The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1910-08-09

iiAA ~ BaS
the cost OF his own whipping. and at
tne same time by a policy Of so-calied
reconstruction bankrupt his local gov
eminent and destroy his permanent
values. The war with all its carnage
dld not leave on the minds Of average
Southerners such an indellible i'm presS
as did the Negro regime Of the late
sixties and early seventies, and it must
not be forgotten that it is the average
man, the small farmers. the cha
and mason, who most dislike the negro
ana who ar the same time rule the
South. The conviction that his great
injustice was Intentionally inflicted by
the majority OF the North IS not a
product of demagogy, of political
harrangues. Just the reverse Is the
truth. This fixed belief lies at the
bottom of all the politicians assump-
tons and maneuvers.
with these two influences always
present, always at work, it is not diff
cult to realize that the gigantic pen
sion system Of the Federal government
appears to the plain man of the South
as only another form Of oppression.
Southern legislatures take care of the
needy Confederate veterans and the
bills are paid by direct taxation. Any
one may know what he pays to help
the old soldier keep the wolf from
the door. It IS q popular tax. | have
never heard an objection to it; ever
Northern men domiciled in the South
cheerfully pay their part. There IS no
army of pension agents, clerks and at
torneys. one or two moderately paid
officials suffice to distribute the nun
dreds of thousands paid annually in
each Southern State to the Confeder-
ate veterans.
But when this same SOutherner who
IS asked to vote the Republican ticket
and come into the house of his faith
ers' to share the good things collect
ed there during his long absence, turns
his attention to national affairs, he
finds a hundred and fifty millions
distributed each year among the
ClNll War veterans or their next OF
kin He has paid in the form Of in
direct taxes a large share OF the war
debt; he has with great difficulty re-
couped from the ~rObberieS of recon
struction; he contributes to the sup
port of his own old soldier; and he is
compelled to ado all this an increasing
pension to every man who drove a
wagon or saddled a horse on the Union
side of that struggle. irritates
him most is the fact-a necessary
condition-that a hundred and forty
millions Of that huge sum go to the
North, i. e., it is paid to citizens of
States always antagonistlc TO the
South. Ohio receives nearly as much
per annum in Federal pensions as does
North Carolina for her greatest crop.
And into that section extending from
Boston to Chicago, that solid North,
which always controls n national
government, there pours a steady
+ stream of Federal gold which amounts
to a third Of the value Of the South,s
greatest staple. 1t is not here a question
of the pension system, which somehow
finds benefciarieS more rap1dly thar
the veterans die off, but one or DIS
tribution. A hundred millions a year
to q certain group Of States IN add
ton to the regular earnings Of indus
try, looks like a hard state of things
for the section which pays its share
and receives nothing. 1t operates
greatly to the disadvantage of the
South.
When now we consider the Well
understood fact that the Federal tarlf1
laws have from the beginning of our
national life added to the profits of the
North, it can be seen that the state
of mind of the SOutherner is not such
as to incline his heart to soft ans
wers' which Republicans would like
to hear. If we study the present tariff
which the President declares to be the
best ever enacted, We find that New
England. New York and Pennsylva-
MIA dictated it and that the same sec
ton which receives a hundred millions
a year in pensions receives also at the
rate of half a billion q year from tne
tariff. And this is not the sum Of the
advantage which the solid North
reaps from the Federal harvest. Any
one who has ever casually observed
the geographical distribution of the
appropriations for the Improvement
Of rivers and harbOrs will have noticed
that "to him that hath shall be given
is the law Of Congress as we'll as the
ancient Hebrews.
1t is the hope of certain unrepre-
sentative members of Congress that
this unfair distribution of national
!, benefits may be changed. which has
ofttimes brought Southern votes &c
the support of tariff-mongers. Weak
Southern Senators have sought &c
sbuild their fences afresh by swap
ping support of tariff measures for in
creased appropriations in he next
.sriyers and harbors' bill. And to this
must also be added the recent activity
of certain interests in the South which