Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1874-10-15
THE HER AL D.
Farmers Pay Your Debts!

We have steadily counseled our
farmer readers against playing into
the hands of the ignoDle bearing
clique that has taken possession OF the
lake port markets and it operating
(by means of kilograms to itself from
New York, Liverpool and elsewhere)
to put down and keep down the price
Of wheat. So long as this clique con-
tiLues at their desperate and loosing
game, it is not safe for producers to
consign their wheat in anything like
the usual quantities The conserva-
tive instinct of the farmers has thus
far proved the means of their saliva
ton. 1t has blocked the game OF
the conspirators, by making them
cover their short Gales at loss and
by making them lose in an ascending
ratio as they have put off their
final adjustment from month to
month. 1t is evidently game that
the farmers, who have the wheat,
can play at longer that the men who
have sold wheat they have never
seen.
But it is one thing to encourage
the farmer to hold his wheat until he
can realize cost on its production.
1t is quite another thing to advise his
holding back wheat that belongs to
somebody else.
We have every year had occasion
TO urge farmers in the fall to C me
forward as honest. business men and
pay to the country store keeper the
bills he had promised to pay in the
fall. The obligation to pay store
bill will be held sacred by every hon.
orable farmer-and to pay 1t ,ohen 1t
is due. Time is vital part OF every
contract. The farmer is doubtless
often tboughtless on this point, and
sometimes he is ignorant. He has
no business to be. He should look at
the facts as they are. He SHOULD
recognize his own Importance in the
general economy. 1t seems a little
thing for one farmer to ask HE trades
man to extend him little time on q
bill of $50 or 800. But when any
considerable proportion of the six
million farmers of the United State
demand such favor-let the farmer
calculate the consf quences to the
trade of the country For any in
dIvidual TO contribute his part to-
wards a general disaster of this ma
ture is wicked and moan. 1t is not
q bit less dishonorable or less Grimm.
al than the present attempt of the
operators to get the wheat crop ont
of the northwest at less that its cost
TO the producers.
The farmer has a right to hold his
0lUn wheat. He has q right to re
strict his purchases and to refuse to
go 10 debt. For any consequent de-
rangement to the calculations of
merchants, the wheat gamblers, who
have crowded down the market 10
order TO feather their own nests, are
directly and solely responsible. But
Squire Corn Crib has no right what
ever to make Mr.. Atlantic A. carry
him through the fall season on an
account which be has promised to
settle by the first of September. He
has no right to let the country mer-
chant go to the wall because specula-
tors in Milwaukee and Liverpool have
put down the price of wheat. That
is robbery. 1t is crime.
Farmers pay your debts-if you
have to borrow money to do so. or
to sell United States bond or two,
or to draw on the old stocking, or to
sell your coarse grains at good
price, or TO sell your wheat at a loss
Don't sneak. Don't try to put your
sins on the sholders of Bill Young &
Co. Don't think of specializing in
wheat with the capital of John Nazro
or H. S. Manville or Storm, Hill &
Co. Be business-like, be sensible, be
humane, be honorable and prompt
and just.-Ma. Journal of Commerce