The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1899-03-01
anne spirit that would pull down every

prosperous man and prosperous insti-
tuition simply because they are pros
porous. Such a spirit is unwurthy the
American character and leads to re-
suits most disastrous to the very per-
sons entertaining such spirit. They
defeat themselves by defeating others.
A SAMPLE OF FOOLISH LEGISLATION.
A few years ago in one of the South
ern States where the making of pig
iron was assuming large proportions a
public official gravely recommended
to the legislature that a privilege tax
of $4,000 be placed upon every iron
furnace, and that the payment of this
ini0uitous tax should be required be-
fore the furnace be allowed to 60 into
operation. Fortunately for the State
there were some wise men in the
legislature who showed that such a
tax would cause every furnace in the
State to be dismantled and cause thou
sands of employees to be reduced to en-
forced idleness.
EVERY AGENCY THAT GIVES PROFIT
ABLE AND HONORABLE EMPLOY
MENT is A BLESSING TO THE
PEOPLE.
1t would be we'll if the men who re-
present the South in legislative bodies
should study few very simple econo-
mical problems, and the chief one
among these problems is that every
agency which furnishes profitable and
honorable employment to the people
of the State is blessing to it. An
other is that every industry that diver
SITES occupation is q blessing. An
other is that one industy cannot oe
oppressed without depressing every
other industry, for they are all bound
together by chain that links them TO
the CommonW ealth. The railroad,
the manufacturer, the farmer, the
laboring and commercial class, are es-
sential parts of the modern social and
sndustrial organism. Destroy or I'M
pair the vitality of one and all the the
others will feel the blow. There must
be an equilibrium in this social struc-
ture. You cannot remove the support
ing girders from the walls OF brick
house without weakening it. You
cannot remove the roof without expos
ing it to the damaging effects OF the
weather, nor can you take away the
floors without rendering the structure
Useless. And so with all the dlfferent
classes in the modern structure OF
society. Impair the value OF one ana
you impair the value of all.
THE WAY TO KILL THE GOOSE THAT
LAYS THE GOLDEN EGG.
In q few communities land / am
clad to say they are but few for the
honor of the South) there is such q
feeling of hostility against corpora
tions that they cannot secure justice
before jury. Lawyers appeal TO tn's
hostility to gain their cases. Where-
ever an injustice is done to any cor
poration doing business in commun-
ity the community suffers more than
the corporation itself. Money will
not be invested where it is not justly
dealt with. TO gain verdict unjustly y
against corporation simply because II
is q corporation is to kill the goose
that lays the golden egg. The writer
calls to mind case where a jury grave
Judgment for damages against cor
poration, for $4,000 in favor of man
employed by the company who was
hurt through his own carelessne.s and
recovered his full health within a
month. The corporation in cons,
quence of the Judgment made deed
of trust and went out OF business.
More than 300 persons who had found
profitable employment were left idle.
Had the Jury in this case given dam
ages in proportion to the injury recelv-
ed the company in all probability
would have continued its business and
given hundreds of people employ
ment. When the company went out
of business and the plant was shut
down many little farmers in the vlcln-
ity had to abandon the growing OF
VEGETABLES, the making of butter and
the raising of poultry, for neither OF
these occupations paid after the local
market was destroyed.
PREJUDICE AGAINST RAILROADS is
RUNIoUs TO OUR INTEREST,".
The prejudice which was long enter
tanned against railroads in many parts
of the South caused some projected
railroads to be abandoned. Prejudice
clamored for competing lines, and yet
sc senseless was its action that it defeat
ed its own purposes. No self-respect,,
ing corporation would build railroad
in a locality where the citizens regard
railroads as public enemies. The
writer of this has been a farmer for
forty wears. He has travelled in every
portion of the United States, and he
has vet to find prosperous farming
community where there is strong
enmity existing between the railroads
and the farmers. The one is depen-
dent on the other, and neither can be
prosperous at the expense of the other.
PROSPEROUS railroads make prosperous
farmers, and vice versa. That man is
no frierd to his community who seeks
to distill the venom of hatred between
the producers, the consumers aud the
common carriers of the country!
They are coordinate branches of the
same great complex soial machine,
which, when working in harmony,
brings about the most splendid results
to society, but when discord arises be-
tween its several parts the most disas-
trous consequences ensue.