Virginian-pilot. (Norfolk, Va.) 1898-1911, 1899-09-21
AN EXAMPLE J, OF PROSPERITY i

1t is not only in the ges Of the
workers on farms and in the prices
of agricultural products, that the
scarcity OF money has q depressing and
distressing effect, but In the prices of
farm lands. Manufacturers Of cotton,
tobacco &C., are no doubt bringing
profitable returns to the capitalists
and manufacturers, but the makers Of
the cotton and tobacco and the hands
employed in the factories are not pros
porous. This IS true Of Virginia and
in Virginia, mining Is added to manu-
featuring. The stockholders receive
large dividends; but the actual makers
receive very little and are anything but
prosperous; the chief cause Of this be-
Ing the lack of currency. That Is the
curse Of the country, and the reply to
the cry Of the people for more money
Is a citation 10 the gold in the Treas
ury, the production of the gold mines
and the volume of the money in New
York and other cities.-although the
money stringency. even in the city of
New York, is great, and call money
has to pay as high as per cent in
terest, on the best commercial paper,
If it can be got for that.
The Wilmington IN. C.) Messenger
again gives us and all who chose to
learn the truth an object lesson that
should teach the shouters of prosperity
and plenty OF money a little truth. and
moderate their gush over the deplora-
BILE condition that Is indeed making the
rich richer. but the poor poorer. The
county of which the Messenger tells
us (Edgecombe) was formerly one of
the wealthiest counties of the State,
prolific and profitable, especially to it's
farmers and planters,-and this period
existed since the war and included the
farm-hands In its prosperity tin the
money famine began. We quote the
Messenger and commend it to our
readers:
"If you had taken q ride twenty or
thirty years ago from Rocky Mount
along the Tar river for twenty or thir-
" miles In the very excellent produc-
tive county Of Edgecombe, you would
have passed through dozens OF very
fine farms. Riding with Major Hay, OF
south Carolina, through Captain Turn
CT Battles lnrge plantation, about 1870,
we saw some 800 acres In cotton He
said: have travelled much in my
own State, and have seen many superb
cotton farms, but 1 never beheld such
a field of cotton before It was indeed
superb. II made d bale or more to
the acre. Other excellent farms, doubt
less as productive, were all along the
river and elsewhere in the county. One
OF these farms was so productive that
Its valuation was over SIT per acre.
1t is now valued at something o,Sr IS
per acre.
The Tarboro Southerner publishes
the results shown by the tax books for
1899. There is progress and there is
repression More land was listed
highly instructive If the tax books of
1899 were compared with those of 1870
and 1880 or later. There are about TO-
600 acres that fail to be listed, but it
Is less than in 1898. The average yalu-
alton of land in the county is $500.
township leads at sl2.64.
Horses have decreased 3l0-average
value, $3.50. There are more cattle
but fewer hogs and some 5000 less than
five years ago. Sheep have declined,
There is less money, and the per capita
for the county is but $3.50. People say
there is plethora OF money. but
surely not in Edgecombe not In North
Carolina. The whites hold s3.3i9,3O6 of
property; the blacks $133.725. The
negroes increased over last year.
There are 1859 white polls and negroes
2,052. Suppose The Southerner takes
the trouble to institute the comparisons
suggested