Mexico weekly ledger., 1888-06-14
THE WHEELERS / o
W. v. vEERKAMP. Editor.

Officers Of the Audrain County
A. w: j. P. veerkamp, president;
Jas. Elliott, vice-president; J. w.
Middleton, Secretary; Thos. Duty,
chaplain; VIM. Farrah, treasurer.
Audrain County A. w. will meet
at Moline June 18th at 10 o'clock
a. m, everybody invited.
Inquiries concerning this order,
its purpose and methods Of opera-
ton are frequent, and a general
interest is manifested all over the
county.
We would like to hear from cur
Pike county brethren occasionally.
H. W.. Hickman, president,
State A. w, and Phil Chew editor
Journal Of agriculture have signii-
ed their willingness to attend the
Wheelers' picnic, the date of which
has not been fixed upon yet.
Presidents of sub Wheels
should be careful to conduct their
meetings in accordance with par
liamentary law; this will conduce
to good order, and beget proper
habits of doing business. Leo
turers and other members should
always have something for the
good of the order; this will make
the meetings interesting and this
secures a good attendance.
A certain class of political econ
omists r continually preaching
about a "home market" for Ameri-
can farm produce; let us examine
this a moment. Do our millers
and home buyers offer any more
for grain than the shipper for
Liverpool? The people are begin
ming to look upon grain buying as
a species of gambling.
In all the labor discussions OF
recent times, our statesmen and
publicists have considered artisans,
mechanics and miners as being the
only laboring men; of course these
work for wages directly, but the
farmer and farm laborer are wage
workers also, their crops and pro-
ducts constitutingtheir wages. The
only difference between those two
classes of laborers is, that the
artisan works for a certain definite
sum, and the farmer works for an
indefinite sum, as everything is
uncertain with him; the crops may
fail and he receives little or no
compensation for his labor; and
should Providence bless his efforts,
and the harvests be abundant, cor
ners, pools, freights and the arti-
fetal prices put upon his clothing,
food and the implements of his
craft, will have absorbed the
greater part of his wages; so he il
in but little better condition than
before; yet farming is an honorable
occupation and according to oui
creed, the only one Of divine
origin; and just at this particular
juncture there are a great many
who seem to recognize this fact, a
they claim to be either farmers o.
"farmers' sons"
The county organizers will soor
make a tour of the county. They
will visit Black schoolhouse, Mon.
day June 18th at 5 O'Clock p. M
Ccrnett school house, Tuesday
June 10Th at 5 o'clock p. M
Farber, Wednesday June goth al
5 o'clock p. m. Everybody should
come out and see for themselve.
what and Agricultural Wheel is.
Wheelers who are not already
readers of this column, should lose
no time in subscribing for THU
paper so they may keep them
selves informed on all matters per
tanning to the Wheel.
The Agricultural Wheel was
established sever years ago il
Prairie county, Ark, by sever
men who had been kept down yea
after year by the store mortgage
system, which then prevailed in
the Southern States. These mel
had rented farms, mortgaged theil
crops and teams to secure the pay
ment of the rent and in addition t,
this, they had to agree to sell theil
crops to the landlord and blu,
their groceries and clothing from
him. The landlord as a genera
rule, being the owner oflarge tract
of land, upon which he erecte'
tenant houses for those who tile,
his farms also kept a genera
store in order to furnish his tenant
with the necessaries of life; henc
the mortgage and iron-clad contrac
before described were to secur
the payment of the tenants stor
bill as well as the rent of the farm
The tenants did not object to Civ
ing security for their liabilities
but they did object to being com
PEELED to sell their produce to on
certain person and to not bein
permitted to offer it for sale on Al
open and free market. The re
suit of all this was, the landlor
had everything his own way, an
each year found the tenant as poo
as he was the year before. TIL
seven men before spoken {
had vainly tried for severa
vaara to save enough none