The great West. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1889-18??, 1890-06-13
"Profit and Loss. ;

profit and Loss"
The Grand Meadow Record is not
responsible for the following was
written by one OF it's correspondents ::
"a comparison of the prices OF
farm implements and supplies re-
quired for agricultural purposes, now
and ten years ago, shows that the
aggregate decline in oil things the
farmer has to buy is much greater
than the decline in the products he
has to SELL. Yet DR.. Fish and the
free-traders are continually crying
our sure ruin in the near future"
If the man who wrote this had been
a man OF experience in these things,
he would have deserved some hot
shot.
First, because the measure of the
/ "profit" is what measures COMPARE
tive conditions. A man who has
not ten cents to buy with could not
buy house il all Minneapolis were
on sale at ten dollars. The farmer
has to pay now 20 per cent. on every
ten per cent. mortgage compared
with ten years ago. Instead OF being
reduced, his expense has been more
than doubled in five years on every
money expense he has. When he
pays $40 for a suit OF clothes he pays
a COW for it. Ten years ago the
same clothes could be bought for
81 or 4 of one COW. In 187O-SO
eighty-tw o bushels OF wheat paid ten
per cent. on a mortgage-to-day it
requires about 16O, at the price paid
for, wheat while the farmers has it to
sell. Ten years ago was also during
the celebrated Presumption period"
and if this man will go back to
1877, or II years, he will find that
his mortgage interest has much
more than doubled during twelve
years. Wheat was worth SLIT in
Chicago.)
The farmers taxes are in the same
comparison-only more so. Salaries
are the same now as then. He paid
his farm help but ten per cent. more
then-and the same help did 100 per
cent. more value in work then.
AS to machinery, what machinery
has decreased 100 per cent. since
then? Flows then listed at SIS now
sell for $14. Corn plows (cultivators)
haved dropped not over 30 per cent.
Wagons (Moline) that listed at $65
and $40 in 1928, have dropped to
$50, but thatis not equal to the drop
in wheat. In 1882 we bought wheat
in Chicago at $1.45. Twine-binders
have dropped from $500 to $145 in
four years. But they were held up
to $500 by a combination of five
great factories-which combine was
broken up by the Dakota Alliance.
The actual cost of a twine- binder
(McCormick) was only $3.50. Small
implements have not had a decline OF
more than 30 per cent. Cash ex-
penses, like breeding service, oil, help,
castings, etc., have scarcely dropped
at all. On 1 900 bushels OF wheat the
farmer loses between 1881 and 1890
the sum of say $500. 1t was worth
from $1OO to $145A in 1881. It is
worth from zoe. to 9Oc. (Chicago) in
1890. But no farmer spends over
5000 a year in the items that have
decreased in value, while the value OF
all his debts have increased in ter
rife proportion.
But the main issue in such q state
ment is as yet untouched. The real
issue is as to the profits. The profits
of farming with beef at PIC. and
wheat at Csc, or even soc. in the
great wheat sections, are not visible
You figure as manufacturers do, on
cost of production, and the farmers
OF the Z. S. lost money last year.
But the profits OF exchange have
fearfully increased-as percentage is
worth double it's former value. The
cost of manufacture has decreased
and manufactured articles all bring
enormous profits. These we can give
Every man who knows anything o
trade knows that every article man.
ufactured in America, with but few
EXCEPTIONS, is exported, freights paid
and sold for less in a foreign market
than at home-from a jackknife to a
thresher. The profits are upheld here
by a robber-tariff. Now, every man
who believes in. low-tariff is not 8
free trader. Some of us believe in
''tariff- for-revenue" That is ou1
position. About 100000, 900 coulo