The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1899-01-25

of oar cotton fields, enthrone on oul
iron mines and locate amidst ouI
magnificent forests the railroad and
anufactory. This can be done by
the South Kidding herself of much OF
her archaic legislation and making
the laws which will give capital the
easiest mode of application to us and
the most absolute protection when
located. The individual is blotted
out in the industrial progression.
THE MEANS FOR AccoMPL IsH1NG
GREAT RESULTS.
The corporation is the medium OF
accomplishing these great re-ults. L
mean by the corporations of the East
the railroads and the thousand mon.
ey-making manufactures which have
made the East so potent in all the
affairs of this country. The time has
come, and I speak words Of exceeding
plainne-s, when the farmer and busi-
ness man of the South must rid them
selves of the idea that the best means
of developing the South is to enact
laws limiting the powers of corpora.
tions. With infinite pleasure l say
there has never been any vigorous and
set opposition to corporations in the
South. T use the word corporation,
as it is the recognized mode for aggre-
gated capital for any large affair. The
agrarianism which made an industrial
mockery of the rich plains of Nebras-
ka, Iowa and Kansas has never had q
place here in the South, but instead
we have had the intense conservatism
of provincial people. am South
ern man, and was raised on the plant
alton, and have imbibed all of the
conservative instincts of the Southern
farmer.
GREAT VALUE OF RAILROADS AND
MANUFACTURERS.
Yet I belive that this policy
will be a great step in the develop
ment of the Southern farmer. 1t will
solve the question Of the small price of
cotton. Nothing else will. You will
need no convention to arrange prices
ON that staple when farmers will find
it profitable to raise other crops. The
proofs will be furnished anywhere in a
progressive neighborhood. In my
own State of West Virginia 1 have
seen it on every hand, and when I
speak of the advantage of bringing in
to Our midst the corporations of the
East, I mean both transportation and
manufacturing corporation. Both are
important. ..The first thing to be
paid on land is transportation. When
that is so great as to eat up the whole
proceeds, the land will remain uncul-
tivated. Diminish the cost Of trans
portatiou so as to leave sufficient to
pay the wages of laborers, and it will
be cultivated, but will pay no rent.
Diminish it further SO as to leave a
surplus over and above the reward of
the laborer. and the land will acquire
value.
Diminish it still further by
removing altogether the necessity for
transportation, making market on
the land for all products of the land,
to enable the farmer to return to 1t
readily. all the refuse of its products,
and it will acquire the highest value of
which land is capable" Transporta-
ton takes the land to the market and
makes it rich and valuable. Pardon a
practical illustration. 1t shows the
dreadful usury and the crushing bur-
den entailed by cost OF transportation.
HEAVY COST OF TRANSPORTATION
BY WAGONS.
know a rich county where they
haul cotton fifty miles for seventy-five
cents per hundred pounds, or one and
one-haIf cents per mile. The cost Of
wagon hauling is practically So per
bale. The rae of transportation for
500 miles is about forty-nine cents per
hundred pounds on the railroad, or
nearly twenty-six cents less than the
haul of the fifty miles. / have taken
an old illustration because it is pertin-
ent.
Then the county produces $4,000
bales of cotton. The whole of this ia
hauled fifty miles, and we have l3,
O6, ,40Opounds. Place this at sixty cents
per hundred pounds, which. is lower
than the average and we have $7S, ,638. 40,
the entire cost Of the haulage. This
is a county actually under observation,
and is an actual charge upon the far
mers of that section. Taking into
consideration that the import haulage
into the county is of the same value, 1t
makes practically Sl50,000 of haulage
to the county. This is low estimate.
RAILROADS SAVE MORE TO THE FARM
Err THAN TO ANYTHING ELSE.
Can people live while this is being
done? Will the value of land in
crease? Nay, verify! The railway
haulage on this amount of cotton
would be $4,000, making a practical
saving in favor of the railroad of
$145,00 per year. This last sum
would represent the interest for one
year on about two and one-half mil
lion dollars, which would be the addi-
tional value of the cotton lands to the
county by railroad transportation.
With a total acreage in the county of
about $4,000 the saving in the rail-
road transportation would add about
50, 500 900, or the saving Of nearly 100
per cent. This is an actual condition.
wish to inquire what would be the
value of railroad to any farmer in
that county?
I beg pardon for this illustration
but make it in order to call attention
to the fact that in the State in which
this occurs you can only build rail.
road by going to the legislature and
lobbying through it railroad bill.
THE WAY THE COUNTRY MAY BE
BUILT UP.
Every observant man has seen the
effect upon the farmer of the bringing
Of the railroad into the country. First
the railroad, next the manufactory
fhon crnoll fnWn homo mark Of