Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1889-06-27
the rronble Win .be FARMER.

The Trouble With the Farmer.
New York Times.
II the gloomy forebodiDgs OF State
Assessor Wood are we'll founded the
farmers CT this state have rather a dis
NAL prospect before them. 1t Is just
possible that his representation Of the
decreasing value of farm lands and the
increasing value Of property in cities
may have some connection with justify
ing the policy that has become so
familiar in the process Of 'sequsliza-
tion," of raising the assessed valuation
for cities and lowering 1t for rural coun-
ties. But there is no doubt some truth
In his statement that farm lands are de-
preciating in value. It is well-known
fact that this is the case in some sections
of this state and throughout various
psrts of New England. Tho class of
thriving and well.tC-do farmers, espe-
cially in the hill country and places re-
mote from manufacturing and trading
centres, is growing smaller and being re-
placed by less prosperous class. The
young men are apt to leave the ancestral
acres to seek some more profitable way OF
life and the growing cities and towns
seem to be drawing away the vitality OF
the rural districts.
The common explanation that the
eastern farmers cannot compete with
those of the west even In the markets
that are near their own doors has much
Of truth In II. Their little fields OF grain,
worked with OK teams and hand nipple
ments, have not much chance in compel
ing with the wide preiries where corn and
wheat are grown and garnered by the
square mile with the use of steam ma
ehinery. The prices OF these products
are fxed by the foreign demand and the
supply that comes from the great fields
OF the west. The -four and meal sold in
the towns nearest to the New York
farmer are made Thousand miles away
perhaps, and the prices are such as
would give him little return for his
labor. II he is fortunately situated he
may do we'll with vegetables, eggs, butter
and milk, and it Ia more profitable for
him to turn his hand largely to pasturaee
and fodder than to keep up the old
YsIlsty s. srcps- Win ready an a cheap
transportation over long d;stanceB
agricultural products Of most kinds are
oheapened In the home market and there
is no protection against domestic com.
petition.
These elements of the situation are in
evitable, an there is little relief in the
fact that local markets in the cities and
towns are all the time growing. They
take their supplies where they can be oh
tanned most chesply, and their -four and
meal, their corn and oats, end even theil
beef and pork are more likely to come
from Minnesota and Kansas than from
the neighboring farms. But there al,
two sides to the farmers account. To 8
certain extent he can by his own labol
raise supplies for himself upon his owr
land, but there are many things that ht
must buy, chiefly in the form Of nipple
ments, of clothing, AND of groceries, and
1t is the necessity of buying these tha
makes it important for him to raise
surplus Of products to sell. This 1t IL
that makes the price at which he Is forced
| TO sell matter of 30 much consequence
If he cannot make the ends meet will
comfort from year to year it il becaus,
what he has to buy costs SO much in pro
| portion to what MS gets for what he ha,
to sell. This should teach him that tn,
price of what he buys is Just as i'm
portant to hiIn as the price Of what b
sells.
1t seems as though he would only nee,
to put this and that together to see wher
his intsreHt lies in the matter of taxation
BE feels the pressure OF local aud Stat.
taxes, and finds il hard to meet the de
mands OF the collector. who has O bi!
with the figures plainly set down. 81,
clamors for re motion of State taxes
economies in local expenditures, ant
looks with equanimity upon any action
that will transfer the State burden from
rura! communities to the cities, which b
regards more ns centres OF wealth than q
centres Of population and Of poverty
Bot there are collectors whom he neve
sees and whose bills are to him an un
known mystery, but whose demand
reach him nnuoh more heavily than thos
of the collector whom he knows, and ar
even harder to escape. He pays his take
through the stornkeeper every time h
buys piece Of ironmongery or crockery
piece of cloth or calico, suit of olothe
or a pound of sugar. The addition d
the cost OF what ne buys does not go /
the government in any great measure, Blu
to swell the profits Of manufacturers an
traders, who thrive 30 largely ut his e,
| pehse pecauhe projected from competi
ton which ne cannot escape.
| The difference between comtortabl
prosperity and slowly grinding In
poyerishment for the farmer may b
made by the simple fact that he neces
sarily sells his products in compstttio
with all the world aud at the loves
prices that competition can produc,
while the cost of nearly everything b
must buy is enhanced by system OF il
direct taxation, the greater part of who
is intended to strangle competition an
increase the profits OF favored interests
When the farmer has worked out tn
simple problem he will find that the =,
lief he most needs is in his own hand
and that the taxation from which b
suffers most is that which he has bee
blindly helping to fasten upon himsel