Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1888-10-10
A KANSAS INSTANCE.

Two political speeches were made in
Stafford county the other day, and the
Missouri Republic has been reading
them and has found material for a good
article. 1t says:
The first speech was Republican. 1t
was full of the glories of Kansas. IL
pointed with pride'' to the handsome
courthouse at st. John. the county seat
of Stafford; TO the substantial public
school building; to the two "magnifi-
cent lines of railroad 1.-THE Missouri Pa
ciic and the Santa Fe) spanning" the
county; to the glorious climate and to
everything calculated to produce that
feeling of contentment which makes
high taxes seem glorious privilege.
The Democratic speech gave figures
and asked questions bearing on the To-
cal situation as the result of taxation.
The county clerks books were called
into requisition and they showed the
handsome courthouse mortgaged under
the bonding system for Sl5, 900; the sub
stantial school for $4,000; the county
itself in debt with outstanding bonds
aggregating 1916, $50 with an annual in
terest charge of S21 ,47l.1S. And, it
thus developed that for the privilege of
being "spanned" by the two magnifi-
cent lines of railroads, Stafford county
was in debt Sl2S,OOO for the Missouri
Pacific and Sl07 900 for the Santa Fee,
not considering at all the stock and
bonded liabilities of the roads which
operate as debt on the county in the
exact proportion of its use of the roads.
Besides this public debt, it was shown
that 80 per cent. of the farmers of the
county had their farms mortgaged tor
more than they would bring at forced
sale, and that to meet immediate pres
sure for money they had been obliged
to give chat.el mortgages on their far
ming implements and stock.
This is the record IN one Kansas coun-
~. 1t is not an exceptional case. The
low Republican estimate of the individ-
ual debt secured by mortgages on Kan
sas farms puts the total at $50, OOO, 600
This Is the estimate given in the speech
of Congressman Brown rep of In
diana on farm mortgages. The actual
total for Kansas is probably twice that
amount. This does not include chattel
mortgages. While these individual
debts are draining large amounts from
private pockets, other large sums are
steadily drawn from the county treas
ury as interest On county and railroad
debts. In addition to this is county
and state taxation, and browning it all
the ceaseless robbery of a protective tar
if which allows a0thipg to escape taxa
ton.
There is not savings bank in Kan
sas, but when Mr.. Blaine declares that
taxation is blessing because there is
enough money in the savings banks OF
Massachusetts, to give every man, won
an and child IN that state S24S on an
equal division. every spread eagle Re
publican speaker in the debt-cursed
state OF Kansas begins TO paint its pros
perity under protective tariff in thu
most glowing colors.
The imagination is. perhaps, the
strongest OF human faculties, and the
Kansas farmer has been frequently per
suaded 10 imagine, for campaign pur-
poses, that he was being taxed into hap
Dmess and prosperity. but thoHghimag,
nation can do great dealin the absence
of facts, Il cannot do everything, and il
the farmes of Kansas were reminded of
their mortgages and asked why 500 in
vested IN Fan RIVER pays So profit
year, while the same amount INVESTED