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THE PKOGRESSIVE FARMER, DECEMBER 15, 1887. L. L. ' POLK, - - - Editor. Raleigh, N. C. SUBSCRIPTION: $2.00 FOR ONE YEAR. $1.00 FOR 6 MONTHS POST-PAID. Invariably in Advance. Special and Liberal Hates to Clubs. Subscribers will be notified two weeks before their time expires, and if they do not renew, the paper will stopped promptly. Active agents wanted in every county, city, town And village in the State. "Write for terms. Money at our risk, if sent by registered letter or money order. Advertising Rat es quoted on application. ; On all business matters relating to the paper, Address Progressive Farmer, Raleigh,. N, C. ' To Correspondents: ; "Write all communications, designed for publica tion, on one side of the paper only. We want intelligent correspondents in very ountyinthe State. We want facts of value, re sults accomplished of Value, experiences of value, plainly and briefly told. Oue solid, demonstrated fact, is worth a thousand theories. Address all communications to 1 The Progressive Farmer, Raleigh, N. C. RALEIGH, N. C, DEC. 15, 1887, f This paper entered as second-class matter at the Post The Progressive Farmer is the Official Organ of the N. C. Farmers' ' Association and N. C. State Farmers Alliance. PLEASE NOTICE. In writing to this office . to change the address of a DaDer. our subscribers will do us a favor by stating the office at which the paper is received, as well as the one to which it is desired to be sent. Failure to do this nuts us to a irreat deal of trouble and the necessity of going through a long list of names, involving not only much work, but much' loss of time, when time is valuable. SUBSCRIBERS, READ THIS. Is there a Cross Mark on the margin of your paper ? We adopt this as the simp lest and easiest method of informing our patrons that their terms of subscription have expired, and that the paper will be Btonned if we do not hear from vou. So.if you see the Cross Mark, let us hear from you. THE S. C. FARMERS' CONVEN- TION. i .This body met in Columbia on the 1st inst., and by its conservative and ? dignified bearing, " surprised" every - body. So says the JYews and Observer. There are some newspapers and some men all over this broad land who begin to tremble with fear- as though an earthquake were on the march; as soon as they hear that farmers are going to meet to consult for their own good. It was so in North Carolina last winter and pre--dictions of calamity, disaster and ruin tilled the air, but these prophets, too, were "surprised." President D. K. Norris, an elegant gentleman from Anderson county, opened the Convention with the fol lowing pointed address : THE PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS. " Gentlemen of the Convention : A merciful God has permitted you to assemble again in the discharge of a . duty that we owe to ourselves and to . the high calling of which we are de voted followers, for the earnest, faith , ful and successful performance of which succeeding generations will bless you, and the grand scheme ad vocated and inaugurated by you for '. its betterment. That the farmers' share of the profits of the enormous crops grown since the war have been unjustly small all unbiased men will admit ; that the agricultural interest of the State is languishing no one dis putes; that the agriculture of the State is rapidly passing into the hands of the incompetent and shiftless no care ful observer of passing events will deny, and that the time has come, and fully come, when something should be done to arrest this decadence in the State's largest interest all are perfectly agreed. To assist in putting into operation causes which will restore to the farmer prosperity, enable him by deep study, of agricultural science and general education to build up again his lost fortune and abandoned hope, and to rival the advance in other lines of industrial progress, and save to the farm the intelligence of the country, is the task before you. , -"At the last session of this Conven I ion it was thought wise in behalf of ' the objects mentioned above to ask of our Legislature an enlargement of our ; board of agriculture and its re-organ-: ization upon a more liberal basis and the establishment of an agricultural ; college which would be worthy of and i would have the support of the farmers ofs jhe State". ,The former of these bills passed tUe. House. In the Senate lB imajL v consitjrauun was pustpuueu until the .present session of that body; The latter measure was not pressed forreasons which - appeared sufficient. We are firmly convinced of the im portance of these measures and of the great auxilliary help which they will give to the agriculture of the State, and they, should be, no longer post poned.' It is needless to discuss these or their merits. Enough .has been said through the press during the past year to establish them ine rounds of all of our people who are ''not' utterly blinded by self-conceit, dogmatism or a spirit of opposition to progress. In deed ther3 seems to be left very little question of the merits of the measures proposed, and the opponents, finding themselves without argument, would defeat their enactment by jarring the sensative nerve, , the pocket. If it were necessary, gentlemen, it could be pointed out how it is. possible to inau gurate these measures without adding to the burdens of the people or de tracting from the efficiency of the Government, but it would be presump tuous to do this to an intelligent Legis lature which will pass upon them. Can a State which , freely, votes, perhaps $25,000, for simple, experimental stations; which affords a $35,000 office for one of its servants, and such souvenirs as he has been able to collect around him ; which enjoys an annual specific income from its farmers of $28,000, from the National Govern ment $11,500, and $15,000 for this very purpose ; which alone of all the States of this Union has an annual in come from its water-ways of over $200,000, and whose purse is so well filled that it can afford delinquent taxes to aggregate $396,000 ; whose officers are so generously paid that pending a canvass the average voter is bewildered with the number and richness of the the material offered for the place ; whose policy is to vote thousands of dollars annually to edu cate boys other than those who would engage in agriculture for the career of hie can such a State plead inability on the score of poverty? It is in credible. "Sustained as we are by the right and having the moral support of the people at large, let us deliberate with calmness and moderation but with earnestness, and leave our conclusions and claims with those who have been elected to position to carry out the wishes of the people." The Convention adopted a platform of principles, from which we extract the following : 1st. The Convention endorses the establishment of a separate agricul tural college and the re-organization of the agricultural bureau. Referred to committee on resolutions. 2d. It is not the purpose of the farmers to make this Convention a political body. It is not intended to attack the integrity of the State offi cials. Nor to dictate to the Legisla ture. 3d. The farmers' movement is or ganized with the sole object of develop ing the resources of the State and advancing its agricultural interests. 4th. Regret is expressed at the ac tion of some of the counties in declin ing to send delegates to this Conven tion. All farmers are invited to join us. 5th. The re-organization of the agricultural department is desired and the Legislature is respectfully asked to give their serious consideration to the bill already introduced looking to that end. The Convention invited the Board of Trustees of the State University to confer with it on the subject of agri cultural education, and Judge Haskell came before the body and delivered an address, from which we quote the fol lowing : " Our report submits now to the General Assembly a wide, university scheme, which will have in one college all and more than all which was ever contained in the South Carolina Col lege. It will be a college of agricul tural and mechanical art which will equal any college of agriculture or mechanical art now in operation in the Southern States, and we think in any State in the Union. Applause. That college is followed by a college of pharmacy which covers a class of wants, comprehends the necessity which has forced our young men up to this time to leave South Carolina and go elsewhere to . acquire that pro fession. It comprehends a college for the instruction of teachers, a normal school which will train the young men of South Carolina in the art and science of teaching, it has a law school wnere young men who are devoted to that profession can acquire their. diploma. The graduates of the college of agri culture and mechanic aits will be as well prepared as they are in any insti tution of learning of that name any where in the United States to enter upon the pursuit of agriculture and mechanic arts. It promises to open to our young men a field for emply ment and promotion in the practical science of manufacturing, mining and civil engineering, which are a part and parcel of the manufacturing business and enterprises which promote the wealth of every State in the United States. Hitherto our young men have been unable to compete, and those who occupied these positions. of elevation and strength are brought from abroad. The graduates in agriculture are to be trained in the highest schools of science in that department. The ex perimental farm is now in operation." "Last Sunday's New York Herald devoted three columns of its issue to an effort to prove that the late reported rapid development of the South is a sheer chimera a bubble which must burst ere long. May we. not expect what the Herald ought to expect that it should look henceforth to other sec tions for support ?" The above we take from the Charr lotto Chronicle, and the following from the Wilmington Review. If there be any two things on which Southern editors cannot make up their minds, they are, whether the New Yotk Herald and Mr. Randall are enemies or friends of the South. Tug away at it, brethren, and when you find out, let us know : " The New York Iieald has of late years become the best friend that the people of the South have, North of Mason & Dixon's line. It is always ready to defend the South whenever any unjust asperations have been made against this section, and when it speaks its voice is heard all over. THE PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE. From Farm and Fireside. The third annual message of President Cleveland is a surprise to everybody and has created a genuine sensation in all cir cles, its brevity sharing with the contents in the general wonderment. It is unique public document, and its author discussed the tariff question in an original way, entirely out of all harmony with the plan usually adopted by the astute poll tician. In speaking of the financial situa tion the President says : " Our scheme of taxation, by means of which a needless surplus is taken from the people and put into the public treasury, consists of a Tariff or duty levied upon importations from abroad, and internal revenue taxes levied upon the consump tion of tobacco and spirituous and malt liquors. It must be conceded that none of the things subjected to internal reve nue taxation are, strictly speaking, neces saries; there appears to be no just com plaint of this taxation by the consumers of these articles, and there seems to be nothing so well able to bear the burden without hardship to any portion of the people. CRITICISING THE TARIFF. But our present tariff laws, the vicious inequitable and illogical source of unnec essary taxation, ought to be at once re vised and amended. These laws, as their primary and plain effect, raise the price to consumers of all articles imported and sub ject to duty by precisely the sum paid by such duties. Thus the amount of the duty measures the tax paid by those who pur chase for us these imported articles. Many of these things, however, are raised or manufactured in our own country, and the duties now levied upon foreign goods and products are called protection to these home manufactures, because they render it possible for those of our people who are manufacturers to make these taxed arti cles and sell them for a price equal to that demanded for the imported goods that have paid customs duty. So it happens that while comparitivcly a few use the imported articles, millions of our people who never use and never saw any of the foreign products, purchase and use things of the same kind made in this country, and pay therefor nearly or quite the same enhanced price which the duty adds to the imported articles. Those who buy im ports pay the duty charged thereon into the public treasury, but the great major rity of our citizens, who buy domestic ar ticles of the same class, pay a sum at least approximately equal to this duty to the home manufacturer. This reference to the operation of our tariff laws is not made by way of instruction, but in order that we may be constantly reminded of the manner in which they impose a bur den upon those who consume domestic products as well as those who consume imported articles, and thus create a tax upon all our people. OUR MANUFACTURING INTERESTS MUST NOT BE IMPERILLED. It is not proposed to entirely relieve the country of this taxation. It must be ex tensively continued as the source of the Government's income; and in a readjust- ment of our ta riff the intercs'taofe Ameri can labor engaged in manufacture should be carefully considered, as well as the preservation of ; our manufacturers. It may be called protection, or..DY, any otner name, but relief from the hardships and dangers of our present tariff laws should be devised with especial precaution against imperiling the existence of our manufacturing interests. But this, exist ence should not mean a condition which, without regard to the public welfare or a national exigency, must always insure the realization of immense profits instead of moderately profitable returns. As the volume and diversity of our national ac tivities increase, new recruits are added to those who desire a continuation of the ad vantages which they conceive the present system of tariff taxation directly affords them. So stubbornly have all efforts to reform the present condition been re sisted by those of our fellow-citizens thus engaged, that they can hardly complain of the suspicion, entertained to a certain extent, that there exists an organized combination all along the line to maintain their advantage. INDUSTRIES THAT ARE INDEPENDENT. We are in the midst of centennial cele ebrations, and with becoming pride we re joice in'American skill and ingenuity, in American energy and enterprise, and in the wonderful natural advantages and re sources developed by a century's national growth. Yet when an .attempt is made to justify a scheme which permits a tax to be laid upon every consumer in the land for the benefit of our manufacturers, quite beyond a reasonable demand for govern mental regard, it suits the purpose of ad vocacy to call our manufactures infant in dustries, still needing the highest and greatest degree of favor and fostering care that can be wrung from Federal legis lation. It is also said that the increase in the price of domestic manufactures resulting from the present tarin is necessary in or der that higher wages may be paid to our workingmen employed in manufactories than are paid for what is called the pau per labor of Europe. All will acknowl edge the force of an argument which in volves the welfare and liberal compensa tion of our laboring people. Our labor is honorable in the eyes of every American citizen ; and as it lies at the foundation of our development and progress it is enti tled, without affectation or hypocrisy, to the utmost regard. The standard of our laborers' life should not be measured by that of any other country less favored, and they are entitled to their full share of all our advantages. THE GREAT SHEEP AND WOOL QUESTION. The farmer and the agriculturist who manufacture nothing, but who pay the increased price winch the tariff imposes, upon every agricultural implement, upon all he wears and upon all he uses and owns, except the increase of his flocks and herds and such things as his hus bandry produces from the soil, is invited to aid in maintaining the present situa tion: and he is told that a high duty on imported wool is necessary for the benefit of those who have sheep to shear, in order that the price of their wool may be in creased. They, of course, are not re minded that the farmer who has no sheep is oy tms scneme ODiigea, in nis purchases of clothing, and woolen goods, to pay a tribute to his fellow farmer as well as to the manufacturer and merchant; nor is any mention made of the fact that the sheep-owners themselves and their house holds, must wear clothing and use other articles manufactured of the wool they sell at tariff prices, and thus as consumers must return their share of this increased price to the tradesman. A THEORY. I think it may be fairly assumed that a large proportion of the sheep owned by the-farmers throughout the country are found in small flocks numbering from twenty-five to fifty. The duty on the grade of imported wool which these sheep yield is ten cents each pound if of the value of thirty cents or less, and twelve cents if of the value of more than thirty cents. If the liberal estimate of six pounds be allowed for each fleece, the duty thereon would be sixty or seventy two cents, and this may be taken as the utmost enhancement o- its price to the farmer by reason of this duty. Eighteen dollars would thus represent the increased price of -wool from twenty-five sheep and thirty-six dollars that from the wool of fifty sheep ; and at present values this addition would amount to about one-third of its price. If upon its' sale the farmer receives his or a less tariff profit, the wool leaves his hands charged with ' precisely that sum, which, in all its changes, will adhere to it, until it reaches the consumer. When manufactured into cloth and other goods and material for use, its cost is not only increased to the extent of the for mer's tariff profit, but a further sum has been added for the benefit of the manu facturer under the operation of other tariff laws. In the meantime the day ar rives when the farmer finds it necessary to purchase woolen goods and material to clothe himself and family for the winter. When he faces the tradesman for that purpose he discovers that he is obliged not only to return in the way of increased prices his tariff profit on the wool he sold, and which then perhaps lies before him in manufactured form, but that he must add a considerable sum thereto to meet a further increase in cost caused by a tariff duty on the manufacture. Thus in the end he is aroused to the -fact that he has paid upon a moderate purchase, as a re sult of the tariff scheme, which, when he sold his wool seemed so profitable, an in crease in price more than sufficient to sweep away all the tariff nrofit l,.. ... peived upon the wool he produced ar.a SU1U. RULE OF THE MAJORITY. When the number of farmers R,frnni in wool raising is compared with -TllH. farmers in the country, and the small pro portion they hear to our population is consiuereu, wnen it is made anparr-nt that,-in the case of a large part of th0e who own sheep, dhe benefit of the pres ent tariff on wool is iliusorv : and almvn all; when it must be considered that the increase of the cost of living caused b such tariff becomes a burden upon those with moderate means and the poor the employed and unemployed, the- sick' and well, ana tne young and old, and that it constitute a tax which, with . relentless grasp, is fastened upon the clothing of every man, woman and child in the land, reasons are suggested why the removal or reduction of this duty should be included in a revision of our tariff laws. In spealcing of the increased cost to the consumer of our home manufactures re sulting from a duty laid upon imported articles of the same description, the fact is hot overlooked that competition amoiv our domestic producers sometimes has the effect of keeping the price of their products below the highest limit allowed by such duty. ' FOUR THOUSAND DUTIABLE ARTICLES. Under pur present laws more than four thousand articles are subject to duty. Many of these do not in any way com pete with our own manufactures, and many are hardly worth attention as sub jects of revenue. A considerable reduc tion can be made in the aggregate by adding them to the' free list. The taxa tion of luxuries presents no features of hardship; but the necessaries of life used and consumed by all the people, the duty upon which adds to the cost of living in every home, should be greatly cheapened. The radical reduction of TnE DUTIES IMPOSED UPON RAW MATERIAL and in manufactures, or its free importa tion, is, of course, an important factor in any effort to reduce the price of these necessaries; it would not only relieve them from the increased cost caused by the tariff on such material, but the manu factured product being thus cheapened, that part of the tariff now laid upon pro duct, as a compensation to our manufac turers for the present price of raw mate rial, could be accordingly modified. Such reduction, or free importation, would serve beside to largely reduce the revenue. It is not apparent how such a change ran have any injurious effect upon our manu factures. On the contrary, it would ap pear to give them a better chance in foreign markets with manufacturers of other countries, who cheapen their wares by free material. Thus our people might have the opportunity of extending their sales beyond the limits of home consump tion saving them from the depression, interruption in business and loss caused by a glutted domestic market, and afford ing their employees more certain and steady labor, with its resulting quiet and contentment. The question thus imperatively pre sented for solution should be approached in A SPIRIT HIGHER THAN PARTISANSHIP and considered in the light of that regard for patriotic duty which should character ize the action of those intrusted with the weal of a confiding people. But the obli gation to declared party policy and prin ciple is not wanting to urge prompt and effective action. Both of the great politi cal parties now reprsented in the Govern ment have, by repeated and authoritative declarations, condemned the condition of our laws which permit the collection from the people of unnecessary revenue, and have, in the most solemn manner, promised its correction; and neither as citizens or partisans are our countrymen in a mood to condone the deliberate violation of these pledges. NO BANDYING OF EPITHETS. Our progress toward a wise conclusion will not be improved by dwelling upon the theories of Protection and Free Trade. This savors too much of bandy ing epithets. It is a condition which con fronts us not a theory. Relief from this condition may involve a slight reduc tion of the advantages which we award our home productions, but the entire withdrawal of such advantages shouM not be contemplated. The question of Free Trade is absolutely irrelevant; and the persistent claim made in certain quar ters, that all efforts to relieve the people from unjust and unnecessary taxation are schemes of so-called free-traders, is mis chievous and far removed from any con sideration for the public good. TOE SIMPLE AND PLAIN DUTY which w.e owe the people is to reduce taxation to the necessary expenses of an economical operation of the Government, and to restore to the business of the country the money which we hold in the Treasury through the perversion of gov ernmental powers. These things can and should be done with safety to all our in dustries, without danger to the opportun ity for remunerative labor, which our workingmen need, and with benefit to them and all our people, by cheapening their means of subsistence and increasing the measure of their comforts." These copious excerpts will give our readers a clear understanding of tnt President's nosition on the tariff question; and, whether men agree with him or not, all must concede that he has the courage of his convictions, and means to fight it on that line next year. Subscribe to Progressive Farmer.
The Progressive Farmer (Raleigh, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
Dec. 15, 1887, edition 1
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