New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1873-08-06
SOMETHING WRONG ABOUT IT.

"a he has told it in public address to the
Farmers themselves. Not new, but World
old ;-every day in one form or another re-
heated, always full of pathos and pain, but
"a true as preaching and as simple as the
curse of labor and sweat. Told between
the handles of the plow, or amid
the smoke and CRIME of the forge,
in the sitting air of the loom
and the spindle, or down in the darkness and
damps of the mine, over the last and over the
anvil and under the hod, it is always the
same; full Of infinite variations-with never
ceasing change of color, time, and circum-
stance, but always and everywhere the eternal
discomfort of labor with It's lot and the i'm
mortal yearning for the rest and repOse that
seem always 80 easy of attainment, but that
no man ever reaches. .'.l..
"For the past three or four years" says
Farmer Smith, speaking for his guild the
conviction has been gradually forcing itself
"upon us that something was wrong in our
"affairs, for while every other industry was
"being fairly remunerated we have been steadily
"gOing behind, until poverty, if not bankruptcy,
"stared us in the face" And then going deeper
in his Investigations he says-and We beg a
very careful hearing and thoughtful considera-
ton of his statement:
ave found that, while we labored harder and more
hours than the artisan and workman in other pursuits,
We were forced to content ourselves with poorer f0od
and clothing with fewer social privileges, and less
opportunities for mental cultivation than they. We
could NOT help seeing that II they steady and
industrious as we, they were able to live In better
houses and had more money to spend IN their adorn-
ment than we had that IL they had the taste for such
things as most Of them had, they had more pictures
books and newspaper and more leisure TO enjoy them
than We and that they often INDUCED in such uxuries
az lectures concerts excursions and festivals, while 1t
was rare indeed that VIC could afford to give wife and
children one Of these treats Then we began to see that
the men who did nothing handle the products of
our labor were s better of, and were getting rich
while growing poor that those VINO supplied Us
with the implements work added from 20 to so per
cent to the original cost and charged over to us that
the merchant grocer who supplied us with necessa
ries in their line forgot their profits; that the
LAWYER who spent half an hour in drawing up the mort
gage upon our farm charged what would be equal TO
four days labor that to the doctor who came five
or six miles into tho country to cheer the coming or
speed the departing member OF family. paid the
price OF acre OF corn or hye days labor Win our
team that the teacher for whose education had paid
earned much six hours we could In six DAYS OF l6
hours each and through all tho branches OF trade,
professions or productions, found all getting fair
and exorbitan. profit on their commodities aud
Is il any wonder that tho men who turned
from their hard labor aud proftless crops to
see these features of their surroundings should
put up the cry, "There's something wrong
"abOut all this 7"
And the story is not much exaggerated
from the farmers point of view not at all,
but on the contrary very mildly stated. You
may say some of these things that seem so
unjust and harsh are but the natural and in
evitable accomplishments of the profession of
agriculture that men take up and follow farm
ing knowing all the disadvantages and risks of
the business that they go into it with their
eyes open, and that even with these draw
backs the business is OverdOne and low prices
are brought about by over production. But
with all that, you do not remove or explain
the patent injustice which always stares the
farmer in the face, that all his neighbors in
other pursuits and occupations are getting
rich and living in comfort upon the profits of
his business and his labor. For many of the dis
comforts and privations of their lot there are
cOmpensations of course. They do not deny
this, though they could hardly be expected to
enumerate them in the recital of their COM
plants, for they belong to the other side Of
the case On the other side of the case, too,
are considerations that pertain to the kind of
crops they raise, whether they could not make
their business more profitable by the exercise
of sounder judgment in the choice of crops
to be produced, and other similar sugges-
tons. But underlying all this is a grievance
actual and tangible and that is their present
and immediate objective point, to wit the abb
sOlute power over them and their business, of
the railroad corporations which have been
created by their votes. They have seen the
railroads discriminating against them in
freight tariffs, and paying no heed to remon-
STRANGE or protest. They have appealed to
legislatures and to courts, and found
themselves met with the money and
power of great moneyed corporations;
and finally they have betaken themselves to
organization and to trying the force of num-
bers for the acquisition of what they believe
to be their rights. They may be striking out
in some cases blindly and in hasty, unrea-
soning way, but what they mean to do is to
agitate the subject till it gets some attention
and some thought from men competent to
devise a remedy, or at least relief u
And so they are saying, "There 3 some
'tmng wrong ABOUT tnlS, ana inviting the
country to discussion of it. Indeed, they
mean to give the governing powers and the
would-be governing powers no peace until it is
discussed and some better adjustment secured
There is something wrong about it there
always has been something wrong about the
relations of labor and capital, of the many and
the few, and there will be, doubtless.
till the millennium dawns. 1t is the dis
cipline and the work of the world TO
go inquiring into all these wrongs and
inventing some amelioration or escape.