Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1921-07-13
Gone Stark Mad.
Mrs. ]. H. M.
Done in the Dark.

Done in the Dark.
A new tariff equivalent to ffty-six
per cent tax on one hundred and fif-
teen millions of people has just been
sprung on the public in Washington
and will be jammed, in few days,
through Congress. 1t was not written
by Congress but by certain protected
interests. That tariff means tragedy
to our agriculture in that seeds, bulbs
and thereby boosting American agri-
and tereby boosting American agri-
culture-these matters are now tax
ed. Coming taxed are such univer-
sally used matters as crimson clover,
hairy vetch, cabbage, turnips, alfalfa,
grass seeds, bulbs, and garden seeds.
Only a bagatelle of our American
seeds are home grown. They never
will be American grown. A little
growing was accomplished during the
war but at prices four to five times
the prices that usually obtain. This
seed tax arbitrarily and wilfully puts
a burden on all of our agriculture
and upon every woman who wants
to beautify her front yard.
Our nursing and florist trade are
completely dependent upon Europe
for many types of seedlings and cut
tings. These, too, have been highly
taxed.
The Terrible Record.
The terrible record in the past in
this country is that every protected
interest soon becomes a trust and a
monopoly. Every trust restricts pro-
country today faces new trust, the
American seed growing trust whose
tie American seed growing trust whose
actions will be just as have been all
the other trusts in our country. Ag-
ricultural prosperity, on the contrary
depends on seeds. No one can COM
mute the intrinsic value of a new
economic seed as generally introduc-
ed. The measure of agricultural pros
perity depends upon the amount OF
seeds as sold. Curtail the use of seeds
and YOU defate agriculture. More
soeds and better seeds always mean
better farming.
Satanic Doctrines.
There is no quicker way of going
mad than by being possessed with
some false doctrine. No country can
prosper whose governmental theor-
ems are neither economic nor normal.
Our government today is guided and
impelled by the following three doc
trines: first, that we must ever be on
the defense; second, that we must be
self-contained; third, that we must
live as a nation the life of Isolation.
You and I, indeed, today are living
in a continuous war atmosphere. II
we spent one-tenth the time and mon
ey towards general disarmament and
towards world peace that we DO IN
creating defenses and creating war
atmosphere then our nation would be
thousand times happier and more
prosperous.
1t is neither economic. nor neces-
sary for us to be self-contained. Let
every man and every nation do that
which best they can do and do 1t as
contribution towards the general
good. England has always been the
most prosperous nation while Switz-
erland has always been perhaps the
happiest nation, yet they have been
of all nations least possessed OF those
elements which our present govern
ment means by self contalnment. AS
for the theorem of isolation, only a
blind, ignorant, selfish, heather man
could defend it.
Agricultural Stagnation.
Our agriculture, along with every
thing else today, is in the throes of
stagnation. 1t had been hoped that
agricultural activities in wide diver
siication could take place this year
so that agricultural recovery could
quickly obtain. 1t is too bad that our
agriculture should now be handicap
ped by this recent maneuver in Wash
|ington. Our agriculture must look up
on this seed tax as a form of robbery
and murder. When I wish to plant
seeds in field, garden or front yard I
want the best seeds and the seeds that