Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1886-03-29

being lessened by the cost Of transports
ton thither from the farm and the othei
expenses Of handling by middlemen, o.
well as the profits of the Spectator
The only voice the farmer has II
the matter Is the right TO with
hold his produce for sale at a more
favorable opportunity, provided DC
is able to do so-which he often Is not,
and Is fully as likely to lose as to gain BY
his conservatism, because the Spectator
is on the lookout and generally beats
down the price so long as he thinks there
I rs considerable quantity yet to be
| placed on the market. And the prices
received by the farmer for his produce de
termine the rate OF wages he can pay TO
! his help, so that the latter are equally
with himself powerless TO strike for
higher wages, or, what is the same thing
to the farmer, an enhanced rate OF pay
for work performed per hour.
The situation Of the farming classes
would, however, be made much worse
by a successful strike by all the city work
ers. Even II the latter only gained the
point Of a shorter day for the same pay
! per hour, the price OF commodities must
rise by the non-employment OF capital
during 20 per cent of the time that IL is
now earning money, which enables it to
sell goods az less prices than 1t could 9th
erwise do. But the general rise in wages
which Is about to be pressed for by the
Knights in cities would form an add.
tional burden on the farmer, as he
sees. and that very heavy one
As rule, all that he has lief;
after the payment of rent, labor and
taxes Is used to buy goods and imple-
ments, and building materials for the
family or the farm. Even If a part be
carried to the bank, that surplus is ex-
pended by others, and the sum at the
command of the latter would be very
much lessened by raising of the prices
of what the farmer is compelled to buy or
cease to work. And these prices must
be raised to correspond with the in
creased cost Of labor in the machine shop,
the foundry and the planning mill, and in
the pay of all the men who are hired by
the railroad companies to do the manual
labor required in the transportation of
these goods and implements from the city
to the farm. 1t would mean an inevitable
addition OF 20 or 80 per cent. to the price
which the farmer must pay for his cloth
ing, boots and shoes, sugars, coffees,
wagons, harness, lumber, nails, plows,
harrows, harvesting machines, rakes,
forks, household furniture and books,
with the many other things that he can
now afford TO buy, but with many of
which he would be obliged to dispense
under the new order of things. Not only
that, but the increased hardness of his
lot would probably be so great a. to rem
der him unable 10 buy enough of agricul-
tuTal tools and machinery to keep his
working force up to the point Of efficiency.
He would have to let his fences
lapse through inability to buy wire or
boards and nails, and his house and
barns and corn-crlbs would become dilap-
dated because of his not being able to
pay the cost OF repairs. Certainly this
prospective change of conditions forms the
strongest possible reason why one.haf of
our population have thus far not only
failed to sympathze with the city Knights
of Labor in the pending struggle, but fur
nishes powerful inducement to them to
wish that the strike may not succeed. BY
that result, and that alone, could the
farmer hope to avoid being placed at
great disadvantage as compared with his
present position.
And the disadvantage would be all the
greater, as the farmer is really the only
one who is utterly debarred from re-
coupling of his losses by the change. The
lawyer, the doctor, the druggist, the
butcher, the baker, the grocer, the saloon
keeper, the dry-goods merchant, the hard
ware and crockery dealers, the railroad
company compelled to pay higher wages,
and all others affected by general rise
10 prices would be able, more or less, to
compensate it by increasing their charges
for goods sold or services rendered
They might be Injured or embarrassed
for time, but would ere long see their
way clear to "get even," in part at least;
but no such recovery apparently awaits
the farmer, obliged to pay more
Tor all that he buys from the men
who pay the higher wages for labor
the cities. He must still be dependent
upon the foreign market to fix the prices
at which he can dispose of his produce,
with the decidedly unpleasant probability
staring him in the face that the foreign
market will be more and more to his dis
advantage as the years roll by, 1t is no
wonder, then, that the great toiling class
Who veritably earn their bread by the
sweat OF their brows are not anxious for
the success of any higher-wages move
ment In the cities, whose effect will be
to enhance the cost of all the goods and
articles which agriculturists must buy,
while at the same time they are unable
to protect their own labor by raising the
price OF their products on the city con-
sumers. Farmers are human like other
people and are influenced and governed
by their own interests in the hard
struggle OF life. How can they be blamed
for it?