The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1878-12-27
THE ENGLISH CRISIS.
why that Country must have Terrible
Hard Times.
And the Gold Basis Can't Save 1t.

And the Gold Basis Can't Save 1t.
Special correspondence Cincinnati Inquirer
NEW YORK, Dec 12th.-Yesterday
had long talk with Mr.. Armour, of
Armour Plankington & Co, the largest
pork and provision dealers in the United
States. Mr.. Armour has Just returned
from England, and he is filled with
alarm at the distressing financial status
of Great Britain.
"What is the matter over there ?" I
asked.
"A general financial ruin stares them
in the face all over England, Ireland and
Scotland" SAID Mr. Armour. Banks
and individuals are falling everywhere.
The newspapers do not tell half the
story. The English people are in a
dreadful condition. Manufacturers are
running behind, the tenants cannot pay
their rents, real estate has shrunk IN
value and cannot be sold ct any price,
the mechanic is idle, and the farmer is
poor.
"Why can't the farmers pay their
rents ~
Because their crops do not pay.
Prices for farm products are so low that
the farmer only makes enough to live
on. The 100000 land owners are out in
the cold. They can not collect their
rent nor sell their land, and many SEEM
ingly rich families are actually suffering
from poverty"
what makes provisions so low?"
1.-THE splendid crops made on this side.
The fact is, the United States, having no
large army to take away the laboring
men, is making more provisions than
the whole world can eat. We are put
ting wheat in Liverpool at $1.O8, and
pork in Dublin and Glasgow-clear
sides, dry salted-for So cents. Now,
how can the English farmer stand this
He pays rental on land worth $500 to
$500 an acre. The lowest farm lands
rent for $40 an acre per annum. The
average yield of wheat is thirteen bush
els TO the acre, worth-say $13. Now,
how can that farmer pay his rent? Then
they used to sell their pork for Is cents
per pound; and how can they sell it at
81 cents and live?"
"Then cheap American provisions are
running the English farmers ~
Eyes. They are bucking their $500
land against our $50 land, and the result
is the $500 land is tumbling. The
shrinkage is awful already They are
just going through what we have gone
through, or rather they are fixed as we
would be fixed If some great country like
China should ship wheat to Chicago and
sell 1t for thirty cents per bushel and fill
up Cincinnati with pork at So barrel
Where would our farmers be then? They
would be ruined, and our land values
would shrink half within year, and an
other crash like that IN England would
be upon u.s."
What remedy do they propose for
the hard times ~
They have no remedy. They are be-
,x-ill IiSnnTroCro1 A
Of parliament told me that he was think
ing of advocating an import duty on
corn, pork and wheat, and thus put wheat
up to 81 and pork up to $40. But this
would be only enacting the Odious corn
laws again. l told this member that if
they should put an import duty on
wheat and pork that the wages of labor
ing men would have to be advanced, and
then our American manufacturers would
have the advantage. See l said, we
are already sending cotton cloth, cotton
thread, and even steel goods and cutlery
to England"
what do you think will be the end
of the hard times in England 81 asked
''They will end in a dreadful deprecia-
ton of real estate, the stoppage of the
manufactures, general poverty, mob vi
olence, labor Instructions and general
smash-up of business and society. If
had hand in England to-day 1 would sell
it at any price"
Have we got through shrinking in
America
mo. That is we have and we haven't
Lands east of Iowa must shrink still
more in value. Two ten for live hogs
and twenty cents for corn doesn't mean
800 farm lands. 1t means $40 farm
lands. Our dear lands must shrink
more yet, while our cheap lands have
struck bottom. Corn, pork and wheat
are the great Jewelers.. They make the
price of land"
How did you find things in Ger
manyg"
Germany is badly off, too. Her peo-
pie are running away TO keep out of the
army. They come to England slowed
away in the holds of vessels, hoping to
get from there to America. Every man
who can pay his passage or steal it will
get away from Europe cursed by its big
armies and burdensome taxes"
THE fact is" SAID Mr.. Armour, "real
estate in England, Ireland and Scotland
has got to shrink 100 per cent. within a
year and half or the business interests
of the United Kingdom have got to go
up IN one mighty crashi''