The Morristown gazette. [volume] (Morristown, Tenn.) 1867-1920, 1873-03-12
From the Chattanooga Times.
Hard Times.

We have had our share of hard
times. Our croakers, however who
spend their time groaning over their
hard luck and cursing the town
as the dullest of places, might i'm
bibe more sensible views by learning
how their neighbors are getting on.
The Royal Neag Yorker sent a cor
respondent through the principal
Western States this winter, and in
its issue of February ed, the obser-
vations of this correspondent are
given. Speaking of Illinois, he says ::
81 have never seen so much
gloom, so much dizziness, so much
anxiety, among farmers and business
men, as at the present time. We
have been borrowing money private
Ey and voting taxes publicly in or
der to get ont of debt; and contrary
to our expectations, we are On the
verge of ruin. To liquidate our
6ebts and so pay our taxes now is
our great aim and object; and, as
hard as the lesson may be, we are
about ready to own and acknowledge
that we and our families must sub
NIT to general privation to succeed.
I should be glad to believe that we
had reached the bottom-that things
could be no worse, and, therefore,
they must mend but I doubt it,
Speaking of railroad freights and
the price of corn in Central Illinois,
the writer in the R7sr0I says:
Their present rates for carrying
a hundred pounds of freight from
Central Illinois to New York is
seventy-five cents, varying above or
below this to other markets.. accord
ing to distance or competition with
other lines. Corn being WORTH
will write "sells for instead, for
that word is misinterpreter-only
twenty cents, and it takes two and
one-fourth bushels at this price to
get one to New York. IF the grain
is sent to ''shipping' or middle
man, it takes another half of bush
el, so that ordinarily it takes all Of
three to get one bushel of corn to
the New York market. This state
of things is terrible to the producers
and an outrage on the consumers"
So it would seem we are not the
only community that is suffering
from dull times, lack of money, old
debts, and railroad determinations
In short. that we are quite as well
off as 1.-The Egypt Of the West" in
any Of these respects.
In Central and Southern iowa,
this writer finds the farming and,
business community little, if any,
better off than their brethren in Hi
nois. Corn in Central Iowa, is sell
ing at fifteen cents per bushel-just
what it costs to produce it.
The condition of the farmers as
class in that locality is thus set
forth:
1T is very rare to find al. appa-
rently well-to-do farmer that is not
owing from one-tenth to one-half the
value Of his property. The less for
tunate ones are paying ten, twelve.
or fifteen per cent. on from one-half
to four-fifths the value of their prop
erty. And unless q favorable change
in the tide of affairs soon comes,
their foredoom is bankruptcy"
And so this writer, who says he
has no pecuniary object in VIEW
goes on to set before the readers of
the most widely circulated agricul-
turaI journal of the North, the con-
dition of several OF the Western
States. And comparing his esti-
mates for the future of these com
munities, it is safe to say that any
county in this State, with all orr
enormous burdens of taxation, with
no advantages of the inflow Of
money that immigration brings.
could give an equal area of the
Northwest q reasonable discount and
then beat them in the race for fu-
tire wealth and prosperity.