West Virginia Democrat. [volume] (Charles Town, W. Va.) 1885-1890, 1888-07-20
A FARMERS. VIEW OF 1T.
S. Putnam in Belford's for July.

poor mans back in an effort to make
a living off my farm. [ am sixty
years of age. My form is bent, my
hands are hard, and my eyes dim.
| l own 4 hundred and sixty acres OF
as rich, well watered and woo'ed
land as there is in Ohio. l say |
have worked hard to make living.
| have done something more have
raised and, in a way, educated three
sons and one daughter. | Isnppose l
could have made the living, poor
sort of living. for myself and family
out of the farm, but this attempt to
school my boys has left me very
poor. Fortunately, | kept out OF
debt, so that what have | have;
and if were younger and had less
rheumatism, l could yet get mis-
cradle living by farming. | could
not do this and keep up the place,
1t has got to go.
Now, while this is my history as
a farmer, that of my neighbor Nor
ton is quite different. He sold out
to the Hormish Dutch, went to our
county-seat, and put his money in a
national bank. He is now living in
what, to me, appears a palace; and
it certainly compared to my house.
Morton drives an elegant carriage,
and is accounted a wealthy man.
Nor is my condition that Of Tom
| Shipley, also q nelgh1or, who sold
to the Dutch. He went to Middle
burg, and bought 4 store. He is
not so rich as Morton, but he has
done well. | know three others, in
our county, who got out of farming
into some other business, and all to
their own advantage. There is no
money in agriculture There never
was | can understand how it look
ed as if we were getting rich, when
land, bought at 1925 an acre from
the government, bounced up to ten,
then thirty, and then went on bounc-
ing up till it reached a hundred.
But this increased value did not
come from what we raised on the
lands, but from immigration: that
made the lands valuable. For thir-
ty wears this value has been reced-
inc. | remember when this land of
mine was cheap at a hundred dol
lars. Now cannot sell it at all.
When our Congressman, the Hon.
Lycurgus Leatherlungs, was among
Us. canvassing for Il return to Con-
rress, he was fond OF saying that
the agricultural interest was the
great solid, underlying interest Of
the land He would then tell US
that high protective tariff was the
source of all the profit the farmer
made out Of his products. Most OF
my neighbors took that in, and tried
TO live ON it. | didn't. | have 4
son, lawyer at Cleveland. who has
helped me, from time to time, when
got into worse pinch than usual,
and he has also sent me some books,
that / manage to read at intervals,
mostly Sundays and at night
aud have got from them q deal of
useful information.
Ia one / read, for example, that
history taught us that an agricui
tural people was easily conquered.
In another | saw it stated that slav-
cry and surfdom were only possible
among the tillcrs Of the soil. This
came, the author said, from thelack
of combination, or even association,
among the oppressed Scattered
widely apart, inrural districts, there
could he little association, or of that
interchange ofiutelligence and SYM
pathy, which are the foundations OF
effective resistance.
] | learned all this from the books
sent me by my son | learned more,
and that was that in Europe the
lowest form of paper labor, so much
talked about, was that of the farm
laborer. Why, the Negro slaves
were better off before the war than
these creatures. They are housed
like cattle, worked like mules, and
| fed like dogs. In the wheat-grow-
| ing regions of the Baltic, for exam
pie, the farm hand gets eighteen dol
/ lars and sheepskin coat at the
end of the year. If we go to India,
we find the agriculturist works for
six cents day, lives on rice, and
wears nothing but a cotton shirt.
Now, it struck me one day that
we farmers had been saved from this
condition only by the government
lands, that kept us from being
crowded down. Then came the
thought, that when these lands are
all taken up. as will soon be the case,
what will be our condition Ihave
observed how, within the last twen-
ty.fve years, agricultural values
have shrunk thirty per cent, and
this while every other sort of prop
erty has been on the rise. During
the war, and shortly after, ! sold my
wheat at a dollar and a half bush
! ell. | sold my last crop ut sixty
cents. Next harvest it will he fifty.
Ny wool, pork. corn, and hay have
all tumbled, not quite so badly, but
very nearly. AT this rate, how long
will it be before i am working toI
eighteen dollars i year and that