us some Southern
capital which they have taken from
us as pension tribuie and that we have
not received in ali As much as VIC have
| StnU away VIII
| further by adding that II at the close
| of the war there had been the quality
| there WA before the w:Lr and the
reasonable treatment of the Southern
people If the uniquituus tariff had not
| been coptrived to rob the farmers; if
all the money had not been concentrat-
ed into the hands Of few national
banks; IL the war on silver had not
como up by which Georgia has lost at
| least fifty, or sixty or. seventy-ive mil
! ions in the last three yearse-I just say
to you that IL we had had an equal
showing with our Northern brethren I;
IL we had had an opportunity to keep
our money at home, what kind OF an
(, exposition could we have given? We
are not ashamed of what we have done
and of what we are doing. We stand
up and say to the world that we have
the most glorious country on the top
of the earth and we prove it by these
fixed facts and figures, aud despite
this pension robbery, this financial de.
pletion, Ii we had had fair chance
we could have had an exposition in AT
lanta that would have eclipsed Chi.
cago. This may appear to some bun
combe but the tribute we have paid as
pensions has been a'mere bagatelle tC
! what we have paid as tariff and finan
cial tributein the way Of interest an6
In other ways by which they have
} depleted our country for the benefit o
national banks. II could be proven
! 4 l. IA l. GO