The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1897-04-07
LET us HAVE A SHARE.
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venture the assertion that the planta
tions upon which this amount of cot
ton is made are worth at least double
the cost of the cotton mill, and give
employment to many times the amour
of labor. This will hold good ir
nearly all cases. 1t is grave mistake
| to assume that there are no real invest
ments in agricultural pursuits, o.
that agricultural laborers are pro
duct OF the soil, and that the chic
mission Of both is to conserve the in
terests of manufacturers and money
lUron these agricultural lands stano
the foundations of our Republic, auc
the people who cultivate them consti
tute a law-abiding, hard-working
economizing, prudent and taxpaying
portion of our citizens, whose rights
should be recognized and WHOSE
wrongs must be remedied.
This bill discriminates against the
raw products of the section which
| in part represent, and I shall under
take to point out its inequalities and
demand fair play. In fact, this dis
elimination does not stop with the
manufacturer of the East, but extends
to the products of raw material in the
West. This condition is the result nc
doubt of vigorous contest on the
part of the Western agriculturists for
a reciprocity of these privileges, while
the South was made the victim be-
cause of the demand on the
part of her representatives, for free
raw materials. In this respect the
South has been considered fair game
for the balance of the country and
plundered as consequence at every
turn. I will cite few dagrant in
stances of this character. Our navy
needed coaling station in the Pacific
Ocean and one was secured in Hawaii.
Did our Government LAY for it in
money! No, indeed. 1t simply gave
Hawaii the privilege of importing raw
products free into this country And
what were these products2 Sugar,
rice, bananas. etc., all of which were
produced only in the South.
To such an extent has this been
carried that Senator Sherman declared
we had paid $4,000, 900 for a misera-
BILE little coaling station; while the
late Senator Dolph stated that a fair
duty upon all imports from Hawaii
would have paid $l2 for every acre Of
land in these islands. The South has
bsen asking for free raw materials,
and here is a case in point where its
request was granted 400, 900, 900
pounds of sugar and 5000, 900 pounds
of rice came into this country last
year duty free from Hawaii. Does
anyone imagine that tenth part OF
this amount either in wheat, corn,
cloth or other manufactured articles
could have been imported in this man
ner without a loud protest from theEast
and West2 The South in this instance
was plundered the majority of its rep,
resentatives advocated free raw ma
terial and were in consequence barred
from making any objections.
RICE COMPARED WITH HAY.
will take the Southern product of
rice in this connection and compare it
with the Northern product of hay and
potatoes. This country produced in
1895 297, ,237, $40 bushels of potatoes
and imported 127,976 bushels. It
produced the same year 47,07S, 541
tons of hay and imported 247,S97
tons. The par cent of imports on
productions is almost too small for
calculation, being about one-half OF l
per cent, In 1895 we produced 1885,
665, ,440 pounds of rice and imported
219, 564, 800 pounds. In other words,
We imported 5O,ss9,ssO pounds more
rice than was produced in the entire
South. We find potatoes protected
by duty of 25 cents per busnel, and
hay 81 per ton, while Southern rice
receives but IT cents per pound. This
unequal per cent of importation proves
conclusively want of reciprocity in
tariff duties upon these products.
There are millions of acres in the
South that will produce rice if it can
be made remunerative.
SUGAR AND CORN COMPARED.
Following out this idea will COM
pare the sugar with the corn of the
North and West. Under the present
bill corn is protected by a duty of Is
cents per bushel, and 20 per cent ad
valorem under the Wilson bill of
1893.
In 1895 the corn crop amounted to
1,212, ,779, ,052 bushels with imports
amounting to 16,575 bushels. One
small train load of corn would repre-
sent the total imports tor 1895. In
1894, with four hundred million more
corn produced, the imports were only
1900 bushels.
Comparatively speaking the imports
of corn amounted to nothing.
During the year 1895 there was pro-
duced 729, ,392,56l pounds OF cane
sugar and 81 ,617, ,O76 gallons of mo-
lasses. During that year 1874, ,51O,-
454 pounds of sugar and 15,075, s79
gallons of molasses was imported.
The duty on sugar is 40 per
cent ad valorem, and on molasses
from Q to 4 cents per gallon.
In this case there was five times as
much sugar imported as produced, and
nearly one.half as much molasses.
I shall not attempt to 60 into details
or bring forward any theories in con-
nection with this comparison, but sim
ply say that there is something radi.
cally wrong as this showing discloses
and the burden as usual falls upon the
South. When, on the one hand, we
find no corn being imported, and on
the other more than score of nations
sending their sugar to our shores the