The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1889-08-28
FARM AND HOME COLUMN.
FARMER JONES' TALK ON THE TARIFF.
A Hint About Potatoes-In the Orchard and
Garden-Household Items-Some Good
Recipes and Budget of
Farm Notes.

] writes In a recent letter to the New York
Erening Post as follows:
SIR-Betsey an | hev been TO town TO-
day, Mister Editor, t get lot of bindin'
Irvine for my harvest and sugar for her
presarvin'. an, as Susan-that's our oldest
/ girl that's to hunts goin' TO be married
this fall after huskin', the old lady insists
on the house bein' painted sg'in, an so
bought lot o paint; the gracious knows,
/ don't see how we can afford it. While
in town, our edItor-he's a regular out
an'-out free-trader, an has got me to be a
sight more of one than l was when quit
the fact'ry down in Connecticut an came
I West TO farmin'-he give me a copy of
your paper, an have been readin since
l got hum those letters from farmers
from everywhere. It's pow'ful refreshin' ,
as passon says, to see how many other
farmers ali over this big land O. ourn is
gettin' the fact into their heads that down
under all these things that trouble us
farmers so, as the cause of them ali, lies
that dod-rotted (scuse the cussin' but I'm
gettin' mad perfected tariff. We've been
allowin' that the reason why we had so
little money in our pockets when every
thin was paid for was because the rail-
roads robbed us. an because the govern
ment didn't print money enough, an be-
cause the elevator men beat us on grades
and weight an because some one they
call Big Four" down to Shcawgo sent
meat ready dressed to our cities, an all
that. An we've been runnin' the legisla-
lures, an passin' all sorts of laws that
some teller that wanted TO go to the legis-
lature said would Just fix the thing all
right. An so fur from gettin' better, 8
fer as / can see, it's getting worse. You
see, us farmers don't spend much time
cipherin on such matters. The war, with
Its big prices, sent us along boomin' an
since the bottom dropped out we've had
just all we could do to keep our heads out
of water, an while we felt that somethin'
was out o killer, we couldn't spend time
to study 1t out for ourselves. 1t is as clear
as day to me, an / ledge from the letters
that it is getting a heap clearer to lots OF
others, that we won't get any help that
will do us any lastin' good until we can
buy just egsactly as we sell, under a COM
pertition as wide as the world.
But / didu't start in fur to tell YOU what
you know a sight better than can tell il,
but to tell you about our shoppin' to-day,
an what dose of this pertective got. l
s'pose you've hearn tell of the Irvine trust,
hewitt you, Mr.. Editor? Well, the differ
ence 'twiXt you an me is that I've hearn
OF it an felt it-felt it in my pocket, sir
an that's being teched that way so often
nowadays that it is gettin' mighty sensi-
tive. Two years ago | paid If cents
pound for the best manila Irvine. That
was before the farmers had said that they
.lfIv,f = tv-sv ov,I hof0~o Aho-o
pesky trusts had got to be such private af-
fairs that what they did wasn't any con-
Germ OF yours or mine or the presidents,
you know. To-day paid Is cents pound
for just the same kind of Irvine. / saw a
letter from the secretary of this trust in
which he said that the raw material had
riz. Wages isn't raw material, is thev?
Well, on tO-day's deal that little rise of the
Irvine trust jest lifted s. out o my pocket
slick an clean. Then, only last year,
when Betsey wanted to put up her pre-
sarves, We got fourteen pounds of sugar
for 81. This year the sugar trust have run
IL up-Or down-so we got nine pounds
for 81. That made jest twenty-five pounds
less sugar for a fve-dollar bill, you see,
and at last years prices that is Sis more
that | have trusted" Then, on the
paint an oil, as near as can figger it out,
the whitehead trust and the linseed-oil
trust borrowed a couple dollars more to
be paid back to me in home market, pos
serbly. 1t all makes 1918 taken Jest for
nOthin'.
Now, let's see what that means from my
point. My COWS average me pound of
butter day, an Pm gettin' shilling a
pound for it. 1t will take one COW seven
ty-eight days TO earn what these trusts
took out of me, to say nothin' of the feed
and work; or they've come an taken a
Observation-Disclosures pig out of
my pen, or they've took an acre of good
corn, or they've taken all the profit there
is in an acre of my winter wheat, leavin'
me the cost about paid. Now, when this
sort of thing is goin' on all round the
ring, is it any wonder that all farmers feel
that somethin' is hurtin' them mighty
bad, and that some of us, who CAMS
what it is, get so ALFRED mad? Their was
teller onct down in your city VINO i'm
perdently asked folks: What are you
goin' to do about it?" when they limited
that he was a-stealin' too much, an the
trusts are stickin' their thumbs in their
arm-holes and cockin' their eyes at us an
askin' us the same question. Well, Tweed
found his answer, and they'll find theirs.
Meantime we can only growl and save
little harder.