The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1917-11-23
THE COUNTRY'S BACKBONE.


as of those who have been drafted
into service a greater percentage
of the boys and young men from
the towns and cities have been
found fit for service than of the
bows from the country districts.
Those people who expected the
country districts to furnish better
soldiers than the towns and cities
have either forgotten or have never
heard the experiences of the Civil
War. Col. G. McDufie Miller, Of
Orr's Rifles, stated that the best
soldiers in the Civil War were
young eighteen year old boys from
the towns and cities; that they were
possessed of more endurance, stood
the hardships of camp life better,
and were more easily trained than
their brothers from the farming
sections, and that most of all they
didn't have any better sense than tc
be brave and fight.
And in this war the towns anC
cities have done their part. Of ali
the young men in the old Nationa.
Guard perhaps ninety per cent. are
boys from the towns and cities.
The recruits who volunteered for
the most part have come from
the same places. The drafted men
show a full percentage of these
same men.
In the patriotic calls upon the
people of the country, the towns
and cities have borNc the burden.
Of the fifty-three hundred dollars
contributed in this county for the
Red Cross, something like iour
thousand dollars came from the city
of Abbeville alone, and the greater
portion of the balance from the
towns of Due West, Donalds and
Calhoun Falls. The Liberty bonds
sold in the county have been bought
by the people in the towns and
cities. When the second Liberty
Loan was foated in this county, al
though cotton was selling for twen-
ty-seven cents, and there was mon
ey in the hands of farmers in all
sections, it was left to the people
of the towns and city to take
practically the whole allotment for
this county. And our representa-
tives in congress have so arranged
matters that practically the entire
war tax in this country will be paid
by the men in the towns and cities.
Although the war has brought hun
dreds and thousands of dollars to
the people on the farms in Able
vile county, and although they are
being enriched by it through the
price, not only of cotton, but of
all other products, they will pay
practically none of the burdens al
ready imposed on the people nor of
those to be imposed on them.
We have been hearing all these
years, (mostly in election years,)
that the farmers are the backbone
of the country, but we heard little
of it in the Red Cross campaign, the
Liberty Bond compaigns, the Y. M.
C. A. campaign, and we hear no
complaints that the farmers are not
assessed their part of the war taxes.
Even those who are opposed to the
war are accepting the big profits
which other mems blood and money
are purchasing for them without
feeling called on to pay value re-
ceived.
In saying this much we are not
unmindful of the fact that some, a
very few, of the farmers of the
county have responded to all the
calls of the government. We have
no complaint against these men;
they deserve the commendation of
all men, especially because they are
few.
But we assert that in the great
crisis through which we are pass
ing, and in the great fight which is
being waged over the waters, and
which will be waged, the towns and