Buchanan County bulletin. [volume] (Independence, Iowa) 1869-1891, 1874-02-06

~~HO'S"sS - ~SA
ever it speaks for such legislation
as will promote the prosperity OF
its members and cripple no other
NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. in which the
producers of corn and wheat, OF
plows and fanning-mills, of cloths
and leather, and of books and news
papers, are equally protected and
encouraged-the wise legislator will
heed the voice. He will not only
heed the voice of the farm. producer,
whose chief concern is to increase
returns upon his surplus products,
but, with a craftsmanship looking
beyond to-day and to the greater
questions of tomorrow, taking
knowledge Of the past in other and
older states, he will, while building
wisely for labor that owns farms,
oulid w;sh equal wisdom for labor
that owns only hands-ss>- men who
do not look for greater profits, hn,
for bread; who care less to keel
the tar collector than the wolf from
their doors. Unless we build wise
~ for these as we'll as others, in lesi
than two decades from now there
will be formidable conventions Of
this great and increasing class de-
manding, by resolution and political
action, such legislation as will fl
their hours Of daily work and the
price per day for husking corn.
say these things with the more di
rectness and with the greater bold
ness because, for myself, l own nc
dollar Of property but what is in a
farm, and my heart never thro5s
but in sympathy with the toiling
millions of my countrymcn.
And here is the gist Of my argu
ment. What we need, and must
have, for the producer, for the la.
borer, for the middleman, and fol
the State, is greater diversification
of industry. We need this not only
to employ surplus labor and to fur
nish a market for home products
but we need it also to build up here
local marts Of trade and manufac
lures, instead OF pouring all our &C.
cumulations into the lap of great
eastern cities-a folly which has
proved the ruin Of more than one
nation now gone to decay. An EN-
inent English agriculturist wrote
but a short time since: at is pre-.
cisely because British farmers have
their customers-theB British manu-
facturers-almost at their doors,
and that other corn producing coun.
tries have not such manufactures,
that British agriculture is rich and
thriving" II is said by historians
that the act for which the first Ma
poleon will be the best known one
hundred years from now is thesfact
that he encouraged tho introduction
and naturalization Of beet sugar
culture, as a new industry of the
French people.
A writer, not long since, in speak
ing of the farmers movement, said:
"His (the farmcr's) trouble is not
the result of excessive transports.
ton charges, nor Of the large prof
its of middlemen, nor Of specula-
tons in stocks, nor wheat corners;
but it will be found in that the silk
dress has got into the farmers home
and can't be got OUT In my judgment
much of the responsibility for small
profits to the farmer may be ascrib-
ed to the causes which this writer
would entirely exhonorate. 1t is,
however, doubtless true that the
wants of the farmer and taste for
luxuries have grown with his
growth, as is the case with all other
classes. In other words, the silk
dress has got into the house. For
myself, l am glad the silk dress has
got into the farmers house, and !
would have it remain there; but
what l would have, if could speak
my theories into a living reality,
would be an industry near the far
mer's door, where the silk for this
dress could be manufactured; thus
enabling him to haul his load OF
flour to the establishment, where it
would in part be needed for the
consumption of the employees, and
bring home the dress, paid for by
the exchange. And if there were
daughter in the farmers house
whose taste and skill gave her an
adaptedness to silk culture, as well
as silk wearing and she should prefer
this employment to working butter,
or turning cheeses, or teaching the
district school, l would say that was
the place for her, and that the oc'
cupation for her to pursue.
The difference between manufac'
turing the raw products At home,
and having no industry but the cul'
tivation of the soil, was strikingly
impressed upon my mind last fail
while passing through the eastern
portion of the State. Riding one
day through . fine wheat.growing
region, where the grain had beer
recently threshed, the air was thicl
with the smoke Of burning straw
In almost every field the busy far
mer, in preparation for his fal
blowing, was ridding himself o
what seemed to him the compare
lively worthless straw by feeding
it to the flames. In less than eighty
miles from this neighborhood, OF
stepping down from the platform o
the depot at which I had stopped,
hailed the driver of apassing load
of straw with the question, "Hov
much do you get for straw9" Isl,
dollars ton," was the response
"Where do you sell its" "Jus
down here at the paper mil" he re
piled. This fact is introduced, no
because l think that all the straw il
Iowa could be manufactured int
paper at six dollars a ton, but be
cause it illustrates the result of re
ducing the raw material to the man
ufactured article. The reason why
one man burned his straw as worth
less, and tho other sold it for 81,
dollars ton, was not because 0
railway discriminations, nor on &C
ooant Of the financial panic. mo-
from the lack of free banks, nor OF
account of the tariff ON salt or iron
but it was because there was . pa