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


see that business grow. 1t makes its
own new blood and must grow.
There is another way. Among the
triumphs of modern surgery few made
more stir when first announced than
did the building up of a wound and
fever depleed human life by pumping
into bis veins the warm, living blood
of sheep. Because the patient could
not make new blood fast enough the
new surgery brought to him the life's
capital of another. Ordinary convale-
scence is just development this was
plain addition.
Every town in the South isa business
point. Grow it will or die according
as it makes or gets new business blood
or tries to be content with what it has.
You would have called him a fool
the emaciated, death-threatened pa
tient-if he had refused to be built up
by the TRANSMISSION process because of
the danger that he might in time be-
come sheep. Fair-play dictated,
however, that the sheep should not be
bled to weakness. The sheep was
well fed in advance, generously and
wisely fed, and was taxed only as his
feeding made it easy for him to pay
the tax.
The Southern town that grows by
the addition of new capitalize busi-
ness TRANSMISSION that has made many
q dead town live-need not fear that
it will thereby ever become q foreign
town. Whatever and however its
growth, it may be, it will be an
American town, Southern town.
Weakness says "beware," wisdom
says "move forward" Let outside
capital be invited to come in. Let the
law that invites provide for control,
for the control that insules good be-
havior Oh the one hand and fair treat
ment on the other. Without the
latter capital will not come; without
the former capital will not bless.
Fear nothing the howler says, not
even his many-told tale of the country
fast going to the city, and hence fast
going to the dogs. His fact is true
fact. Men are now living who were
born when nearly half our population
lived on the farm now less than one
fifth depend on the farm for livelihood,
less than one-tenth are actual farmers.
It is the howler's conclusion that Is
wrong. W bile the cities are growing
so much faster than the country dis
tricts the total wealth Of the United
States Is increasing at the rate of more
than thousand million dollars q
year gaining enough in year to buy
out the entire wealth, the lifetime
accumulations, of all the millionaries
and multimillionaires in the country.
The bowler has found fact, really
significant and large fact, and regard
less of the evident misfit he adds its
weight to his noise and expects the in
creased clatter to increase faith in him
and his howl. This howl is more than
three decades long, but in spite of it,
som chow, the man in town is glad he
is there and the man on the farm is
glad, stI0bornly glad, that the town is
large enough to buy part of his crops
at prices that do not permit the sheriff
to move him off the farm.
If the town was bigger the independ-
ence of the farmer would be better as
sured. Practically all he sells is sold
to the towns concentrated inhabi-
tants. Bigger towns mean richer
farms and farmers with more money
to spend. The customers purchasing
power determines the merchants and
the manufacturers profits.
Everyone is interested in the dis
tance. Eggs sell for as much per
dozen in Smalltown, Ala, as in Liver
pool, England, sometimes for more.
Cotton sells in Smalltown for cent
and a-ouarter per pound less than in
Liverpool. At Smalltown the far
mer's hen fruit is marketed at the
tailboard of his wagon and the price
fixed there. The farmer must pay for
q transportation line third way
round the earth to connect his wagon
with his cotton market. Every
growth of the town brings producer
and consumer nearer together. Dis
tance saved is money earned.
Incidentally want to say here that
city concentration of population is pos
sible only because the farm is prosper
ing. Not long ago one man. on the
farm could not grow enough to feed
and chothe three men in town; now
the one man is producing food and
clothing for five In town and so much
OVERRIDING it that he gets small prices
for all bis crops. This is prosperity
for the farm, but not for the farmer.
The lesson is, build the town. bigger.
Taxes are a burden. Heavy bur-
dens become light only by getting
NOR individuals to share them. The
tax that is paid by 500 is twice as
heavy as If borne by one 1000. Since
Smalltown got factory, working $50
hands, $4,000 more wages are paid out
there each month than formerly.
Every dollar of the increase comes
from the consumers of that factory's
product; that is, mostly from some
distant point. All of II is spent or in
vested there. 1t is all invested there,
since what the worker merely spends
the receiver invests. That is 100000
in a year; over $5O0,000 in ten years.
Smalltown's tax list-its assessable
property-doubled in five years.
What plan so sure for reducing taxa
ton. If the South would drop its
burden it must develop Its towns.
Twigs and Fasces.
Few indeed are the ways Of doing
things that are not as large as the
things to be done. Partnerships we're
invented because individuals could
not alone handle the largest enter
prises. This was merely making the
business stronger by putting more
men in it. Out of the partnership
idea was evolved the corporation idea.
Neither idea was born till the need of
it was felt. Modern business has
many things to be done too large for
any Individual, too large for any firm.
The corporation is a business agent
equal to these things; no other bust.
ness power is. Your choice is limited