Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1888-07-26
mine was held cheap at a hundred dol
lars. Now I cannot sell it at all.

mine was held cheap at hundred dol
lars. Now cannot sell it at all.
When our Congressman, the Hon.
Lycurgus Leatherlungs, was among Us,
canvassing for return to congress, he
was fond of saying that the agricultur-
al interest was the great, solid, under
lying interest of the land. He would
then tell us that high protective tar
iff 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. I didn't. have a
son, lawyer at Cleveland, who has
helped me, from time to time. when L
got into worse pinch than usual, and
he has also sent me some books, that I
manage to read at intervals, mostly
Sundays and at night,-and have got
from them a deal of useful informa-
tion:
In one l read, for example, that his
tory taught us that agricultural people
were easily conquered. In another l
saw it stated that slavery and serfdom
were only possible among the tillers of
the soil. This came, the author said,
from the lack of combination, or even
association, among the oppressed.
Scattered widely apart, in rural dis
tricts, there could be little association,
or of that interchange of intelligence
and sympathy, which are the founda-
tions of effective resistance.
learned all this from the books sent
me by my son. 1 learned more, and
that was that in Europe the lowest
form of pauper 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 growing regions of the Baltic,
for example, the farm hand gets eigh-
teen dollars and a sheepskin coat at
the end of the year. If we go to India,
we find the agriculturalist works for
six cents day, lives on rice, and wears
nothing but cotton shirt. In Egypt
the farm laborers are slaves, held down
to the wretched existence by English,
French, and German bond holders.
Now, it struck me one day that we
farmers had been saved from this con
dition 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, that will be our con-
dition? 1 have observed how, within
the last twenty-five 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 dollar and half bushel. / sold
my last crop at sixty cents. Next har
vest it will be fifty cents. My wool,
pork, corn, and hay have all tumbled,
not quite so badly, but very nearly.
At this rate, how long will it be before
1 am working at eighteen dollars year
and that sheepsk1n coat?
The most significant part of it is
that, while the. agricultural interest
goes down, the country is prosperous,
and all other interests go up in value.
Here is my county, for example, fairly
shingled over with mortgages. In all
the heavy investments of the entire
county there is not hundred dollars
profit. Mr.. Carnegie clears a million
on less investment every year. He
and others like him, and farmers, have
the country's prosperity in their
breeches' pockets. When one talks of
the great American boom, he means
Carnegie, Vanderbilt, Jay Gould, and
boomers of that sort. They hold all
prosperity.
This condition of things put me to
looking round, to see if 1 could find the
cause of the condition. I made dis
covery one day. 1 found that this pro-
tective tariff that the Hon. Leather
lungs was a-whooping up was the vam-
pire that was sucking the life-blood
out of us. Under pretence of laying
tax to support the government, these
cunning devils had laid tax to sup
port themselves. l was curious to
know how much of this levy for private
pockets 1 was paying. To this end 1
got the tariff, and went to studying.
1t is no easy matter, but it can be done
by any farmer.
Now, to begin with, my house, a
frame one many be Valupd at aipht
hundred dollars. This, if were build
} ing, would be the price; but when
had deducIed the protective tax ON