The Kosciusko star. (Kosciusko, Miss.) 18??-1898, 1895-02-22
THE CREDIT SYSTEM.
HOW IT INJURIES SOUTHERN FARMERS.

commerce; it is bald speculation.
The goods are sold at exorbitant
rates, and oankrupts the merchant
and leaves the laborer in rags. 1t
permits one man to take mort
gage on the sweat of another mans
face-on crops yet unplanted-ts
mortgage the bread that feeds his
family and cattle, and that man a
poor, ignorant negro, or white
man; it ruins one as much as the
other. They never see a dollar
from ole years end to another.
They are always in debt. 1t takes
the manhood out of them. They
ale slaves, worse than slaves; it is
fast making them desperate. They
are telling very ugly and talking
very ugly.
The only safety lies in a mans
labcrirg for his dollar, and then
having his dollar. Then be know.
it. value. Then he knows how
hard it was to earn. Then he will
not waste it. 1t is only foolish to
subvert these laws of nature.
Credit to most men means ruin
especially SO 10 the people of
Louisiana.
Laws ought not macadamize the
road to ruin. The wise lawmaker
protects his people from their fol.
ly.
Thousands and ten Of thousands
of people, who ought to be labor
ing for some honest, fair-dealing
man for so much a monlh-they
and their families-are renting
lands, renting mules, buying meat,
and meal, and corn, and sugar,
and coffee, and tobacco, md shoes.
and clothes, and every domestic
comfort at two prices, and blowing
lands up and down hill, under halt
made fences, with the ditcnes fill
led up, working half the time, and
injudiciously, half fed and half
clothed. You ask the father of
this family at the beginning of the
year if he doesn't want 10 hire,
and he says: "No; I'm gwine to
rent" He has no property, no
skill, no equipment, no money
with which to farm, but the laws
Of Louisiana make for him a fcti-
tious credit by which he is con-
verted into landlord, a planter.
to his ruin Ito the ruin Of the men
who furnished him, and to the rum
of the real farmer, who needs his
labor, who would preserve and
improve his lands, build good
roads and fences, and improve bet
ter the fortunes of all. In other
words the merchant owns him,
sells goods to him at whatever
price he pleases, has a privilege
on all he and his family makes;
if necessary, can seize all he makes
in the fall. lie is forced to make
all cotton to pay his account, and
this is why our people do not di.
versify their crops; they plant cot
ton from necessity. Finally, he
diverts some of his cotton, runs
it" is shed,,, has a judgment re-
corded against him. He hates
merchants, becomes a Populist, is
in favor of free and unlimited coin
ageot silver and free and unlimited
distribution of tn ; same.
What we need is craftsmanship;
men who know the practical work
ing of these and other vicious laws
who will go before the Legislature
and expose their evil working, and
carefully suggest the proper rene
dies.
The whole of the above is exact
ly in line with the wise counsel of
Gov. Lowry. as embodied in his
several messages to the Legisla-
ture OF Mississippi; in line with
the letter Of Judge Calhoun, in
which he lately declined to be Il
candidate for Governor of Missl
sippi; and the speech Of Gov.a
Stone before the late cotton con-
ton. Very truly yours,
~ RI C,rONE