The new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1876-1904, 1889-10-12

&66. 80. and after the failure to get
. bid at auction the assignee wrote
me that he would take considerable
less than the appraisement, hut did
not state any price.
Mr.. Patterson, cashier at the bank
at Burgettstown, has farm in his
charge as assignee that l intended
to visit. He wrote me that this
farm was intrinsically worth far more
than double that of the David Dun
can farm, the first enumerated
above. 1t had been appraised at SIS
an acre, and Mr.. Patterson was ex-
ceedingly anxious to sell it at $50.
From what learned of the anxiety
of creditors to get their money out
of this farm, l give it as an opinion
merely, that $50 cash would have
bought this farm.
The McKennan farm is pleasantly
located on an excellent macadamized
road some two and half or three
miles southwest of Washington. 1t
is in the hands of Julius lie Moyne
as assignee. Mr.. LIE Moyne wrote
me that the farm was valued at 800
an acre, and he thought it was well
worth that In reply to an inquiry
as to whether the farm would be
sold at public sale, he replied June
20 as follows:
II think | will not offer the farm
at public sale again. At a former
sale it was bid to $91 per acre and
creditors objected to my selling at
that price. They thought it ought
to bring 800" / interpreted the
word valued as meaning "apprais-
ed' and hence l was in error in my
article in the Evening Post in stat
ing that the farm had been "apprais-
ed" at 800 an acre. The records
show that it was appraised" at $S5
per acre. Much of the correspond
ence about this farm was carried on
by James C. Ewing, Esq, and at
last he wrote me to come and take
the farm at $50 an acre.
Mr.. Wallace cites several other
similar instances of the depreciation
of farm values, all of which can be
paralelled in this section. The 9TH
err day a farm of 16b acres in Ohio
county sold for little over $50 per
acre. Farm lands along the river
in Marshall county, for instance,
which less than ten years ago sold
for $3.50 an acre recently brought
but $75.
The secret of it all is that the
money of the country is drifting
swiftly toward the manufacturing
centres. The farmers are slowly
being taxed to death by the general
government for the benefit of pet
millionaire manufacturers, who are
rolling up enormous fortunes in con-
sequence. This abandoning of farms
and general drift from the country
to the city is easily understood when
we consider the fact that the farmer,
who rises at four O. clock in the morn
ing and worked hard and uDceas-
ingly till be can no longer see, makes
less money than the average city
laborer who works from eight to ten
hours day and not near so hard.
There never was greater fraud
than the "home market" fake, which
every campaign is dinned into the
ears of the farmers. They are told
that the "home market" is cheap at
the price they are paying for it, that
the more millionaire manufacturers
there are in the country the better
it is for the farmers, because it gives
them a "home market" Experience
and facts on the contrary, show
that the nearer the farmer is to a
manufacturing centre unless, to be
sure, he runs truck garden within
walking distance of the city market
the worse off he is. His rents and
his labor and his taxes are higher
He cannot compete with the farms
farther away from centres of popu-
lation, whose expenses are less and
their producing capacity more.
1t frequently costs the latter no
more to transport goods 1000 miles
than it does the farmer to carry
them 10 miles over bad roads.
The farmer will wake up to the
situation some of these days and
then there will be general turning
over.