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

portation will leave no profit to the
producer. Return purchases which
are OF the same aggregate value,
but only one. fourth the weight can
afford to pay the cost Of railway
transport. To this theory I in
part subscribe; and have no doubt
the relief he proposes will help, but
in my judgment the great remedy is
Of a more fundamental character
than this proposition seems to con-
template. In the year 1870 there
were raised in the United States
seven and four-tenths bushels of
wheat for every man, woman and
child in the country, which, accord.
ing to the ordinary estimate Of the
quantity necessary for consumption,
would leave an aunowat eoual tn
three and one-tenth bushels for ev-
cry man. woman and child in the
country to be disposed OF abroad.
It is fact known to everybody that
Great Britain is practically our on
ly foreign grain market; and in 1872
Great Britain required 70 import
only 88,OOO,OOO bushels Of wheat;
thus our surplus would have more
than supplied this demand, without
regard to the fact that the surplus
OF France and the Baltic and Black
seas districts are SO near and ac-
cessible that we may never hope to
compete with them on equal terms.
1t is true that cheaper grain would
stimulate greater consumption,
but the additional consumption
would also stimulate more young
men to 60 West and become produ-
GERS. And when we consider that
in Iowa alone-whose population
according to the last federal census
was 1894, ,O2O-out of the persons
engaged in the different occupations
being 344,276 in all-2lO,263 Of
this number were engaged in agri-
cultural pursuits, and that in the
same year Iowa produced 2O,435,-
992 bushels of wheat (nearly one
fourth the amount bought by Great
Britain during that year, and 6s,-
935, ,065 bushels of corn we will see
how utterly futile will be the at
tempt to cheaper transportation as
to find market for the surplus ce-
reals of the whole Mississippi val
ley.
Nor is it the tariff that burdens
the farmer. An ingenious writer
has shown, by estimating with care
and by unmistakable mathematical
rules and exactness, that if you take
the New York Central Railroad,
and assume that it extends from Chi
cago to New York, double track the
entire distance, laid with iron weigh
ing 65 pounds to the yard, and then
as ume that this iron represents on
ly half OF the roads consumption of
iron, and further assume that the
original cost Of this iron was in
creased by the entire tariff which
would have been collected on each
ton had it all been imported-when
he has granted all this and assumed
all this, he demonstrates by actual
computation taking the cost of trans
port Of Zone thousand and twenty-one
million tons of freight, the amount
this road carried one mile last year,
that the exact additional charge OH
bushel of wheat from Chicago to
New York would be 1883 cents on
account Of the tariff. The tariff
will never ruin the Western far
mer.
now come to consider my theory
of the remedy for the existing and
increasing obstacles to successful
agriculture. While in some in.
stances statutory enactments may
aid the achievements Of agriculture.
industry, as has been hinted in what
has been said respecting the special
evils, which have been enumerated,
still such statutes will fail to reach
the bedrock of the difficulty. The
real obstruction to the profits of ag-
riculture will be found lying away
back Of these incidental and super
fetal evils. And the cause must be
considered in order to determine
the remedy. And here l come back
for moment to consider another
elementary principle of the labor
question. You will excuse me for
this, for after all the worlds mate
rial advancement depends upon the
proper direction and protection of
the men with disposition to toll,
to dare, and to saue. And it is ex-
tremely doubtful to my mind wheth-
er the fact, so universally true, that
man eats his bread in the sweat Of
his face, is so much q curse as many
regard it. "The blessed gospel Of
| work." wheir rightly directed and
properly paid, is conservator and
promoter of not only the material
greatness, but the morals and de-
cency of the world. l need not en-
ter into any theoretical disquisition
upon the relationship between capi-
tai and labor. This is not the place,
and it would hardly be regarded as
germane to the business in hand to
discuss an abstract question of po-
litical economy, for the purpose Of
adding to the great mass which has
already been said upon it. But as
one or two of the simplest elements
Of this question are a necessary
stepping-stone TO . few practical
thoughts which l desire to elaborate
it will be necessary to pause q mo-
ment to state them. Much has been
said as to which should be the sub.
ject and which the master-capital
or labor. Were the question sub.
mittsd to me, which Of the two ele-
msnts shall rule? my emphatic an.
swer would be, NEITHER. They
should both stand side by side, CO.
equal, the one the complement Of
the other. l have said elsewhere
that, if the experiment of free gov
eminent fail, it will be from the con.
stant widening of the space between
capital and labor. Nor do / believe
| this space is to be kept from widen.
ing by filing statute books with ar
bitrary laws. In what I have said
heretofore concerning labor, srefer-
ence was not made to men who own
| farma. hut to tho tOilar for waOaa