The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1899-05-10
Hard Times in the South.

Judge Rober Powell made q speech
in Vicksburg last week, in the course
of which he discussed "the poverty Of
the South; and explained it in a way
which, though not although original, is
both true and always effective. He
said:
"The reason of our poverty is not
hard to find. Take our average citizen.
He gets up in the morning and pulls
on a pair of socks from Lynn, Mass;
puts on pair of shoes from Boston; a
suit Of clothes from Philadelphia; goes
into his breakfast, draws upa chair
made in Chicago, and eats from q table
which came from Cincinnati; sweetens
his coffee from Rio with sugar frori
Louisiana; takes a slice Of ham cured
in St. Louis, and buffers biscuit OF
Minnesota flour with oleomargarine
which came from the Lord knows
where; lie eats South Carolina Or LOU
isiana rice, and even the very grits
upon his table were ground in some
Northern mill; he goes to his stable
and puts set of harness from St.
Louis on amule from Kentucky; bitches
it to wagon from Illinois, and drives
over to his neighbor's and complains of
hard times. Of course, times are hard
when everything people eat, drink,
wear and drive come from somewhere
else and only the atmosphere which he
breatlles is a home institution
All of this applies with almost as
much force to the case of the people OF
South Carolina, as to the case of the
people of Mississippi. It's true that
esthe average scitizen" of this State
may pull OH pair of socks made in
the State, and .eat rice grown in the
State. and slice ct ham cured in the
State if he hunts carefully for these
things, and there is good prospect
that many Of them will be able next
winter to butter bread made from flour
1nilled in South Carolina, from wheat
grown in the State; but the fact re-
mains that "the very grits on his table"
are still "ground in some Northern
mill'' from, Northern grown corn, and
all the rest of the story fits him as
closely as it fits his Mississippi neigh
bor and accoun is for his poverty" in
equal degree.
To do him justice, however, the Car
olina "citizen," and especially the Car
olina farmer is beginning to see the
light, and to mend his ways by it. He
has taken to raising his own pork and
bacon. He is growing more corn than
he has ever grown before, and nearly
as much as his father grew "before the
war" He is shipping [some) beef cat
tie to the North and West and to Cuba,
He is planting wheatin counties where
it was never planted before. He is
growing rice in the hill country and up
to the foot Of the mountains. He is
making as good syrup as is made any
where, and lots Of it. He has intro
dlced and spread the tobacco crop
over nearly half the State and is still
spreading it. AS Senator Tillman,
himself farmer, said at the meeting
in Florence on Thursday: "The day of
cotton has nearly passed, and ! and my
neighbors in Edgefeld are seeking
other fields OF enterprise on the farm"
So are many of his neighbors in all
the counties. They have discovered
that "the day of cotton" and the day
Of hard times go together, and have
set about applying the long, hard les
son they have learned by Seeking
other fields of enterprise -and finding
them at their own doors the farms
they have neglected SO long The day
Of cotton is passing-"has nearly pass
ed" tits not too much to say, we be-
lieye, that the day of hard times, also,
has nearly passed, for every farmer in
South Carolina, and in the South, as
we'll, who is prepared to follow the
wise, if belated, example of Senator
Tillman and his Edgefeld neighbors.-
NeWs and Courier.