Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1890-08-15

good stock, have good buildings, raise
good crops, etc. Would you know why
the boys leave the farm? For the same
reason that the father would leave il
if it were possible for him to do So 1t
does not pay to farm. Remember that
boys as vel as men wish somewhat OF
reward in return for toll.
Why does not farming pay? Poor
crops you say. | deny that as untrue. for
| If 1t were true, then what little was rails
ed would command good price, which it
did not. Overproduction you say. Is
OVerproductiOn anything but lack of
market. Don't talk to me of oyerproduc-
tion when Kansas and Nebraska farmers
burn corn for fuel and Pennsylvania and
Ohio miners families starve for
bread. Let us see what our Wisconsin
farmers, along with other workers, are
trying TO do, and let me lay this down as a
broad, general truth, l, that there is
HOthiHg Of Udiue in this state ,Chich can
not be traced directly to the soil; 2, that
iabOr pays all debts. Some idea of the
burden our people are carrying, and the
weight of which presses directly on the
producers, may be had when we know that
on pro rata in Wisconsin of the national
DEF is S32, 900, 900; our state debt is SILL
875 900; our share in railroad de BITS is
5ll5, 900, 900; excluding town property and
chattels, the farms are mortgaged SIOO,
100000, total S253, ,875. 900.
Now what is the size of the load that
we are staggering under in Wisconsin, in
all, not to speak Of town property and
chattel mortgages? More than a tacO hul-
dred and ffty mtHion doiidrS load piled
on the shoulders of industry! More than
one hundred and ninety-six dollars apeice
on each nan, woman and child within the
boundaries of the state, as heritage of
debt If the men from Wisconsin who
enlisted for service in the war were living
and the money which this state owes were
disbursed among them, each soldier would
receive ttUO Thousand sic huHdred and
cighty-three dollars.
1t would buy every acre of improved farm
land in the state 0885) and pay thirty-one
dollars and ninety cents an acre for 1t.
The interest on these debts at SiI per cent
amounts to more than one million dollars
creyy thirty d0yS. Why, the INTEREST
on the debts would buy every acre of i'm
proved land (1S85) in Iowa county and pay
SLcty-ScreH d0iidFS an acre for it. If it
were silver dollars strung ont in the road,
each coin touching the other, and some
ambitious republican were to set out afoo'
to find the end on the day the party is to
nominate its state ticket Aug. 20), walk
ing fifty miles per day, it would take him
till Christmas eve tC reach the end.
Small wonder, indeed, is 1t that boys
leave the farm. So fierce is the contest
for the needs of life, so unnatural and arti-
Hcial is the basis upon which prices
for labor and produce rest that we
fast, alas, too fast, are becoming
familiar with the daily record of trusted
men taking the short cut to wealth through
forgery and theft, even at the risk of
sojourn within prison walls As matters
now stand the great effort of industry is
to meet the demands of daily life, and
this offers nothing of promise for future
competence and ,therowith independence
"'To keep even from year to year is not
enough. Little reason for surprise is it
that we have the farm in the Ight of the
following facts:
Protected capital in manufactures re-
turns 40 per cent. profit.
Unprotected capital in manufactures re-
turns II per cent. profit.
Telegraphs and telephone, 10 per cent.
profit
Farm mortgages per cent.
Railroad mortgages per cent.
Profit in farm lands 2per cent. (that is
in tilling the soil.)
f. NJ DYER.
Mineral Point, Aug. II.
DECREASING THE OUTPUT.
Tne printed cloth mills of Fall River
have been closed, not because their owners
were not making from Is to 50 per cent.
ON the capital invested, but to decrease the
output and thus at one full swoop put per-
haps hundreds of thousands of dollars
into their own pockets. And yet the pres
eut tariff gives these putocrats, who have
an iron-ciad combine, pro otection to the
amount of 35 to 40 per cent. ad valorem.
Thousands of workmen are temporarily
thrown out of employment by the grasp
ing avarice of the millionaire
manufacturers. who are codded and pam
percd by the wretched republican econo-
MIA system at the expense of the poor
workmen. The latter may perchance re-
ceive a trihe more in wages than their
foreign brethren in the same line. but
they pay double for all they conSume-and
SO do the consumers who reside on the
farm and those engaged in the other multi
furious occupations of life-while frequent
ly they are forced to lie idle Cor weeks and
months in succession for no other purpose
han to unduly increase the wealth of the
mill owners. Such are the exact results of
the benedcent protective system.
1T Is funny spectacle to outsiders. that
presented by the chairman of the repub-
lican committee of Rock county. suing the
laneSville Gazette, the most stalwart re-
publican organ in that entire section of
the country, for SIC, 900 damages for libel,
growing out of partisan strife all within
the ranks Of the g. o. p.
THoMAs A. EDISON says the true way to
execute ! criminal is to send the current
through his body from one arm of the
| death chair to the other The ar ms. hands
and fingers are full of blood. which is a
| good conductor of electricity, Let the
hands be properly cleansed and moisteded.
says he, and the charge would pass through
the heart, causing instant death.
CONGRESSMAN MILLS is still in the ives
making tariff speeches. And this is the rea
son he gives for keeping away from Wash
| ington so long: "A bold wretch occupyins
one OF the highest positions to the govern.