The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1899-06-28
SOUTHERN FARMERS.

Broad Giuage Remedies Suggested fOl
Broad Guage Evils.
BY w. A. Parker, late Editor of the Wesson
Mississippi, Mirror.
The Southern farmer is not happy
I do not propose to consider all tn
causes of this, but l am impressed will
five features of the situation as deserv
ing of more than a passing thought
These are:
| (l). Credit farming.
(2). A lazy mans market.
(3). The plow and the loom too fa
apart.
(4). Bad transportation.
(5). Fear of the fire.
Credit Farming.
"Credit farming is the result of being
compelled to farm without capital
This fallacy looks to be plain truth
it is plain absurdity.
Farming is not speculation. 1t j!
not play. Il is not idle dreaming. l
is business, and business is not done II
this year of grace without capital
money capital, brain capital, energy
capital. The farmer who has these
three forms of capital uses them in hi!
business. The farmer who lacks ont
or all of them hires what he has not
When you hire workman you be
come a master, he a servant. Wher
you hire capital you acquire a master
and become a slave. A slave may
make a profit out of the business OF be
ing slave. and in time may buy hi:
freedom. Not many crop-lien slaves
however, ever realize this possibility
Most of those vino do are those who
hire only money capital. Those tc
whom the merchant must also "fur
nish" brains and energy eventually
realize the boast of one Of them who
said: "When I can't make living
working six months in the year 1 viii!
uuit.n He clearly meant he would
quit farming, as he had not made
living in years, ..
The great barrier to the crop-lien
slaves emancipation, however, is the
fact that, in his case, the furnishing
merchant is the real farmer. He does
not plant according to his judgment
but accordidg to his orders. He cult
yates also by order, gathers his crop
by order, markets it by order, and by
orders from the same source arranges
his plans for another crop. This
man will never do his best farming
till he can get the merchant out of the
position OF boss, and the merchant
will be boss till the slave is able to
furnish" himself.
A Lazy Mans Market.
Said q successful farmer TO me re-
Gently: "The average farmer is body
diligent but brain lazy. He is willing
to work with his hands, but not with
his head. What crops he can make
only by hard study and real thinking
the will not plant" Cotton is brain
lazy crop. Brain-lazy to plant, make,
gather and sell.
The merchant also brain-lazy. He
is the farmers middleman. He brings
the farmer and his market together.
Many times, most times, the farmer
has neither time, money information,
experience, confidence, nor, possibly,
ability to hunt q market. He must
plant for the merchants market-for q
laZy-man's market. Cotton sells it.
self-for money or debt receipt. No
other possible Southern farm crop
does. Hence the more laziness the
more cotton.
PIow and Loom Too Far Apart.
Some wears ago the center of the
iron industry of this country was at
Pittsburg, Pa. The city was furnace
pirdled. The smoke of the smelter's
fires was curtain by day and q
blanket by night. The town lost its
name and was known as the "Smoky
City, Whoever would smelt iron
built furnace there because it was
orthodox business doctrine that the
factory should be neighbor to its
competitor. A mixture of iron and
rock called ore, lime to fluX it, coal to
melt it, all were hauled from dozen
to a thousand miles that orthodoxy
might preserve a business "center,"
and the pick and the furnac dwelt
apart.
One day there appeared a hereto.
He said the furnace ought to 60 the
ore field. He had the assurance to
point out that Pittsburg was paying
long freights On five and more tons OF
something for every ton Of pig iron
made. His heresy was to make a
short haul of the ore, hux and fuel and q
long haul of the iron-a short haul OF
the five tons and put the long haul on
the one ton. Iron orthodoxy laughed
him to scorn.
CAPITAL, however conservative, is not
reverent. Business heresy is good
doctrine if it can show profit. Away
out near the end of one of Pittsburg's
long hauls furnace was built. The
miners pick was its nearest neighbor.
From within rifleshot Of its door came
ore from one hand, lime from the
other and coal from between the two.
Pittsburg was then putting on the
market at Chicago a certain grade of
iron at a cost of upwards of $40 per ton.
The heretic's furnace soon sold better
iron in Chicago at SIG and made q
good profit. It was his derided short
haul on the five tons and long haul on
the one ton. He had saved the freight
on what the furnace must handle but
could not sell.
Today Pittsburg sees the sun every
day and the stars every night, and the
center of the iron industry of America
is where Dixie is sung. South Pitts,
burg, Birmingham, troop of their
nearest of kin are children of the
marriage the iron hereto negotiated ;
of the wedding at which the pick and
the furnace exchanged vows while
iron orthodoxy forbid the bans.
Where the plow and the loom have
set up housekeeping they are beget.
ting like healthy progeny. But
many Southern plow has not yet
found-many indeed have not yet
sought-a loom affinity.