The Black Hills union. [volume] (Rapid City, Pennington County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1889-1904, 1890-02-14

81 llcIc VIC DcllcNC DOll Jtll Two navy
found errors which need correcting, and
yet, il their ideas could be carried out,
they would but partially solve the
problem.
We have nc patience with that class
OF writer's who SO long and loudly pro-
claim the ills OF the laboring classes and
then from the same bottle OF patent
medicine would cure all.
The principle OF protection to the end
that manufactures might be built up.
and thereby an increased demand made
for laborers, and all tending to increased
cOnsumption, has not SO injured the
laboring classes as the throwing open OF
the doors admitting the laborcls and the
farmers in such numbers as to nulllf.y
largely the benefits aimed at. The vast
extent OF new country being opened. The
large influx OF foreigners, largely OF the
laboring and producing classes, and
schooled by their lives and hardships in
| the cold world" to very close living. have
been the direct means in cutting down
| the prices of labor, and the main factor
in making farming Improbable. There
is, no doubt, poor management among
farmers: there is lack Of method i'll their
work, too much chance work, but when
it comes t oeconomy, particularly among
WESTERN farmers, what they may lack for
want OF training, i'll true economical
methods, they make upin doing without.
1t would, nodoubt, be very pooreconomy
to 20 without meals one day that one
might enjoy full meals the next, and yet
where there is Il limited income, what is
sQuandcrcu III one direction must be
suffered in another. The hard fact cX-
lists N ia the average production OF our
| farms Iali iar short OF the necessary
expenses OF Il family. The man III town
with an average family finds il hard to
live on 5000 a year, and what proper.
=, ton OF our farmers receive that amount
from gross sales? You cannot say they
have no rent to Day, FOR interest AnC
taxes make a high rental. You canno
e claim that they pay nothing for vege
t tables nor tirewood, for at very low
d wages, they pay more dearly for then
than the residents OF our cities.
v The theory OF Mr.. Powell is that nor
S can be raised from the farm; thatpf tina
e raised, more could be marketed. II
o western New York with land worth from
e S75 to $125 per acre, oats are selling Il
$ twenty-five cents and wheat seventy
. eight cents per bushel. In Iowa oatj
bring thirteen andcorn sixteen cents, ant
many are burning the latter for fuel
e Nebraska wheat sells for forty-five cent
and potatoes, twenty cents per bushel
In the Black Hills, wheat is sixty cent?
S and dressed pork has sold as low as $;
per hundred, and eggs and butter ar
often a drug at ten cents. Ii the farmer
methods were more economical, wher
would the prices go to? Coal kings, OF
y manipulators, manufacturers, miller
4 associations and beef combines, al
watch the visible supply, and whel
prices are liable to fall below certain
t points, stop the supply, But thefarne
l is told if prices fall below the actual COS
of production, to produce MORE. TIL
Z transportation problem cuts Il larg
figure in this matter. Give the produce
cheap transportation, and you increas
= his market if you do not enhance prices
y We have heard the farmer OF western
. New York complain that it cost more t,
gel their grain to the sea board than i
= cost the Chicago elevator companies
" we have shipped fruit from southern
Illinois when the railroads share wa
y kgreater than the growers, and latel,
{ comes the complaint OF California frui
! growers that on every dollars worth {
I fruit, the railroads collect $1.2O. Cor
= and oats recently purchased in the cas-
: for fourteen cents per bushel: cost twenty
three cents for transportation to Black
hawk. The ~huctuation OF railroad rate
and gambling in farm products are grea
y factors in depressing the farming in
dustry. High rates of interests anotile
cause. A great majority Of western
farmers begin with little or no capital
u and a mortgage furnishes the capital
A reasonable rate Of interest they coul,
meet even at existing prices, but th
q high rate gradually drags them behind
q and when there is a partial failure Q
e crops they lose everything. We are toll
that the demand formoneyin connection
with the nature of the risk must %regulat
interest. But the fact is, money hat
It always been cheap from first hands
Six years ago our mortgages were draw
b Tor seven per cent and the balance wen
d to the agent. 1t is the high rate charged
d that increases the risk. But we az
told that farmers shouldn't agitate thi
n subject; they shouldgo onproducing, an,
t. the law OF supply and demand will regu
late everything. This rule might worl
II the parties who are getting rich OF
farm produce, after it leaves the farm
would follow the same ADVICE and no
secure laws in their interests az the,
have been doing. The homes IF tn
! future, which Mr.. Powellpictures, are too
e truly the homes OF the past, A dccad
: ago the farmers OF that section OF Ney
York with which we are familiar, wer