Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1888-08-17
A FARMERS VIEW OF IT.
[From Belford's Maya zine

uIIlvIIIt " IlLH VI Ill
[From Belfords Maya zine.]
am farmer, the son of farmer, and
the father of farmers. | have been all my
days scratching poor man s back in an
effort to make a living off my farm. 1 am
sixty years of age. My form IS bent, my
hands are hard, and my eyes dim. I own
a hundred and sixty acres of as rich, we'll
watered and wooded land as there is in
Ohio. say have worked hard to make a
living. 1 have done something more Il
have raised and. in way, educated three
sons and one daughter. suppose could
have made the living, poor sort of liv-
ing. for myself and family out of the farm
but this attempt to school my boys has left
me very poor. Fortunately, 1 kept out of
debt, so that what have have; and if I
we're younger and had less rheumatism, I
could yet get a miserable living by farm
ing. I could not do this and keep up the
place. 1t has got to go.
Now, while this is my history, as far
mer, that of Jny neighbor Morton is quite
different. He sold out to the Hornish
Dutch, went to our county seat. and put
his money in national bank. He is now
living in what, to me appears palace; and
it certainly is,compared to my poor house.
Morton drives an elegant carriage. and is
accounted wealthy man. Nor is my
condition that of Tom Sbipley. also a
neighbor who sold to the Dutch. He went
to Middleburg and bought 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. 1 can understand how it looked
as if we were getting rich, when land
bought at ST. 20 an acre from the govern
meut bounced up to ten, then thirty, and
then went on bouncing up till it reached a
hundred. But this increased value did
not come from what we raised on the
lands, but from lmmigration; that made
lands valuable. For thirty years this
value has been receding. I remember
when this land of mine was held cheap at
a hundred dollars. Now 1 cannot sell it
at all.
When our Congressman, the Hon. Ly-
curgus Leatherlungs, was among us. can
wasting for return to Congress, he was
fond of saying that the agricultural inter-
est was the great, solid, underlying inter-
est of the land. He would then tell US that
a 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
a son. a 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
highland have got from them a good
deal of useful information.
In one read, for example. that history
taught us that an agricultural people was
easily conquered. In another saw 1t
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 districts, there could be little asso-
citation, or of that interchange of intelli-
gence and sympathy. which are the found.
ations of effective resistance.
1 learned all this from the books sent
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 ]aborer. Why, the negro slaves
were better off before the war than these
creatures. They are housed like cattle,
worked liked mules, and fed like dogs.
In the wheat growing regions of the Bal
tic, for example, the farm hand gets eigh.
teen dollars and a sheepskin coat at the
end of the year. If we 20 TO India, we
find the agriculturist works for six cents
day, lives on rice, and wears nothing
but cotton shirt. In Egypt the farm
laborers are slaves, held down to theil
wretched existence by English, French
ouo oCl muu 'llOlUGlSs
Now, it struck me one day that we farm
ers had been sa 7ed from this condition
only by the government lands, that kept
us from being crowded down. Then came
the thought, that when these lands are al
taken up, as will soon be the case, what
will be our condition ? I have observed
how, within the last twenty-five years
agricultural values have shrunk thirty pei
cent, and this while every other sort Of
property has been on the rise. During ths
war, and shortly after, sold my wheat at
dollar and half bushel. sold my las
| crop at sixty cents. Next harvest it viii
be fifty. MY wood, pork, corn and hay
have all tumbled, not quite so badly, bu
very nearly. At this rate, how long will il
be before I am working for eighteen dol
lars year and that sheepskin coat.
The most significant part of it is that
while the agricultural interest goes down
the country is prosperous, and all o.hel
interests 60 up in value. Here is ny
county, for example, fairly shingled owe
with mortgages. In all the heavy invest
ments of the entire county there is not
hundred dollars profit. Mr.. Carnegl
clears a million on a less investment ever
year. He, and others like him, not farm
ers, have the country's prosperity in thei
breeehes' pockets. When one talks of tn
great American boom. he means Carnegie
Vanderbilt, Jay Gould, and boomers O
that sort. They hold all our prosperity,