Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1914-12-09
THE PRESENT CRISIS
AND IT'S LESSONS.
W. p. Anderson. Formerly of Oconee Made Splen-
did Address Before the November Meeting of
the Bankers of Oconee. Pickens, Anderson and
Greenville Counties

Dio'cIH W "Olh " lSpdlI tiSlI lOSI
fortunes, although no people (the
French not eXcepted) ever paid such
a war indemnity as our people have
in the shape of pensions. Many other
trials have comc-the Carpet Bag
Rule, the panic of 1873, the distress
ing conditions of the eighties, follow
cd by the panic of 1898, which left
them almost bankrupt-but that
same spirit, that same courage born
Of a,rersitv saved them. and from
1894 u 800 there was a slow but
steady progress made. Better tools
were bought. better farming was
done, schools were opened on every
hill, and our boys and girls began to
get chance to develop their minds.
The great cotton manufacturing in
duStry, which Col. Hammct and Capt.
Smythe started at Piedmont and
Pelzcr, and which has spread all over
our counties. brought home markets
for cotton and produce, and wave
of prosperity has come to our sec
ton Of which our fathers never
dreamed. Our lands have grown in
value and new era has come to our
country SO great has been our
prosperity in the last ten years.
caused by the large crops and re-
muncrativc price for cotton and the
rapid advance in the price Of real es-
tate, that our expansion has been
TOO rapid. Competition H. business
Of every kind has been keen. and
credit has become too cheap. We
have forgotten about pay day, and
our farmers, like the rest Of us, have
spread out too much, and our very
success has weakened our sinews.
What adversely could not do our
great prosperity has accomplished,
and the farmers Of our country whom
adversity could not injurc have been
injured by fawning politicians, demi-
goGueS and misguided friends. The
politics of the last 80 years has had
too much Of appeal to class and class
prejudice in K. Wrong ideals have
been taught until these ideals have
permcated our whole political and
business structure, and we see to-day
the sons and grandsons OF the men
who came home from AppomattoX.
and who Spurned to accept anything
that their own strong arms could
not get them--we see the sons OF
these brave men nursing a new. and
to us strange, ideal to their bOs-
oms, that dangerous and subtle doc
trine, "Paternalism," which, if let
grow to maturity in the hearts and
minds OF our people, will poison and
eventually destroy every semblance
OF manhood.
That this idea has grown is shown
by the feeling that exists in the minds
of our people that the State ought to
protect them against loss in personal
ventures, until now, in this good year
find our fields and orchards Welding
great abundance OF every kind, a
large crop Of cotton, great crop of
corn, and unprecedented crops OF
oats and wheat and hay, and crop
OF fruit that has supplied our wants
to the fullest all summer and has
filled every pantry to the running
over point; and at almost every
farm house big porkers are ready to
be or have been butchered. Plenty
aboundS!
Clemson and Winthrop are run
ming over with the sons and daught-
ers OF our farmers; every grade and
high school in our country is taxed
for room. We have the best roads,
the best mules and best farm imple-
mcnts ever known in our land. The
mountains on which we have gaZed
since childhood are as blue. our wa
ter is rs good and the sun shines as
bright as it ever did, and yet. not
withstanding all this, you see TODAY
strange sight. Commerce, which
ordinarily is at its busiest stage at
this time, is at stamdstill Your
billS receivable, which should now be
small, are larger than at any time
during Nh" year; your cotton note
cases are ,ull Of past due paper:
your bills payable are unpaid; your
doctors, preachers, merchants and
dealers Of every kind unable to meet
their DaDer. What is tho uottaro