The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1865-11-03


district of a number of miles square, in which
the chief production is wheat And then,
can they imagine to themselves an immense
threshing machine, located several miles out
side of this district, to which all the farmers
send their wheat in the sheaf, by regular
line of wagons, to be threshed at a round price
per bushel, payable to the owners of the wag-
on line and threshing machine
And having conceived this state of affairs
can they now properly estimate the many dis
advantages under which the farmers of that
district would labor The immense cost of
Transporting the wheat in the sheaf, the wag-
ons, and teams, and men, and provisions, and
the wear and tear, and general worry attend
ing the process. And then, after the whole
thing had been successfully accomplished,
and their wheat returned again to their own
farms at an infinite expense of time and Ia
4. Dor, they would simply have their wheat mi
nus the straw, which would not be worth
hauling back, and which is nevertheless es.
sential to the preservation of the soil in good
condition.
Farmers wouldn't stand such expensive,
blundering and runous folly as that long,
nor submit to the monopoly of a "Thresher,'
or of the 'Wagon line which they were con-
strained to employ to haul their wheat to the
thresher. They would combine in clubs, buy
threshing machines of their own, and locate
them conveniently, or move them round,
from farm to farm, and put in their own labor
to expedite the process of getting out their
wheat And if at first it should cost them as
much nominaly, as by the other mode, they
would at all events save their straw, put in
some of their own otherwise idle time and
consume some of their own. super abundant
provisions, with hopeful prospect of stiIl
greater saving in the future.
Now as a matter of fact, are not the people
of Iowa doing something very like what we
imagined the farmers of that little district did
at one time? Are we not sending our wheat
and corn and wool and cattle and hogs in the
rough to New York and New England, and
old England, bv steamboat lines and railroad
lines and steamships, to be turned into cloth
and worked into all kinds of manufactured
articles to be returned to US for our use? And
are we not paying the cost Of all this trans
portation and transformation ont of our own
pockets? Look at the immenelyexpensive
lines Of railway, of steam navigation by river
by lake and by ocean, that are kept up and
caused to yield fabulous fortunes to their
proprietors out of the fees we pay for carry
ing off our bulky raw materials and bringing
back to us the finished fabrics of skilled labor
This enormous expense of transportation
which we pay has not added anything to the
intrinsic value of the articles. The skilled
labor of the manufacturer and the costly ma
chinery which he employs have increased
their value very greatly it is true. But we
have to pay for all that labor, for the use OF
all that machinery, and also handsome profits
on all the capital and skill expended in the
manufacture of our articles. And we have to
furnish provisions for the manufactures and
pay for their transportation from Iowa to
New England or across the ocean. And in
addition to paying the transportation, insu-
rance, storage and all other costs and charges
on the articles both ways, we have also to pay
profits to the wholesale dealers at the Other
end of the route and to the retail dealers al
this end Of the route And after the process
has run its course we find we are very much
ia the condition person would be who hav
ing sent his eggs to market received the shells
in return as the proceeds thereof.
Now it strikes us there ought to be rem
edy devised for the evils of this ruinons stats
of things. And that remedy may be had i
the people of Iowa will rouse themselves, ant
go to work and get "threshing machines" o
their own, and locate them conveniently.