The National tribune., 1903-11-12

half to two balD PER acre, bale weighing
800 pounds. Z Before the invention
Of the GIN I tls negro was be-
coming more mdrmore an Improbable
piece Of property. He could not raise corn,
wheat or other farm products in competi-
in the Northern States. In Virginia,
Maryland and Kentucky slaves had be-
come Of SO little worth that laws had to
be passed to. prevent their owners freeing
them and allowing them to become
charge upon the people. They could only
be employed to advantage in raising to-
bacco. South Carolina and Georgia man.
aged to make them pay in raising indigo
and rice, while they were moderately prof
liable in raising sugar in Louisiana. Then
! the cotton craze began. and as said before,
it seemed as il the world could not have
too much cotton. A negro cost. say, $500
for purchase price, and could be clothed
and fed for, say, $3.50 year. He could
cultivate at the least 20 acres of ground,
producing at the minimum 1000 pounds,
worth 25 cents n pound; or profit of
81 600 a year on each negro. 1t will be
seen that owners OF negroes and cotton
lands had very fat thing of it, and rev
eled in luxury. They became crazy for
more lands and more negroes. The Indians
We're driven out of the great States Of
Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana
and Arkansas, and their places taken by
cottOn-raising slaves. Texas was wrested
from Mexico for the same purpose. The
negroes OF the Border States rose rapidly
in price until, from being next to worth
less, as high as 81 500 was paid, or prom
ised to be paid. for good cotton hand"
But the world could get too much cot
| ton. ravenous as its appetite had seemed
to he for it. The price kept on steadily
falling until in 1855 the best upland cot
ton was sold in New York for seven cents
a pound with II cents as the maximum
price. This caught everybody in the South
with negroes for which they had agreed
to pay a high price, with probably planta-
tiOns bought the same way. with habits of
| life and household expenditures based on
% cent cotton, and so on. The whole
country was bankrupt and the demagogs
rose who taught them that the cause Of
their troubles was the internal machina-
tons of the Abolitionists." The war was
| the result.
There was much the same histor, in re-
gard to wheat. In 1868 the price of wheat
in New York ran from $2.05 to $3.25
bushel. The railroads and the Great
| Lakes had brought the fertile lands of the
West into easy competition with the grain
| growers nearer the sea board. and then we
| crowned our inventions of mechanical de-
vices for cheaper production with the
twine binder by which the cost of pro-
ducing wheat in the West was reduced to
something like 30 cents a bushel. A man
in Kansas and Nebraska whose fertile
farm yielded him % bushes per acre, at
a cost of 30 cents, felt sure that he was
| on the high road to wealth, and went into
debt for high-priced land to raise more
wheat: he built him fine house and
bought the best of furniture for it. The
inevitable came. The profit was too great
1t drew multitude of other people into
the wheat-growing business. They could
buy labor-saving machines the same as we
could. and steamships began carrying
wheat from Australia. India and SOnth
America. and particularly from Russia.
The worlds markets were glutted with the
excess and the price fell to 40 cents a
buslel. 1t spelled ruin to the men who
had gone into debt for land, houses and
machinery on the basis offs 50 n busheL
The giut of the worlds market with silver
came about the same way. with the mine
owners trying TO force 5000. 600 Oh the
market where $36.000.000 had previously
been the normal annual production. Then
artful deIna gogs rose, who pointed out not
the real reason of the troubles. and strove
to make capital ont of the calamity. The
sufferers were as ready to listen to them
as the men in the South were ready to
listen to those who taught them that their
j. ItChIeaS ROIIlS ueUl, Ut eALTaVHSdHL
prices, for landra negroes to raise stead
! ily-cheapening cotton was the fault of the
miserable Abolitionists."
/ ~ FRUSTRATED NEVADA
Nevada reached her climax in 1880.
when the census showed population of
62. .266. of whom more than One-fourth
were miners. OF her 10000 square
Emiles..o only $50, ,S62 acres were in farms. of
which there were about 1000. OF these
over 100 were but 10 acres or less The
census Gl 1890 showed the population had
/ fallen to 45.761. The census of 1900
showed still further reduction to 49,
In 1915 great fire destroyed nearly the
whole of Virginia City. Now in the
whole County of Churchill. in which it is
located, and which is 1925 square miles,
or nearly as large as the State of Con
necticut, dIere are only 100 inhabitants
What will become of Nevada is hard to
tell IL the strong competition of more
favored States for immigration does not
stop. Nobody will go there, and many
of those who are already there must con-
stantly seek locations where the condi-
tons Of life are more favorable. Should
there be any extraordinary discoveries of
mines of gold, copper, iron or coal the
State will take another growth, because
the mines would make agriculture more
profitable. This is hardly expected. Sheep
and cattle ranches do well, but they seem
to have reached their limit. and no other
occupation appears to be developing. If
the people continue to emigrate, it may be
necessary to import men to hold the Off
ces.
This would be good news to suffering
Eastern communities, each of which has a
lot Of chronic office-beggars, of whom it
would be only too glad to get rid.
The only new people brought into the
State seem to be Greeks and Italians en-
ployed by the railroads or by the cattle
men and mining companies in menial
capacities. They are swarthy, low
browed race, who live in adobe houses and
dugouts, about as miserable habitations
as you can imagine, on this dreary plain.
One sees on side hill some disturbance
of the earth, and mound through which
a stove-pipe sticks, and you know that
some man is making there his lodging place
home it certainly can not be called
Round-shouldered, brigand-hatted, they
plOd along the railroad bank. smoking
black pipes, with their eyes bent upon the
!, ground. recalling the picture of the "man
with the hoe" and his ox-like condition
"What sort of citizens do they make?
asked one of my companions in the
smoker,
mo citizens at ALL" he answered con
temptnously. t.Just plain workers. Al
: times they do not seem TO have any better
sense than steers, and the only way you
! can manage them is with a pick-handle
! had to use pick-handle myself last
! Saturday night. to quiet them down. Still