The Iowa plain dealer. [volume] (New Oregon, Howard County, Iowa) 1867-1895, 1890-04-10
A Word to Tradesmen.

Out tDAG your IHIcEcSts dHu thOoc vi
your farmer customers are identical!
! When we say country store-keeper
we mean the butcher, the shoemaker,
the blacksmith, the merchant, and all
the host of small manufacturers who
draw their trade from the farmers.
Even the plutocrats who are now
devouring this nation from the want
age ground Of Wall street, cordially
agree that when you simmer the stu.
alton down to its essence, that the
farmer pays all the freight"
The product OF all the gold and sill
yer mines and the output Of all the
factories in the land are of minor i'm
portance when compared with the
actual wealth brought out Of the
ground by the farmers.
1t made some Of our ignorant mil.
lionaires bung their eyes out. when
Edward Atkinson announced that the
eggs laid in this country exceeded in
value all the output Of all iron and
steel works in the United States.
It is trite and true saying, that
the prosperity Of this nation has been
built up on agriculture.
No man in his senses will dispute
this affirmation.
II such be indeed the case regard
ing our land in its entirety-then, Mr..
Country Storekeeper, in particular
manner is your prosperity founded
on that of the farmer.
II the agricultural section surround
ing your town slowly but surely runs
down at the heel financially;
II by steady marches the hard pres
sed farmer becomes first heavily
mortgaged and then q bankrupt;
II the farmers customers who ten
years ago were heavy buyers, can
now purchase but little, and that only
in the line Of stern necessities, where
will your trade go? Why, it will go
to smash; Of course.
Is it to your advantage to have Ital.
ian tenant farmers who can live on
scraps and on next to nothing to take
the place Of our good-living and free
buying Americans?
II this change I'm farmers takes place
lyour town will soon come to be q vii.
lage deserted-grass will grow in its
street-mildew and decay will abide
in its market place, and the men who
once conducted a aourishing trade
will wander afar and their children
beg for work that they may eat bread
according to the scriptural injunction.
Is this picture of the future over
drawn? Is it q mere Pigment Of an
excited imagination? Let US see
about it.
Please take a squirt at this officia
report of the condition of the farmers
of Rhinestone of the richest agricul.
tural states in the nation, and where
farmers should prosper and grow fat
il it is possible to do SO anywhere.
In the 10 years prior to 1889, the
farmers raised their corn crop at an
aggregate loss Of SOS, 900, 900 or a trifie
over four million dollars per year,
but in 1889 the loss took q terrible
leap and reached ten million dollars.
Where does the deficit show itself?
Go look at the mortgage records in
the county towns, and you will see
where the DEVILS equilibrium is bal
anced up.
There are hundreds of townships In
agricultural Illinois, which have a
rich land as ever lay out OF doors
where nearly every farm is mortgaged
to it's full value.
In most instances the acres are un
der the same ownership that they
were 20 years ago.
Then no debt incumbered them
now they are loaded to the guard'
with it.
Has the owner got lazy or taken tt
drink? BY no means-but the dead
ly triangle"of the railways, the trusts
and money power has SO encroachet
upon all sides that farming, which o
right should be the most profitabl,
business going, has become losing
occupation.
According to this report the Illinoi
farmers received two million dollar
less for cattle, and ten million dollar
less for hogs in 1889 than they did il
1888.
Il Truly. this is rushing toward dir
/ catastrophe at terrible rate ofspee.
G In the face Of this state Of affairs
should not the wise country storekep
! er begin to take stock Of his probabl
fate in the future!
/, Do you want the present lot o
: American farmers starved and sol
out-and see their places taken by
, horde of miserable tenant farmer
s who are not one whit above Mexican
! peons-who would live contentedl
upon the unstable refuse Of the farI
while the alien landlord living in
!, distant city would carry OF all tn
9 fruits Of the soil, and leaye the coun
|, try in the same beggarly condition
' that the English lords have Ireland
8 Mr.. Storekeeper, you have on
9 chance, and one chance only, to STAY
! this on, otherwise inevitable ruin 70
: yourself and falnily-and that is.
8 Join your forces with the farmer
at once.
BY protecting them you save your
8 selves.
: Link yourself with them POLITICALLY
!. and form q Peoples party for 1892
: whose rallying cries shall be:
t Government ownership Of railways
: $50 per capita Of the peoples none
in circulation, and government none
j loaned on farms at two per cent. pc
annuM.