Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1889-02-14
FARMERS, READ.
nnhlIshed hy Rcnnesl

when He created it and called ii the
Garden of Eden. and put man there to
cultivate and improve it; and l think
man has made wonderful improve
ments. But | think there are some
very strange people i'll it, when see
people who so recently by their ballots
declared in favor of high protection
and home trade. SO soon strenuOusly
working to destroy their home trade.
They may ask how they are working to
kill home trade. They must admit that
our inland towns of from !, 900 to 10000
inhabitants in the aggregate are pretty
large consumers, and necessarily create
quite demand for what the farmer
raises, and are about the only cOnsum-
ers they can depend on for their early
and perishable products. such as berries
and other small fruits, and garden
products of various kinds, besides all
other farm products. Besides being
consumers. they contribute quite large
ly to lessen the burden of taX-paying.
thus Tightening the burden of the far
mer. Now isn't it strange that farmers
would lend themselves to any scheme
that would wipe out Il very large por-
ton of those consumers, thus depriv-
ing themselves of very convenient
market for that class of products that
are not safe To ship any distance?
cly 1nin
The answer is, when they seek to force
all the business done by a dozen OF
twenty houses into the hands of one
iirm-and us some of their leaders
boast they will do, send them to the
poor house they are destroying so
much of their best market. Not only
this. they are adding largely to the
farmers burden of taxation; not only
this. they are depreciating the value of
their farms from ten to twenty dollars
per acre But" say they, "how do you
make this OUT" will show you. We
will, if you please. take Macomb county
as she now is, with her thriving villages |
and her fine schOol-hOuseS and churches:
then we will take Sanilac county as
she would be if the Patrons Of Industry
should carry out their scheme. In each |
town one or two stores. one or two
blacksmiths. etc. and you can readily
see there would be no need of any
better schoOl-houses than we now see
out among the farmers, and YOU would
see very few, if any fine churches.
y man is in search of farm; he
wishes to locate where he can enjoy
life: he goes through Sanilac county
and finds equally us good farms. but
he sees the lack of good schools and
churches. lie goes through MacOmb
county; he sees the thriving villages. |
the fine churches and school houses. |
lie gets prices; he finds the farms i'm
Macomb county running from ten to !
twenty dollars per acre higher than in |
Sanilac. Where will he buy? Eight |
out of every ten will invest their money
in Macomb. This no sane man will at |
tempt to deny But they say. '-Oh, we
want the graded schools and the |
churches" Who will build and take
care of them? Who'll pay the preach !
ers: Who does do it? "But" they
say. 'see how much cheaper we buy our
goods" It will take but Il short time /
to convince you, if you are close ebser- |
vers, that you are not getting them any
cheaper than you are where there is a
sharp, manly competition. Any man
can buy goods if he has a trade that
will take them and pay Il certain per
cent, but it takes very shrewd and
experienced expert TO buy If he has q
sharp competition. The bargains he
offers must do the selling. lie is aware
of this. Let there be one grain buyer
in town. how soon you will see the
farmers looking to some other market
where there is competition. They UNI
derstand very well the value of COM
peting market. Let there be- but one
firm to buy their butter and eggs and
they would very soon sec the difference
have to SELL They say they can send
their butter and eggs to Detroit
and Port Huron. But their scheme
when carried out will have the same
effect on those places, and they will see
themselves set back about eight hun
dred years. when the world was divid-
ed into clans and the people were at
the mercy Of the chiefs, who were
backed up 10y their kings, who in turn
were backed up by the emperor and
the people were their slaves. And
what will the farmers gain in their very
first move III their great scheme of
economy? They create u necessity for
the merchant TO employ an extra clerk
to make out bills of their sales and to
look over the invoices of purchases:
and i'll the next place they have to pay
for organizing and keeping up their
organization. by way of initiation fec
and quarterly dues. which will fully