The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1899-07-11
WA eloN LBARNED,rLLIGHT
ON THE TRUST
QUESTION.

~" ~Iroseph B Ager' FFes1"S we
'g ,n5 State Grange was before the
Hsryl-joI Commission to day. He
IndaY hat a trust among the farmers
s'iG was suggested by MI. Have
'aep ua impracticable owing to the
n3S ",Itg of getting the farmaIs to hold
~ prices ,,.iasrod = o,rdi.
- the average farmer as worse
i YES % years ago.
~. ". Humans, OF South Carroll
o,crpieG the witnCs stand during
offarnoon session He said the ag
~.',T,nrsl interest Of the South was
I,.tv depressed, and he attributed
5anressfon to the fact that silver
"a mot recognized as a money metal.
-. s,id there had not been an increase
= rho volume Of money to correspond
-,b tie increase Of population. As a
,~,,sa1ueucs there had been a general
,,,rscistion OF values. He was pro.
.sadfpg to develop his views upon this
mint when Msj3r Farquhar made a
mint of order against the character of
no testimony, and this point was Is,
aimed by the chair (don. A. L. Har.
tl. at5er q somewhat spirited eEcoun
,gr between R representative Livingston
and the r publican memOers."
Mr.. Jas. Barrett, Wee President Of
the Georgia State Agricultural Society,
vss the only witness before the com
mission a few days previous. He spoke
gpon the agricultural conditions of
the South, saying that they were worse
pday than they had yer been in the
history OF the country.
MIR. Barrett said that nine tenths of
he cotton grown was mortgaged before
i was matured. Rates of interest and
commission were higher and the mer-
,1snts were generally coming into pos
session. Of the land. The banks charge
per cent. for money for 3 months
nine. He advanced the idea that the
1sticnal bank act did vast damage in
u.laHing real estate as security for
money loaned to these banks and that
81 told, tais act was to the South the
most damaging legs alton that had
s7er been enacted. The witness said
is! nearly ell the plantation labor was
done by negroes, and that there was
vracticalIy no immigration because Of
ta Cheapness Of labor and the social
vriisions. The railroad rates we're
s,h as to render it impossible to long T
make watermelon gro wing profitable,
waAe same was true Of other gar
Ten voducts. The railroads are
both the daddy and the nanny of the
trusts he asserted.
Mr. J. Polk Brown, President Of the
Agricultural Society of Georgia, agreed
with Mr.. Barrett that the condition of
agriculture in the South is more de-
pressed than it has ever been. Mr..
Brown waited the colored race separa
TED from toe whites and colonizsd
either in this couatry of elsewhere in
me interest Of the SyuEhern States.
he said that freight rates from Gaor
g8 to New York we're about twice
what they are from New York 20 Geor
gia The large cities were evidently
being built up at the expense of the
country. Even the watermelon crop
vas untavorable. I'VE have found
tea: in shipping melons we pay the
freight" he said. The railroads cut
Is out 0, profit in he busine So"
The Commit son also heard a state
nelt from L N. Lockwood, an oil
producer of z lienople, Pa, in opposi
ton to the Standard Oh Trust. Mr..
lockwood declared that this company
Tad driven the Independent refneries
l1Io bankruptcy and Fervitude, and he
denounced the course pursued in So
we're terms He held that the railroads
sts~ especially responsible for this con
-Iticn Of Gffairs. Going back ito 1872
re referred at length to a contract
made Dy the trunk lines of Pennsylva
Ia with the South Improvement Com
Pany- Under this contract, he said,
'a5 freight rates on oil were doubled
sud one half the amount collected was
Pad back as a rebate. Mt only this,
.l. TIE cCn1ract company received a
"se reOase on the shipments of all
yer companies. ThIs contract he,
--E.AraF nod Ican co0roflu continued
U. ths railroads with the Standard
Vi Company. He quoged A J Cas-
.5.~ tho new president OF the Pennsyl
VAIN. siIroad Company, as tessifyir &
GRE the Liter State Railway Com
~s la 20 the eff CT that while the
-'5l ss ID the public WIS 81. 80 per
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