Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1874-02-04

following
- Dr. G. 4. Cole,
PRESIDENT or rnE ST. LAwREScg couSp DsmfdaSE
ASSOCIATION
Promising that he was moro accustomed
to speaking on medical than agricultural
subjects, what he had to say would be
hash of what he had read, seen, felt and |
heard lie would consider the relations Of
the farmer to other classes and his social |
and political status. First, then, they
claim that they are oppressed, and the
claim cannot be talked down, written down |
nor sneered down, (mark that woll) Good
authority says that the best farms, well
managed, DO not pay three per cent. They
complain that they work hard, live poor,
dress poor and are seen by their servants,
the officials only on election days; that
their hard hands and thick boots meet with
cold reception in the parlors Of the opulent,
and that all other industries are better paid
than theirs lie had not been long a
farmer, but long enough to know that there
is some foundation for these complaints.
There is something wrong in the United
States, as well as rotten in Denmark. lie
had heard a bullet. headed man in St. Al
bans, whom they called " Judge pass
snecring remark about the farmers, bat
having practiced medicine among them
more than twenty-five years, he was satis-
fed they were as good as other people. All
classes of laborers, except farmers, have
their Unions their compacts and methods
of protection, and just in proportion to the
benefits they receive thereirom are they
aggressive upon Us. Not a strike made by
the miners of Penusy wanna or the shoe
makers of Massachusetts but hits the farmer
in Vermont, Every hour taken from the
artisans day of labor adds two to ours, aud
every dollar added to his wages takes as
much from ours Can we afford to stand
idle spectators Of the consolidation Of every
interest but ours without an effort at self
defence These combinations must be re-
sisted with their own tactics or we must
succumb, as does every disorganized force
when coping with organization and disci-
| pliue. While we are feeding others for
less than half the former cost, they, by their
compacts, are compelling us to pay as much
or more. All the concessions made to the
exigencies of the times are made on the
cost Of raw material. We pay as much for
clothing and agricultural implements as we
did when it cost the workman twice as
much to live as now.
1t is stolidity to suppose that no one is
concerned in these things but the corpora
tions. Their trouble is only to adapt them.
sol,,oa g.. o., ,ttorol a; rorn,atanons E,tkor
the consumer or farmer always pays the
added cost We sometimes congratulate
ourselves on living in country where VIZ
J. do not have to pay four and one.half pei
cent. tax, or $500, for laying fifty feet O.
street, but in fact we have to pay it, Al
assessment is laid on the business that W,
do in these villages to pay expenses. Thu
real estate owner charges it to the rent
r the merchant on the cost Of his goods, ant
!. so with every stately ed6ce public building
r and pleasure ground we pay the who'll
!. bill Officials, professional men and trades
10 men are the shearcrs, and farmers the sheep
= But, says one, do they not patronize US a
wel2 Are they not as essential to GU
; support as we to theirs2 Is not the thin
mutual? Mutual it may be, but no
equal We may need cities and towns, bu
not at a ruinous rate. We need middle
men, but aside from their business expenses
e there is no good reason why they should b
I, better paid than ourselves. That they pat
81 ronize us is true, but not as we patroniz
q them. Their whole system is based o
o profits, while we rarely ever get cost The
@ live by traihcking 10 the products Of labor
IN we by labor alone, Profits flow as natui
y, ally to the city as streams to the oceal
" Everything is higher there and has to b
r. well paid for. The producer of anythin
It, there finds it expensive to live and add
>" the percentage to what he sells, The pui
IN chaser pays the bill, and so the wave roll
Il back until it strikes the farmer and theI
stops, as it must for when all these cxtravi
Us gances are referred to the committee Q
rs agriculture, where shall they refer them ?
@. 1t is wholly wrong when farm produc
sc do not bear a just relation to the product
Us Of other labor. 1t can therefore be REM
/ died, for right, not wrong is omnipoten
VS. The cost of the table is two-thirds the co
n Of the household, and there is no other stai
$. $, dard so proper by which to adjust scale
A. prices as agricultural productions. No ma
en- ter what the price is, il we make fair el
go change. But when the odds are from tW
~ to twenty against us-when we give a bush
Us of corn for box Of pills, as they do in Il
er West, and the pills cost five cents, the jol
to is too severe. We have to sustain ou
at selves by working more hours and eudurir
eer greater privations or depicting our cap
be tai, as we are now doing, for our farms a
Il wearing out, and we are getting nothiI
on but the vaule Of our own labor. No
gu let US see what kind of bargains we are &C
M ting with others. Wegive the mechanic fro
no four to six hours for one Of his. Soho
I'D teachers, many Of them educated at our e
ne pense, protected from the weather in
IT, house that we furnish and warm, buy wi
,er six hours labor forty-eight hours Of Of
be toll in snow and rain. The priest, phys
zee clan and lawyer get all the way from {
VI to twenty for one. Estimate these pric
re- 10 grain and we shall fluid that many
he them earn our corn oats aud wheat as ia
on as man and team can gather aud deliv
ne them. The brick mason who gets $500
We day, buys with that days work half
Oh acre Of our oats, and the taking to him, wi
st, man and team, is equal to his days labc
nr The farmer complains that he has DO,
lda and is yet the newer of wood and Il
i've drawer of water. Why is it, that viii
we pay all other men their prices, no mi
rot pays US ours, or rather that we have
ia prices Of our own Agricultural labor
MI the only free labor that has no voice,
ne stipulations of its own, in relation to
in prices. The imported Ohinaman is par
're to the contract which binds him to his labS
n nu and he knows that the price thereafter ca
,ar not be altered at the caprice Of its ownt
by But farmers prices are constantly chan
ed ing at the option of the buyer, and we
y, constantly follow him in the prices Of VIII
I've he has to sell. When the butter buyer {
Oh fers so much, that settles it. The ha
he working farmer complains that he is II
up adequately paid for his sore hands and ac
M, ns ing muscles. 1t might be some consolati
id il we thus benefited the toilipg consume
ed but he will never establish the price a
tly more than we. We invite another par
'I 4 to do this-the very party who has his f
,cy tune TO make out Of the difference betwe
a what he pays aud what We pay him. VIII