The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1899-02-01

come, and I speak words OF exceeding
plainness, 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. I use the word corporation,
as it is the recognized mode for aggre-
gated capital for any large affair. Ihe
agrarianism which made an industrial
mockery of the rich plains Of Nebras-
ka, Iowa and Kansas has never had a
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
MANUFACTURES.
Yet I belive that this policy
will be 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 a. to leave q
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 a market on
the land for ali products of the land,
to enable the farmer to return to it
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 4
practical illustration. It 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-half cents per mile. The cost of
wagon hauling is practically S. per
bale. The rate 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. l have taken
an old illustration because it is pertin-
ent.
| Then the county produces $4,000
bales of cotton. The whole of this is
hauled fifty miles, and we have l3,
O6, 400 pounds. Place ttis at sixty cents
per hundred pounds, which is lower
than the average and we have STE, ,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, it
makes practically S150,00O of haulage
to the county. This is a low estimate.
RAILROADS SAVE MORE TO THE FARM
Err THAN TO ANYTHING ELSE.
Can people live while this is being
ldone? Will the value of land in
crease? Nay, verify! The railway
haulage on this amount of cotton
would be $4,000, making practical
saving in favor of the railroad of
lSl45, 900 per year. This last sum
would represent the interest for one
wear on about two and one-half mill
lion dollars, which would be the addi-
tional value of the cotton lands to the
county by railroad transportation.
With q total acreage in the county OF
about $4,000 the saving in the rail-
road transportation would add about
50, SOC, 900, or the saving Of nearly 100
per cent. This is an actual condition.
+ wish to inquire what would be the
value of a railroad to any farmer in
that county?
i T 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 a railroad bill,
THE WAY THE COUNTRY MAY BE
BUILT UP.
i 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,
then a small town, home market,
the establishment of truck gardens,
small fruits, vegetables of every kind,
a mill, good schools, cheap stores,
money coming in all the year round
instead of only small sum coming in
once year when the crop ia sold. and
| the most of that sum being taken to
pay the cotton agent.
VALUE OF HOME MARKET.
/ T take it that it needs no argument
to show that the ultimate end of the
Southern farmer should be the estab-
lishment of home market which will
bring the diversification of his pro-
lducts. This primarily can only be
brought about by the building of rail-
roads. The manufactory soon follows
the railroad.
RAILROADS GIVE US THE MARKETS
II OF THE WORLD.