The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1908-12-02
What We NEED
AND HOW THE GOVERNMENT
CAN HELP.

Better Foreign Markets, Real Regl
Iation of Trusts and More Cotto
Manufacturing at Home.
Tom Watson, of Georgia, at th
meeting Of the Farmers Union i
New Orleans recently made a speec
from which we make the extract be
low:
I'm civilized. government ther
are three great departments upol
which prosperity depends. Agricul
tuce is one, manufacturing is anothe
and commerce is another. If tn
government keeps hands off ant
merely protects each man in the pos
session OF his property, it is an opel
field and free fight, root hog, o,
die The government can do this
or it can protect each and every ont
of these departments, in which case
the result would be about the sans
as in the first. But when the govern
ment takes up one at the expense o.
the others, the other two are in.
jured. When it takes up two at tho
expense of the third, the third Ian.
guishes and suffers. Analyze this
situation and you will begin to real
ize what is the matter with the
backbone Of the country
Mr. Watson reviewed the history
of protection in this country, and de.
clared the manufacturers have not
only made 8 per cent, but also clear
ed s2,000,0O0,000 besides. He said
that the farmer has never asked any
thing but free field and a fair fight,
and had been denied these; that he
had never asked to have other COM
modities taken to put money in his
own pocket; that no more unselifsh
man was ever made in Gods image
on this earth; that when there is a
pestilential swamp to drain, the
farmer drains it; that when there are
taxes to pay, the farmer pays them:
that in the early history of the
country when there were savages to
drive back, it was the farmer who
shouldered his musket and did the
work. The capture Of Andre was
referred to and it was stated that
the farmers who captured him could
not be bribed
We cotton farmers of the South
are the only people in the world who
have monopoly and don't know
what to do with it, continued the
speaker The Steel Trust has mo-
nopoly and knows what to do. 1t
sells you plows, and hoes and rakes.
and you have to pay the price. The
Harvester Trust makes you pay the
price. And all the time they are
selling in South America and Russia
at cheaper prices than at home. The
Coal Trust fixes the price of the coal.
1t IS their business to fix the price
and yours to pay the price.
Congress could have said: "No,
I won't burden the agriculturist with
such loads as these" Congress could
have broadened your markets, OBJ
tained greater mercantile trade by
reciprocity and other treaties. One
commodity could be exchanged for
another on terms fair to both But
it's policies have caused the other
nations to adopt retalitory tactics
and narrowed the foreign markets
to the products Of the American ag-
riculturist.
President Mckinley sent a Com
mission to France to negotiate a
treaty that would have meant the
entry into that country of cottonseed
products from the South, valued at
s20,000,000 a year. But the Senate
killed it, and killed it because it
contained clause favoring the i'm
oortation Of French hosiery. Some
little old New England mill would
have been affected, and so $40, 0,000,-
900 year to the South had to b.
sacrificed.
In 1907. the sale of cotton abroad
amounted to e,70S,O00 bales. This
cotton was manufactured and ship.
ped back again and sold at higher
prices, so that the net profit to our
country was only s9.000,O00. Don
that show that we are selling cocto ]
two low? Why not manufacture ev-
cry bale right here?
The high tariff and trust system
has restricted and narrowed the
market, cut off the demand and lefl
I surplus. The remedy lies in low.
eT tariff Let the foreigner in, re-
duce the price Of American good,
that are now protected, and thereby
increase the demand for raw cotton
for the greater the demand is the
greater will be the price. That:
the permanent remedy
Now for immediate and temporar.
relief. I like that warehouse plan
That takes it off, The coffee grower
were confronted with situation al
most similar to that which now con
fronts the cotton farmer. Did the,
swamp the market with their over
production? No, they put all thei
surplus in warehouses, raised th
price and compelled the consume
to pay for not only what was market
ed, but also for what was never sol