National opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1865-1874, 1873-09-19
The Farmers Movement.
How They Feel In the West About the
New Movement.

the Farmers movement in the Yves
! that we give few extracts relati,
, 10 the subject from speech of Sec
, Smith at Farmers mass meeting
Illinois. Tho personal debt
Q the United States in 1866, says Ill
secretary, was $1,000, 000,0 900. Tire,
quarters OF that, or about 81 800, 600
900 was borne by the agrculturists d,
the United States, When you considt
that this latter sum has 10 be carrie
at nm average rate OF ten per cent. pc
annum, IL 1t any wonder that we ar
poor ? Couple with this another fac,
that the annual increase OF tho wealt
Of the United States for any decad
during the very best period of our e1
istence has never exceeded 81 per cent.
that is, the agriculturists are actual
carrying 81 900, 900, 900 at 10 per cent.
while the products OF industry nowhere
taking II all through, have exceeded 3
per cent. Is it then any wonder yol
are poor, and that with each year tn
whole agricultural population of tn,
United States are growing poorer ant
poorer, while those who handle the pro
ducts of our labor are growing richie,
and richer2
Take Commodore Vanderbilt, for ex
ample, and suppose that 20 years egc
he was worth 5000, 900, and that to
day he is worth ESQ, 900, 900, how has h,
accumulated 100000, 900 in 90 years
Mark 1t, he never earned dollar in hi
life, and yet he has gotten into hii
hands 500, 900, 600 in 20 years. might
stop right here and not say another
word on the subject, for here is suili.
cient proof that there is something
wrong in this business, owing to which
this man has accumulated 10 SUCH How
did he do it Has he rendered an
equivalent in the service lie has per.
formed for MS in transporting our pro.
ductlons to market, or has he not
That is the question. If he has not,
then we have been wronged of just so
much money.
Col. Coleman has shown you what it
costa to get bushel of corn or wheat
TO market from where lie lives in Mis-
souri,, and we all know what it costs
here, and that we pay three fourths of
the product of our labor to get the
other fourth to market. If this is so,
who fixes the price upon your labor?
Take the plowmen of this State all
have their annual conventions. They
come together and agree that they will
have Just so much for plows during the
year, no matter what we may get for
our products and for the last two wears
they have asked 100 per cent. on the
cost of production. Thus that combi-
nation makes n monopoly Of the pillow
business. No matter what agent or
manufacturer you buy of you have to
pay the same per cent. There are my
friends, the pork packers, from all the
cities i'll this Union, who last
year met and combined to fix the price
of pork you know this as well as |.
st. Louis, Milwaukee, Chicago, Louis
vile, and Cincinnati came together Just
as they are going to convene next week at
Cincinnati, and fixed the price of our
pork for the coming year. Last year they
fixed the price upon your pork at "a a
hundred live weight, and they would
buy all there is in the West at the same
rate. OF course they got it, and if they
had fixed the price at So they would
have got it. | only got 1925. Prob
ably the high price for freight made the
difference in your case. What right
had they to do this2
Increase in taxation is another wrong
which we have brought upon ourselves,
and we might as well look it squarely
in the face and right it. When / went
on the farm II years ago it took n $40
gold piece to pay the taxes, and now it
takes seven and half of them, which is
an advance of little over 700 per cent.
But what corresponding benefit have |
for that increase Of taxes? Is it not
time for us to look into it, and inquire
of our public servants how it happens
that our taxes increase, and what they
give us in exchange for them? Did you
know they are multiplying officers and
expenses, and voting away thousands
upon thousands of dollars with per-
feet disregard of the interest of the tax
payers? | am told that county not n
hundred miles from here used to be run
for $500 year, and now it costs 81, 500.
Did you ever stop to think that it takes
the product of whole township to
feed n judge? Our Circuit Judge eats
up all we earn in a township in a year.
Is not he ponstrous eater? Is it not
time we tried to look into this matter
and see if we could not get some man
who would eat less? Think of what
you are getting for your products, and
Of what you are paying for his service.
Is there any reason, justice, or right in
all this? | saw man at our national
Congress who said: "When | left
southwestern Georgia l paid dollar
bushel for your prairie corn. 1 come
out here and ! find that you are getting
20 cents bushel for it, and that there
fore somebody got so cents for fetching
it to me. You ought to have half dol
lar for that corn, and l ought to get it
for 70 cents; and then the fellows who
fetch 1t to us would get % cents instead
Of so, and that would equalize the thing.
would rather pay rs cents than 81,
md you never ought to raise a bushel
If corn less than half a dollar" And
10 sayI. You nevershould sell bushel
hort of half a dollar, and you can have
t the moment you say you will. If your
,oor neighbors must sell, furnish them
he money make up purse for them,
end them money on their cribs and en-
Ible them to hold on It'll the price is
lp. People cannot eat dry goods and
lails; but we can be self-supporting on
farm; and there is where we have got
he advantage, for we can make our
arms support us, az we did when | was
boy, when we spun linen and muslin,
nd made everything we used. They
must have our products, and the power
o fix price upon them is in our hands
he moment we get ready for it, and
hat within a year if we are wise in this
natter. First begin by organizing
verywhere; not for extortion, not for
obbery, but to execute the first law of |
ature, that of self-protection. Organ