The daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1873-1877, 1874-03-03
CORN /.
Its Low Price the Main Cause
Of the Farmers Movement.
The Lowness of Price Result Of the
Government Embargo on the
Alcohol Trade.
Beneficial Effects that Have Followed from
the Removal Of that Embargo.
Eastern Hostility TO western Interests.

ORION Henry Co., H., Feb %, 1874
To the Editor OF The Chicago Tribune;
SIR: After all that has yet been SAID
or thought of on the subject, the low price
of corn has been at the bottom of our Far
mers' Movement Getting nearly nothing
for their abundant crops aud excessive la
Dor, they naturally went for the railroads
and all other institutions between them
and the consumers, who were making
money by their services in getting the
crops to market. From the same cause,
not getting money enough to do them
out of their only means of acquiring it, the
resources of their farms and their labor,
they have been forced to become borrowers
at exorbitant rates and great risk, and
they naturally want the Government to
make money cheap by flooding the country
with millions of legal tenders that will cost
but the printing. To-day they substan-
TALLY rest their hopes upon success in sub
jugating the railroads and inducing the
Government to initiate the currency. For
my part, think there is
MONEY ENOUGH IN CIRCULATION.
The trouble is not in the amount, but in
the circulation Of it, which now is morbid,
tending rather to centres, where Mr.. Bout
well confesses that it belongs, than to the
extremeties, the people, which must re-
ceive their requisite in their turn in order
that the whole body polite may be nour-
ished by it, and kept healthful and strong
There is enough for the farmers, provid-
ing they can command such a price for
their produce as will draw to them, to own
in turn, a sufficient amount to pay their
debts with and pay as they go and l base
my expectations of the appreciation of
their crops upon the increase of means OF
consumption here in Illinois, and the con-
sequent bringing up of the demand to an
equality with the supply upon this rather
than upon the cheapening of transporta-
ion, which | deem will inure to the bene-
fit of the Eastern consumer.
1t is this surplus product that depreci-
ates all the rest, and leaves the producers
unremunerated, discouraged, and desper-
ate: and the
THE CONSUMPTION OF OUR SURPLUS CORN
will bring the entire bulk up to a fair price,
and bring the farmers up to a level with
the more prosperous industries, which they
now naturally envy, and raise farming to
an equal dignity with railroading, manu-
featuring, and mercantile pursuits.
Let us consider the use for which corn
is consumed 1t is breadstuffs in the form
of meal 1t is food for the draft animal
1t is fed into pork and beef for human food
1t is distilled into highwines and alcohol
The consumption from the first two of
these, though large is insignificant COM
pared with the amount produced. We
must rely upon the consumption by the
last two of these for demand which will
make a market and a price for the corn
raised in the Northwest Feeding into
meet and distilling into alcohol are the only
adequate and reliable means of consuming
and marketing our corn-product in.quanti-
ties proportionate to the amount this coun-
try can, does, and will produce
\ few years back, tie consumption by
these equaled or exceeded the supply of
corn, and prices satisfactory to the farmers
ruled, both for corn and meat. Those were
times of prosperity and peace with farm
ers. There was general sOlvency, and
farmers did not wrestle with the currency
question-members of Congress doing like.
wise to please their constituencies. They
were paid what they thought they and
their capital Justly earned, and did not
wage war on railroads, combine against
pillow makers or hold forth against poor lit
tie middlemen, Subsequently the demand
from the distilleries exhibited marked de.
crease. To the
DIMINUTIoN OF CONSUMPTION BY DIsTGL-
LERIEs
are to be attributed, chiefly, the exces-
sive accumulation of surplus and depre-
ciated corn, the excessive raising of hogs,
the inability of farmers to hold price on
anything else they could produce, and the
consequent embarrassments that have come
upon the people of Illinois. Men hide
their misfOrtunes; but, if it were given to
us to know the hearts and secrets Of our
fellows, it would be found that our State
with all its marvellous industry and natural
resources, is strewn, throughout its length
and breadth, with the wrecks of individual
enterprises, which but yesterday set forth
full OF hopes and manly determinations.
Let us trace the causes and consequences
of this diminutiOn After the war; and
up to about 1870 our distilleries were ac-
lively engaged in a profitable business, and
bought all the corn they could get at re-
muncratve prices, which was the most Of
what could be spared from profitable feed
ing. This was at time when the stock of
their product was low and their home mar
kct good. In short time. however, their
market became over.supplied, and, to save
themselves from certain loss from over
production, the distillers formed themselves
into an association, and agreed among
themselves to keep down their production
to an amount warranted by the demand.
From this time the distilleries commenced
running only fraction of their capacity,
and the
PRICE OF CORN COMMENCED TO FALL.
In the summer of 1869, the distilleries paid
Is cents for all the corn they could reach,
and musty corn at that In 1870 corn fell
TO As cents; in 1871, to 35 cents. In 1872,
men hoped to get % cents but failed, and
commenced mortgaging their farms and
forming Farmers Clubs; and. had this
year crop been full one, corn would have
been begging buyer at 10 cents.
Failing Of a market for their corn at the
distilleries, the farmers naturally sought
their other great consumers. They put
it into hogs" The commencement of the
increase of the hog-crop, which has be-
come, like the corn fed into it, excessive
and deprecated, was coincident with the
lessening of the demand for corn at
the distilleries. 1t was coincident with
it because consequent upon it. Without
any great increase in the amount of corn
raised by Illinois farmers, the increase in
the number of hogs marketed by them is
enormous. They, in turn, have glutted
the market at prices that left the raisers
OF them hardly enough to maintain a civil
lzed living upon. When the distilleries
were running, hogs we're worth 81, IS, and
w per hundred; since then, So, 81, and
80. Last year the corn that was not con-
sumed by hogs was piled in cribs at all the
railroad stations in the State. These corn
cribs became, finally, objects Of curiosity