The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1908-09-08

! tii;2 >\!.i',H!M ! uauyIrttlS. | an
not going to dwell at length upon
! t;:iS discrimination: I am going sin
| ply t" point cut two or three ways
III which ii manifeSts itself. Our fed
eral taxation is almost all collected
through methods that bear upon con
sumption and when we tax consump-
tion instead Of possession We make
the poor man pay more than his share
and the rich man less than his share,
and there has heretofore been a con-
slant drain Of the farms in the mat
| ter Of collecting taxes. and when the
taxes are appropriated and eSpcnd-
ed thc money is nearly all spent in
the cities and very little Of it upon
the farms. The farmer therefore has
not only suffered in paving more
i than his share 10 the collector, but
he has been the least benefited di-
rectly by the expenditure Of the
money that is raised. Read the
amounts spent on ships and then fl
CURE, if You can, what portion of
that gets to the farmer.
''Take up the other large appro-
priations and with the exception of
pensions I do not know Of any large
appropriation in which the farmer
has anything like his share in pro-
portion to his number. These have
been some Of the methods Of discrim-
ination. I believe that with more
farmers in the councils of the ma
ton, more farmers prepared to ex-
ert an influence upon public thought
through the pen and" pencil and by
the tongue, that We shall have a
change and that that change will
help to retard, if not to stop, the ten
dency now from he farm to the town.
Danger of Concentration.
"But what, my friends, is the dan
ger Of the concentration Of our popu-
lation in the great cities? I do not
mean to say that the causes that [
have given are the only ones that
have tended to build up the cities.
Nearly everything has contributed,
but these influences have al. when
You trace them back to the cause,
been operating, and the fact that the
farmers influence in legislation has
not been what it ought to have been
is one Of these influences.
"Take the rebates that have built
up great centres and destroyed the
small towns. Why have they been
given? Because the farmer has not
had voice in the regulation Of the
railroads.
II believe the farm is the great
training school and I know that the
people from the farm have strength
ened every branch Of business but,
my friends. I believe as We get away
from the country, as we get farther
from the soil, we are less and less
impressed by those great laws of ma
turue that ought to have controlling
influence in our lives. Man as he
lives close to the soil lives close to
God. It is easy to inspire regard for
lie Creator in one who secs every
.i@r iIlo n2nliwnrk Of Almighty aud
laliorS constantly amid ihc mysteries
of natural life. And on these farms
we have been rearing the men and
women whose influences have helped
to keep this country great and to
promote the movements which have
for their objects the welfare Of the
world.
"But there is another reason Why
I am anxious that the farmer shall
have great influence. AS I have
been studying the causes Of evil, as l
have been studying the abuses that
need to be remedied, I have found
that the fundamental trouble is a
mistaken understanding Of the law
Of rewards. The farmer, more than
any one else, is brought into close
touch with the divine law Of re-
wards.
"The farmer knows that God has
given him a fruitful earth, the show
ers that are necessary and the
warmth of the sun and the farmer
knows that if he is to convert raw
material into wealth. it must be by
diligence and by intelligence; and
the farmer is impressed day by day,
year by year, with the idea that MS
reward is to be in proportion to his