The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1899-01-25
CORPORATIONS and FARMERS
A Practical Argument for Liherai
Treatment OF Capital.
BY Hon. William A. MacCorkle, eN do'et'
UiroI IpI

A Practical Argument for Lihera'
Treatment OF Capital.
By Hon. William A. MacCorkle, eX Cover
| nor OF West Virginia.
In the development of every country
there comes a parting of the ways
when it must determine for itself
whether it will cling to conditions
which no longer fit the time, and thus
stagnate, or whether it will vigorously
grasp the changed condition OF de-
velopment and thus become rich and
great. This condition today stares the
South in the face. Broadly stated.
this is the proposition. The South, as
a purely agricultural country produc-
ing certain staples, has permanently
overstocked the market, and she must
divert her industries into other fields.
Is this true statement, aud if so shall
she make the change, and in what
direction
The farmer is not in a good way in
the South. The totals of his labor,
taken as whole, are enormous, but
the farmer is not the gamer end the
South does not profit by her enormous
yields as she should. She is another
example of the proposition that a
country cannot become rich and
strong through agriculture alone. The
loom, the reaper and the anvil must
90 together. Severed, they but fur
nish the raw material for other and
more favored communities. Trans
portation, the mandatory and the
farm, under wise and liberal laws, can
make the South an industrial empire
and the Southern farmer mighty
power in the worlds affairs.
NO COUNTY CAN BECOME GREAT
THROUGH AGRICULTURE ALONE.
When Dewitt Clinton advocated
the building of the Erie canal some
one asked, "F'rom whence will come
the water to fill the great ditch ="
"Ah," exclaimed one of the people,
"here will be no trouble about the
water. The tears of the people will
fill it,"
1--WE would as lieve be shot from a
Concreve rocket as trust ourselves to
the mercy of such contrivance," was
the reply of an august official of the
London Board of Trade to Steven
sons pleading for the use OF the loco
motive. In the former place the great
canal has made New York the EN-
pire State of diversified industry, and
in the latter the railroad has been al
most as potent as the sails of the ships
in settling England's industrial su-
premacy. repeat it most earnestly,
that no country can become great and
happy through agriculture alone.
Mere production of raw material does
not pay.
WHERE OUR COTTON IS WOVEN.
Our cotton is woven into the rich
fabrics of use under the far-of skies of
England and New England; our iron
IS made into all the forms of industry
far away from the sunny skies of the
South our timber goes to the great
lakes and comes back to US enhanced
in value. In the first place, we have
the cotton-pickers' wages and the
mortgage on the farm in the second
place, we have the rude pay of the
Sl.25 day for the digging of the iron
out of our mountains, and in the third
place, we are rewarded with the
magnificent recompense of the wood
choppers wages. L repeat it again,
we cannot live under such conditions.
In other words, the Southern producer
must change the mere raising of the
staples and seek other products for his
farm. He cannot do this as things
stand with him today. However,
with long haul and no close home
market, he cannot do otherwise than
raise the staples of heavy farming.
OTHER AVENUES FOR LABOR MUST
BE OPENED.
Looking at this question from a
higher plane than mere improvement
of physical condition and change in
existing circumstances, the demand
arises from another standpoint. The
introduction of machinery in agricul-
tural products is steadily reducing the
demand for purely agricultural labor.
Unless some other avenue is open the
agricultural labor drifts to the city and
accepts any class of labor. From 1880
to 1890 the city population increased
over 60 per cent, whilst the country
population increased only IA per cent.
We can, with small increase of farm
ing, double the amount of agricultural
production, but there would be no
paying sale for the product. AS a
matter of fact, purely farming products
will decrease in value. Therefore,
something must be done to prevent
the paratively rapid decrease of
those on the farm.
WE MUST NOT LIE AT THE FEET oE
KING COTTON.
"When every farmer in the South
shall eat bread from his own fields
and meat from his own pastures, and
disturbed by no creditor and enslaved
by no debt, shall sit amidst his teem-
ing gardens and orchards and vine
yards and dairy and barnyards. pitch
ing his crops in his own wisdom, and
growing them in Independence making
cotton his clean surplus, and selling it
in his own time and in his chosen
market, and not at masters bidding
getting his pay in cash, and not in a
receipted mortgage that discharges his
debts but does not restore his freedom
then shall be the breaking of the full
ness of our day. Great is King Cotton.
But to lie at his feet while the usurer
and grain-raiser bind US in subsection
is to invite the contempt of man and
the reproach of God. But to stand up
before him amid the crops and smoke.
houses, wrest from him the magma
charta of our independence, and to
establish in his name an ample and
diversified agriculture that shall honor
him while it enriches us, this is to
carry US as far in the way of happiness
and independence as the farmer, work,
ing in the fullest wisdom and in the
richest field, can carry any people.n