The Elon College Weekly.
The Weekly" Directory.
BURLINGTON (N. C.) BUSINESS HOUSES.
Buy Dry Goods from B. A. Sellars & Sons.
See Burlington Hardware Company for Plumbing
Get your Photographs at Anglin’s Studio.
B. A. Sellars &Sons for Clothing and Gents’ Fur
nishings.
See Dr. R. M. Morrow when in need of Dental
Work.
Rea! Estate, Infurance and Loans. Alamance In
surance & Real Estate Co.-
Barber Shop. Brannock & Matkins.
Dr. J. H. Brooks. Dsntal Surgeon.
See Freeman Drug Co. for Drugs.
ELON COLLEGE. N. C.
Do your Banking with the Elon College Banking
and Trust Company.
For General Merchandise sec J. J. Lambeth.
For an Education go to Elon College.
GIBSONVILLE. N. C,
Dr. G. E. Jordan, M. D.
HIGH POINT. N. C.
People’s House Furnishing Co.
GREENSBORO. N. C.
Pierce .Stamp Works for stamps.
Hotel Hufhne
Buttner Furniture Co.. for furniture.
The Southern Farmers’ Pros-
Ipects Fifteen Years Ago.
The Elon College Monthly for
March 1895, published the following
article under title: “The Present Con
dition of the Southern Farmer; the
Causes and Remedy for the South.”
And it is supposed to set forth pretty
near correct the conditions as they were
then, although the writer, then a student
in the College, gives no other clue to her
right to speak on this subject than sign her
self “A Farmer’s Daughter”, at the end
of the article. The increase of more
than seven million dollars in the bank
deposits in North Carolina during the
past year, and a similar increase in this
form of wealth in other Southern States
duiing the corresponding period, and all
this increase largely due to the prosperity
of the farmer, Indicates a striking con
trast in the condition of the Southern
farmer in 1895 and 1910. The article
is as follows:
■‘There is no one who has failed to
notice the gloom and dejection that over
shadows the countenance of almost every
Southern farmer. The cry of ‘hard
times’ has been heard throughout the
land for years, but at no time has that
cry been louder, or has it been uttered
by more voices, than at present. The
majoritory of farmers are in debt, but it is
almost impossible foi them to conceal these
debts. The farms are now under a
mortgage, while many once bright and
happy homes have been taken from their
owners—the mortgages have been fore
closed. The creditors were compelled
to receive payment, and there was no
other alternative save to take the home,
the only possession of an honest and
once prosperous family, and leave the
silver-haired father and mother, with the
children, to become hirelings. In some
places the farm-houses are deserted, and
the occupants flock to the towns and
cities. Those who still hold their home
steads are so financially embarrassed that
they have no longer the means to beauti
fy their homes, but time and tempest
continually make the houses and sur
roundings look more desolate from year
to year.
They who once ranked socially among
the elite of the rural districts, who were
ignorant of the want of money, who
were able to keep their children in
shcool from eight to ten months in the
year, who when called upon to con
tribute to charitable purposes never failed
to give of their abundance, they who for
the greater part of their life never knew
what it was to owe a penny,—it is such
as these who are now so dejected, who
seem to have almost despaired of ever
being able to overcome the financial
obstacles, upon whose faces care and
anxiety have made deeper furrows in
one sleepless night than lime w'ould
make in a year, and to whom life seems
but a bitter, weary thing.
One can scarcely suppress the tears as
he listens to the venerable old farmer—
he who has done so much for his com
munity and his fellow-men—tell of the
weary nights in which the eyes barely
closed for pondering and planning how
to pay his debts, educate his children,
and sustain the honor of his family.
Oftentimes the goddess of Dreamland—
like the god of the priests of Baal—
seems to be deaf to his cry, or to have
gone on a pilgrimage.
In many a home the mother who once
had hired help, now, in order to share
her husband’s burdens, even though old
age renders her unequal to the task, yet
in her nobleness and faithfulness to the
man she loved in better days, takes upon
herself the work of the servants; and
though the farmer insists that she shall
have hired help, she will not accept it,
but feels that whille life lasts she must be
a help-meet to him. If you are inclined
to think this only a fancy picture, visit
if you will, the various farm houses, be
come intimate with the occupants, let
them feel that you sjonpathize with them,
and then you will listen only a little while
to iheir tale of care and misfortune be
fore you will realize that it is no fancy
painting, but one of sternest reality.
Seeing the present condition of the
farmer to be thus, the question necessar
ily arises as to the cause of this financial
depression. There is evidently some
thing wrong, and distressingly so. It
appears that the causes are many and of
various kinds. The farmer seems some
what in error, while the millionaire and
the Government are also in the wrong.
And first, let us notice wherein the farm
er himself is to blame.
Our first censure is that he has failed
to use sufficient fore-thought and far
sightedness. When Southern farmers
learned that they could buy meat cheap
er than they could raise and sell it, they
thought that they could raise cotton and
buy their meat, and thus be the gainers.
As some one has remarked, “they had
their smoke-house in the West. ” But
the price of cotton has fallen, they have
accumulated debts for the bacon, and
now after the debts have been made
and many homes mortgaged, they see
their mistake. And it has been the same
way with other farm products. The
farmer put all his work and time on the
“money crop,” as he termed it, and
seemed forgetful that he really needed
less of the money crop than any other
kind. The food crop is what he most
needs, for what the farmer expends for
other things than those consumed at the
table is but very small in comparison to
the food bill. Had cotton always re
mained at fifteen or twenty dollars a hun
dred, then could he have better afforded
to plant the greater part of the acreage
in cotton ; but it were useless to say that
he didn’t do it.
Again, the farmer instead of making
his own fertilizers bought guano of but
little value at a large price. And in
many instances when the cotton had
been gathered it took nearly all to pay
the guano bill. And this brings us to
the farmer’s ignorance of the soil, and of
the chemical constituents necessary to
make the soil fertile.
SureK no one needs to know the ele
ments of the soil, and how to supply the
chemicals that are lacking and that are so
necessary to certain kinds of vegetation,
as the farmer; and yet he is the very
man who knows least about it. The
wonder seems to be that he has been as
successful as he has, when he is so defi
cient in such essential knowledge. How
on earth, when he does not know what
the land and plant requise, does he know
what kind of fertilizer to buy ? Nothing
seems more foolish than the idea of one
guano being adapted to all soils and to
all products. Very probably in a ma
jority of cases the guano renders the land
less fertile, and even kills it.
On nearly all the plantations, there may
be seen field after field of cotton, the
stalks so little and spindling that it looks
as it it would take five or ten acres to
yield one bale. This, again, is an evi
dence of the farmer’s ignorance—but this
time, of political economy. Certainly he
ought to know that if he would put all
the fertilizers on one acre and make it
produce a bale that he would save much
time and lahor, for it takes as much
plowing and hoeing for an acre of cotton
on poor land that yields so little, as it
does on rich land that yields abundantly,
while the harvesting is about the same in
each instance. If the farmer would plant
more of the food products, less cotton,
make his own fertilizers, and raise his own
pork and beef, he would find himself
much more independent, and less encum
bered with so many debts.
Again, many farmers spend more for
luxuries than is necessary, and especially
do some spend too much for whiskey
and tobacco. It is said that the laboring
classes now spend $600,000,000 annu
ally in saloons. And it is a fact that
some actually spend their shillings for to
bacco and whiskey when they have not
sufficient food or clothing..
The present credit fijiancial system
serves to make worse the farmer’s condi
tion. One will often buy jnore on a
credit than he would for cash. In many
instances farmers have bought on a credit
during the spring and summer, and then
at the close of the fall it has taken nearly
if not quite, all his harvest to pay up his
debts.
The Southern farmer is sadly deficient
in educational acquirements. He is inca
pable of judiciously transacting|his busi
ness affairs, and may thus be defrauded
by money-seekers. His lack of educa
tion unfits him to fill public offices, and
for this reason he is oppressed by being
under legislation controlled by men who
have no interest in the farmer, save as
they can increase their own wealth at
his expense. It is said that our late Con
gresses have not contained enongh far
mers from the Northern States to consti
tute the committees on Agriculture, and
that our national law-makers have known
so little about what would promote the
prosperity of the farmers that they have
favored measures that have greatly in
jured agriculture.
Another cause of depression is unjust
and heavy taxation. Often when the
farmer has made a short crop it has tak
en such a proportion of the net proceeds
to pay his taxes as would be startling to
many of the wealthier citizens. Were
the taxes equitable and necessary it would
be different, but when, for example, ih'j
people are taxed to support so many
pensioners, some of whom probably nev
er witnessed a battle, then it is time for
the oppressed to clamor forth. In the
Treasury vaults. May 1st, ’91, there was
nearly $281,000,000 in gold coin and
bullion, and $387,000,000 in silver
bullion. And it is a shame for the Gov
ernment to tax its people so heavily when
the vaults are so replete, even to almost
bursting open.
In connection with this may be noticed
the high protective tariff. The people
are well aware of how unjustly they have
been treated by manufacturers and those
who think only of selfish ends, and are
willing to impoverish the many for the
enriching of the few. The arguments of
protectionists are weak, and only of
weight among the less educated. It was
a dastardly act when a tariff was put on
tin, to protect the tin industry of the
Union, and at the same time not a pound
of tin being manufactured in the United
States.
Another of evil to the agriculturist is
the exoribitant transportation rates. Al
though his produce may be fairly plenti
ful, yet by the time such high charges
are paid for transportation the net income
is very materially decreased. And when
he sells to buyers within wagon-reach of
hb farm, of course they have to reckon
the cost of shipment and pay according
ly, and thus the price of his produce is
grievously low.
Speculation also greatly diminishes the
prices of the farmer’s products. There is
no doubt but that this influences the mar
ket more than any other one thing in
deed it is one of the most harmful and
ibomiaable evils that infest our country.
The harm that the millionaire can do in
a few weeks is scarcely conceivable.
Sometimes wicked billionaires withdraw
Linen
Marking Outfits
Name Stamp
INDELIBLE INK AND PAD
40c. Post Paid
On Receipt of Price
PIERCE STAMP WORKS
Greensboro
N. C.
Hotel Huffine
Near Passenger Station
GREENSBORO, N. C.
Rates $2 up. Cafe m connection.
CAR LOAD SALT
o4t J. J. LAMBETH’S 55= Bag
Full Line of NICE GROCERIES at right prices.
Come and see.
R. M. MORROW, Surgeon Dentist
cTWORROW BUILDING,
Cor. Front CS, Main Streets,
BURLINGTON, - - N. C.