The Union times. [volume] (Union, S.C.) 1894-1918, 1899-04-07
A Drastic SUGGESTION.

A correspondent from South Caro-.
lima, interested in agricultural pros.
perity, makes some very drastic sug.
gsstioas, which will hardly fad ac.
csptance.
His views, as written by himself,
are as follows:
l will give my plaa to reduce the
s)tton crop to 100000 bales and
raise the price to Ia cents per pound.
For the "sake Of humanity" let
every cotton state pass u law some-
thug like the following:
Section /. No maAs wife should
be allowed to engage i'll any way
whatever in tae cultivation or the
gathering of the cotton crop.
Sec. 2. No children under ten
years of age should be allowed to en-.
gage i'll any way in the cultivation
or gathering of the cotton crop.
Sec. 3. No female OF any age or
color should be allowed to engage in
the preparation of the sol for a cotton
crop after the 1st day OF November,
or before the 1t day of April of eacn
year.
The women and children should
not be held responsible for violation
Of the law, but the husband or the
man giving employment should be
subject to penalty.
There are several grounds on which
the suggestion of our correspondent
are thoroughly impracticable. The
first, and perhaps tho leading one, is
the patcrnalism with which he
would invest the government. The
idea that everything in life is to be
helped by the government is a most
erroneous one, which would lead to
even greater miseries than we have.
Inc government does not exist for the
purpose of assuming private burdens,
OF buying what everybody has to sell,
or OF fixing che prices Of products or
OF labor. The original idea of our
republic was to leave as little law as
possible, to leave wide open all the
avenues of trade and commerce, and
ia the race of life to let the best man
win. 1t is out of this great mill that
has come the gri which has built up
the manhood and the independence OF
the past. Oar citiz ,ns were freemen
then; under paternal sm they would
sink to the level of the fellahs of Egypt.
Then. again, there is nothing to be
gained in the suggestion that women
and children should be prohibited
from work-it would be cruel and un-
kind. The women and children of
our revolutionary era were raised on
hsrd work; they could swing the AK
equally as well as their husbands and
fathers. 1t will be long time before
America will produce another gener.
alton equal to the mothers of the revo
lution-that was our heroic age !
Then women and children are entitled
to living which they can only gain
by work, and the thrifty among them
would deem it a great unkindness to
be hustled OIL t. some soup house iu-
stead OF being permitted to earn their
bread. There are women and chill.
dren, too, who have no husbands or
fathers to work for them, aud they
have rights, even as against the ,rirts
There is but one way out of the
woods, and that is, first, by all working
alike, according to strength and con
dilions, and. secondly, by using intel
ligence to WORK on something which
will bring back that livelihood which
ia worked for. Live at home, contro
you own personal resources, exercist
your thinking faculties and all tn,
rest will be added by that proviienc,
WHICH "a'chcs v.r al .-A,a4ta Co..
stitution.