The state chronicle. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1883-1893, 1889-12-20

| tivation produced l, ,329, 729, 900 bushels OF
| all kinds of grain, which sold for 81 1884
600, 900; while in 1887, twenty years sub
sequent, 141 1921 900 acres produced 2,
66O. 457, 900 bushels, which solo for only
81. 2O4, ,2S9, 900. That is, the products OF
1860 from less than one half as many acres
and half the amount, brought the farmer
$79, I'll 900 more. 1t is impossible to
charge this wholesale destruction of val
ues to overproduction. 1t was want of
| ability to purchase. caused by shrinking
volume of currency, and nothing else. In
1867 We had $52 per capita of population,
and in 1887 we had less than 81 per capita.
He finds in the vaults of our National
Tre asury on the 1st of November, 1889,
$64S, 1900
1t is not overproduction, but under
| consumption. There can be no over pro-
duction in that country where there is the
cry of a single child. for bread. Applause.
Had the IS, ,000, 600 of our people con-
sumed each day during last year more than
they did consume, once ounce of meat, it
would have taken 1, 47O, 900, 900 pounds,
33S, 900 900 pounds more than was export
ed
If they had consumed four ounces of
| flour each day, it would have required
148, 2SO, 900 bushels of wheat, $3.50, 900
bus hels more than was exported. If they
| had expended cents each day for pro
ducts in excess of what they did expend,
they would have bought $711, 75O, 900 or
nearly $29 900, 600 more than was export
ed.
Could not our population have consumed
| four ounces of flour each day per capita
| more than was consumed, or one ounce OF
| meat per day, or have expended three
| cents per day more for bread and meat
| than was expended, without invading the
province of luxurious extravaganza? Who
| shall answer the argument that our do
mestic exports are the measure of our
overproduction? Stand at your street cor
ners, visit the haunts and cells of the hun
dreds Of thousands who are wrapped in
squalid want ard pov, rty, and they can
| give the answer. Applapse.
4 Our National debt in 1866 was 50,
783, 900, 900. We have paid since that time
in principal, in interest, and in premiums
on bonds, So, 57S, 600, 900. and yet we owed
| on the 1st day of November last, 81 ,693,
| 900, 900.
If this debt had been contracted in cot
ton, it could have been paid in 1867 with
| IA, 1876. 900 bales, but now, after having
expended n, $50, 600 bales, there still re-
mains debt, which at present prices
would require the enormous amount of
SO $50, 900 bales to pay it!
| Individual or private Indebtedness of
whatever form or character, has been gov
erned by the same conditions as has the
public debt, and subjected to the same
processes of spoliation and destruction.
5. In 1860 there were but two million
aires in all this country; to-day they are
counted by thousands and own three
fifths of the wealth of the nation. Two
days ago / stood in the gallery of your
Senate Chamber in Washington and looked
down upon body of rs men, Al of whom
are millionaires What brought about
this state of affairs? Where among the
5000, 900 farmers in this broad land will
you find farmer millionaire? This vast
aggregation of wealth is the product of
labor. What kind of labor2 Search our
country's history, and you will search it
in vain to find where slave labor ever
made single millionaire. 1t is not slave
labor, but it is CONTROLLED labor. Slave
labor had to be cared for in childhood and
old age, in sickness and in health. but
controlled labor is used only when found
profitable, and is discarded with heartless
Indifference when found unremunerative,
and wornout manhood and wo,nanhood,
and is cast aside to find its refuge in poor
house or pauper's grave. [Applause.l
g. In 1860 the farmers numbered one
half our population and owned oue-half
the wealth of the country. In 1880, while
they still numbered one-h half the popula-
ton, they owned but one-fourth the wealth
of the country, and l confidently predict
that the forthcoming census will show a
still more deplorable condition of affairs.
Z. One of the most potent factors in
this wholesale destruction of values is to
be found in the financial policy of this
government. In 1866, when the business
interests of the country We're never in a
more prosperous condition, we had a cir
culating medium of $50 per capita, with
an estimated total Indebtedness of all
kinds of IS, 900, 900, 900 To day we have
a circulating medium of less than 81 per
capita, with the estimated total of indebt-
edness of all kinds of S38, ,OCO, 900, 900!
During the past twenty-three years there
have been one hundred and sixty three
thousand failures, amounting to So ,S9S,
900, 900! The experience of our own and
all other nations-the judgment of our
own economists and those of all other ma
tions, of our own and all other ages,
agree that contraction of the volume OF
currency is invariably attended by cor
responding shrinkage in values, and that
an inadequate circulating medium is al
ways followed by the same disastrous re-
suits. [Applause.]
Does the farmer share these results2 ]
| pOlQC 10 Tue IdcC CnaC Tue average decrease
in the value of farms throughout the
country is not less than twenty per cent.
point to the ten great leading agricultu
raj States of the North West loaded down
with farm mortgages to the extent OF
So, 425, 600, 900, and in which the assessed
value of the farms in 1880 but little ex.
ceeded IS, 900, 600, ,OOO With the accum.
ulated interest on these mortgages at high
rates and the constant decline in the value
of the farms, what must be the condition
of the farms of those States2 1t was my
fortune a few days since to pass across
the three great States Of Ohio, Illinois and
Indiana. and the most significant feature
as indicating their condition, was the
striking absence of new or improved
buildings on the farms Again point tc
the mortgage-ridden, mortgage-cursed
farms all over the land, north, south, east
and west. point to the cattle grower o1
Kansas. selling his beef at one cent pei
pound to the Illinois corn grower selling
his corn at fourteen cents per bushel and
the cotton grower OF the South selling his
cotton at barely the cost of its production
point to the populous States of Vermont
and New Hampshire-wfere the farmers
had cash markets for their products al
their doors and who used the bells anG
whistles of crowded factories daily fol
their '-dinner horns" In the small State
of New Hampshire, alone, the hum of ma
chinery, the ringing Of bells and the scream