The Southern Mercury. (Dallas, Tex.), Vol. 11, No. 7, Ed. 1 Thursday, February 18, 1892 Page: 1 of 16
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Organize, Educate, Co-Operate. 'I } Official Journal of the Farmers State Alliance of Texas. { te S. erty, Justice, Equality.
-t.
YOL. XI, NO. 7.
DALLAS. TEXAS. THURSDAY. FEB. 18, 1892.
WHOLE 10. 512
What Keeps the South Poor?
LA.rka.nsaw Farmer.]
It is a singular fact that the peo-
ple of the South are in greater finan-
cial distress than at any time since
1865, notwithstanding they have
produced greater crops than ever be-
fore. In agricultural products they
added a general wealth of $125,-
000,000 more than in the year
1890. The increase in cereals alone
amounts to $70,000,000, says the
New York Stockholder, and cotton
$17,000,000 over 1890. There were
5.4Q,330,000 bushels of corn pro-
duced as against 268,757,900 in
1890. There was an increase of
12,500,000 bushels of wheat and
16,0C0,COO bushels of oats: The
value of the sugar crop was in-
creased $2,228,000, and in tobacco
$4,471,000; fruits showed an in-
creased value of nearly $16,000,-
000, hay, $2,500,000; potatoes,
$4,581,162, and in a corresponding
increase in rice and other products.
Southern manufacturers made a
parallel increase, and yet business
is languishing and the producers
were never in greater straits than
now. Here is a field for the em-
ployment of the wisdom of our
greatest political economists, an
anomalous condition that confronts
the country not easily explained.
In the greatest abundance there is
want; in the most flattering evi-
dences of a general prosperity,
there is a general distress among
those who make prosperity. While
millions are made for the-nation,
individuals are debt-ridden and op-
pressed by taxes and social bur-
dens. An increase of $125,000,000
in the agricultural products alone,
saying nothing of mines and man-
ufactures, ought to go a long way
towards the relies of the agricult-
ural classes, and afford some evi-
dence of prosperity among the
producers themselves; but this
vast amount of a Ided values to the
labors of the past year seems to
have left a greater distress and
drawn the farmer nearer to abso-
lute bankruptcy. There are a bevy
of evils, hounding the tracks of
every farmer in the South, and the
only way, it seems to us, is to kill
them off by legislation and tbe use
of a modicum of good common
sense. The cotton crop of last year
must have cost the South $150,000,-
000 more than it brought, and on
this one crop there was a greater
loss than the increase on all other
crops. What the cost of produc-
tion of the cotton crop actually
was, cm never be known, but it is
an admitted fact that it was be-
tween 7 and 8 cents per pound,
and under the average modes of
culture nearer 8 than 7 cents,
the facts were fully brought out,
counting labor, incidental losses in
stock, tools and other wastage,
usurious interest, exorbitant prof
its of the supply merchant, interest
on the capital invested, and a fair
rate of wages for those employed,
the cost would piobably exceeds
cents per pound—practically 2
cents per pound more than it was
worth this season at the girt. In
this one item there are figures for
startling facts, but to add to this
loss in the production of the lead-
ing southern crop, the taxes direct
and indirect, of another $150,000,-
000 in state, county and township
taxes, and the revenue taxes on
everything the farmer buys in the
way of.Jtpols, clothing, etc., and on
top of this, $40,000,000 in pension
taxes, almost all of which leaves
the country to fill the coffers of the
usurer, the speculator, the mer-
chant, and pay pensions to people
in other states, it is not hard to see
that we are making less than
we are paying out. Each year
is bringing on a greater string°ncy
among producers than the year
preceding. Before a change can be
brought about, there must be a
a change in methods. The farmer
must live nearer home, and calcu-
late to stay there most of the time.
He cannot afford to pay 10 per cent
interest for money t) a northern
loan and trust company to raise a
crop of cotton with, and then sell
the cotton after it is made
at 10 per cent below the
cost of production. Vet this is
what he has been doing. He can
not afford to buy corn at 75 cents
par bushel to feed his mules when
he can raiss it at a cost of 25 cents.
He cannot afford to buy bulk pork
for 10 cents a pound when he can
raise it for three; he cannot afford
to pay 100 per cent more for toils,
groceries aid clothing on credit
than they would cost with the na-
ked cash. Yet hundreds and
thousands of cotton farmers are do-
ing this every year. It is not the
quantity that is raited, but what
it costs to raise it. There is a need
and a demand for all the South can
produce, but it must be produced
at less cost, and that is the prob-
lem to solve. Again, the farmer
must look after legislation as well.
Rate of interest is too high, the
volume of money is to small, and
must be taken out of the control of
the hands of corporations and re-
stored to the people, the pension
list reduced, the free lists of im-
ports enlarged, the tariff reduced
or removed entirely; salaries cut
down, freights regulated, and every
tax reduced or eliminated is sueh
a manner as to allow a 2 per cent
business, sueh as is that of the far-
mer. What good will it do
the South to produce $1,110,00.),-
000 of products, and pay out
$1,310,000,000 in costs of produc-
tion, interest and and taxes? That
is the way the thing is running
now, so far as agriculture is con-
cerned. That rapid, rigid, fearless
and fair legislation is demanded,
there can be no question, but that
new methods, new crops, new eco-
nomics and new lines of industry
are as rigidly and certainly de-
manded, there can be no doubt. It
is food for thought for <;very intel-
ligent farmer in the South. Induc-
tion of acreage is good as far as it
goes, provided the area reduced is
utilized for home profits, but re-
duction in the coit of production is
where the closest figures must be
made. There never has been any
overproduction of cotton, never a
time when double the amount
raised was not needed in the world,
never a time when one crop would
comfortably clo'.he all the people
of this country, but conditions
have made it appear so in the world
of trade. Stratigems of financiers in
the matter of the manipulation of
the world's money, rapacity of!
speculation, unfair and inflexible ¡
trade laws, have st( od between the
producer and consumer and regu-
lated the demand and control ltd
the supply for Shy lock's gain. The
evils exist, and remedies must be
applied before the S.mth can again
prosper. The t-tirt must In made
at home, and the finish will be
found in the ballot b<>x.
Then and Now.
Bro. Hanson, of the (ronzales
sign il, sounds the alarm as follows:
•'From the year 14 to 806 of the
Christian era the circulating me-
dium of exchange was contracted
from $1,790,000,000 to $168,000,-
000, then the lamp of civilization
went out and what is known as the
dark ages spreul over all Eu-
rope; men and women lost all re-
gard for honor, virtue and industry;
nomadic and pedatory bands
roamed from place to place leaving
rapine, murder and destruction in
their wake. It was the legalized
robbery of the masses and the con-
centration of wealth iu the hands
of the few that produced this effect
then, and if you will take the
trouble to look around you. you
will see that the same cause is pro-
ducing a like effect to-day. Ava-
rice has taken the place of socia-
bility, extraneous laws have been
substituted for justice, men lcokon
each other wilh suspicion, our jails
are filled with criminals, made so
by an unequal distribution of jus-
tice, and our public highways are
lined with tramps begging for
bread, and women are selling thtir
virtue to avo'd want or starvation.
How long will the people stand
this wretched state of affairs before
they, goaded to desperation, like
Samson of old, will not only pull
down the pillows of government
but annihilate our boasted civiliza-
tion? I)o you ever stop to reflect
on these things? If not it is time
yru were doing so. All this can
be lighted at the ballot tox now,
but a few more years and that ave-
nue will be eloped and all will be
forever lost.
1
4§
1
The government of Austria is to
assume absolute control of all telo
phone lines in that country aft
this y§ar.
. .
■ tit «■ .'-i*
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Park, Milton. The Southern Mercury. (Dallas, Tex.), Vol. 11, No. 7, Ed. 1 Thursday, February 18, 1892, newspaper, February 18, 1892; Dallas, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth185452/m1/1/: accessed July 10, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; .