The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1896-01-29

great obiectors TO taxation. IN all its
varied forms, / desire to saggest to
them : few taxes that we may prop
erly call voluntary orseifimposed that
in their cumulative form are far great
| eT and more bardensome IN the long
run than those levied upon Us by
county. State or government, and /
IQuote so eminent authority as tie
great and good Benjamin Franklin,
who states it is an axiom That Nv e
are more heavily taxed By our idle
ness. pride and folly. than weare tax
ed by government. The farmer who
undertakes TO buy every thing that is
necessary to make a cotton crop upon
| voluntarily imposes an over powerlng
tax upon himself. When he buysa
pound Of meat or peck Of corn, ne
pays the merchants he gets from Il
tax. He pays the wholesale man =
tax. He pays the Crayman 4 tax who
transfers it. He pays the railroad a
tax that hauls it. If meat he pays a
man a tax that butchers it, and he
pays the the original farmer who rails.
es it tax, for it is likely ne is not
raising il for his health, but for his
profit.
\ farmer always pays toll when he
goes 10 town. whether he rides upon
a macadamized road or not have
known farmer to ride nine miles 10
town on a tired mule, when his crop
was in the grass, to pay twenty. five
cents for shuck collar, when there
were shucks wasting at home. | have
known them 10 do the same, W ho had
sold cotton for and 1 1-2 cents, and
pay 20 cents q pound for cotton plow
lines.
I knew a farmer, who while plow-
ing his new ground field, one Satur-
day morning in July, suddenly re-
membered that he had broken his AK
helve, and would have to 60 to town
to get an other. Now, this fellow liv-
ed IN the mountains of North Alaba-
ma, where I live. and where we have
second growth hickory, that is the
! best AK handle timber on earth and a
profuSion of it. Now, instead Of 60
ing back to his cabin, on the noun
tain. side, and cutting him a straight
strong, sinewy, young mountain hick-
ory, while with his wife by his side
and his children playing around him,
with the butt end of the hickory
tightly locked between the logs OF his
humble cabin, he drew down to the
symmetry of a strong, strait-grained
ay-handle, he quits, his field Of labor,
throws guano sack upon the back Of
his mortgaged mule, and as he rides
out OF the gate replies to the anxious
inquiry of his wife that he is obliged
to 60 TO town to get an AK handle.
The tax begins when he rides
! through that broken-down gate. First
and foremost, he is taxing the anX-
iety of that poor pale-faced woman,
that knows too well of the himsiness
of this excuse; she knows too we'll
that though he is generous, brave and
true, that under certain influences,
the recklessness of his nature leads
him to imposing taxes upon himself
and family that human nature Ill
afford to bear and that God Almighty
Himself will not hold him guiltless
of. Upon his return, after an absence
OF day and a night, to the cabin
on the mountain side and its defense
less inmates, who had spent a lone
some night indeed in the absence of
their only protector, save the faithful
coon dog, after emptying his meal
sack at their feet of its contents Of
high priced cotton prints aud little
shoes that he had paid country mer-
chants 100 per cent. advalorem tax
upon, thus undertaking to alleviate
his own feelings by paying them for
the wrong he had done them, he
again called back to the error Of his
way when his wife reproachfully asks
for the AK handle that never came"
In conclusion, I will say to you, my
fellow farmers and co-laborers Of the
American Cotton Growers Protective
Association, that my advice to you is
to raise your home supplies, thus
avoiding these self.imposed taxes that
are more burdelsome than you can
bear. Decrease your cotton acreage
and thus destroy this annual surplus,
or in other words, adjust the supply
to the demand; then the laws Of com
merce and competition will prevail
and prices will regulate themselves
equitably between the producer and
the consumer.
At the conclusion OF Mr.. Lanes ad-
dress, committees were appointed on
permanent organization, credentials
and resolutions.
After addresses by \. S. Caldwell, a
prominent planter of Louisiana, and
Charles Scott Of Mississippi, the con-
vention took a recess until 3 p. m.
At the afternoon session the report
Of the committee on resolutions was
unanimously adopted. 1t declears
that the over production OF cotton re-
duces the value of that commodity far
below the cost OF the making OF it and
continues thus:
The Southern cotton growers are
masters of the situation. The crop Of
1895 being less than seven million
bales, renders it entirely feasible by a
further and reasonable reduction Of
acreage during the present year to
materially advance the value OF cot
ton and thus insure safe and sub
stantial profit that cannot fail to
bring increased prosperity TO the
South, not only as the immediate re-
result OF such profit, but by enhancing
the value of our lands and turning
hither the tide Of immigration, much
needed for the development OF the
great natural resources Of this favor
ed section.
The resolutions also urge the pro.
duction OF an abundant supply of
corn, hay, meat and other ike COM
modities for home consumption.
The executive committee was en-
powered to take such steps as may be
deemed advisable for the establish
ment of an official organ Of the asso-
citation.
A permanent organization was