The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1890-02-07
THE Farm,
Decline of the Farmer.

~
this able article. A remedy will event.
ually be found-it has been pointed
out-and applied. The application
only awaits the complete organization
of the farmers.
"The Decline of the farmer" is the
title of a remarkable article in the
November Nationalist by Hon. Thad-
deus B. Wakeman, which is based upon
an article of the same name 10 BelforFs
Magazine for April.
If there are any States where farmers
ought to flourish, when population, soil,
climate and location-the chief ele-
ments Of agriculture resources-are
considered, they are Illinois and Mich
igan. They have marked advantages.
Both, fortunately, keep records of farm
mortgages. In both they appear to
have been growing almost unprecedent-
eddy. In the former, nearly 100000
acres of farming land are now encum-
bered, being pledged for the enormous
aggregate of 100000. But have
values kept pace with debt? Alas, no!
The general testimony is that in ILL
nois, farms have materially deprecated
in the market, one excellent authority
putting the decline in the past eight
years at twenty-five per cent. And
when we come to Michigan, although
not so wealthy as Illinois, we find the
debt on its farms sill greater, rolling
up to $l30,000,000; and we are told
that, taking the State as whole, one
half of all its farms are mortgaged, and
in the new portions, fully three. fourths
"'Such figures are terribly signif-
icant. What sickening story they
tell of i!l-paid labor, of pinching ecom-
omy, of actual want! And yet there are
sections of the country, with which l
. am familiar, worse off by far than ILL
nois and Michigan-not one, but many
and some Of them where not only
does the mortgage rest upon the farm,
but the crop is usually pledged long in
advance of the harvest.
"'Of the blight that has fallen upon
the agricultural interests of the country
there could be no stronger proof than
the extent of the business latterly done
in farm mortgages. 1t is terrible
traffic. The mortgages that are sold
are really written in blood. They rep.
resent the sweat and tears of prolong.
ed but utterly hopeless struggle. The
high rates of interest that are pledged
which alone furnish the inducements
for the purchase of these investments
in most cases make their payment i'm
possible, and point at last to the inev-
liable foreclosure. What that means
needs no explanation. All the world
pities the poor Irishmen who, because
he can't pay the "rint' is evicted from
his holding; but wherein is his case
harder that that of the American agri-
culturist who, because he can't meet
the interest, is dispossessed of his home
with the loss OF all his Investments
"'The growth of this business is one
OF the most inauspicious signs of the
times. 1t shows how extensively our
farming population is sinking into debt,
and losing control of the soil upon
which it labors. Is it any wonder,
when he is thus heavily handicapped.
that the farmer falls behind in the race?
1t would be strange, indeed, when he
marks the better condition of those In
some of our other callings, and realizes,
In their bearing toward himself, the
pride and pomp and luxuriousness of
their'daily lives, if the poor husband
men did not loose heart and manhood !;
and his sons and his daughters long for
nothing SO much as releases from the
farm All of which is made clearer by
the following table OF profits, viz:
Per cent. Of
On Investment IN Profits.
.'...................
Railroads, steamboats, and shipping. .......4
railroad mortgages. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS.
City tenements and business houses. ....5
raim mortgages. Observation-Disclosures.
Active mining including coal. ............
Telegraphs. telephones, ETC., actual cost 10
Electric and gas lighting Observation-Disclosures.
banking Observation-Disclosures. ~
Manufacturing. not having tariff protection IL