The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1890-09-03
THE FARMER.
To the Editor Of the Eagle.
- looIb.- -

generally throughout the United States
are having, much of which IS entirely
without foundation.
The cry of ''hard times" is no new cry.
1t is not cry of the present time only,
but it is as old as society, as old as the
human race. 1t is sentiment that has
been long and loudly proclaimed through
all ages. Every man of every age
possessing the sense of hearing has had
the drums of his ears kept perpetually
vibrating from his cradle to his grave
with the cry of want and distress which
is the progenitor of the sentiment ''hard
times" With the vast majority of peo-
pie times have always been hard and al
ways will be hard. The times being al
ways distressing with the great mass of
the people and they continually pouring
their complaint into the ears of others
has kept this sentiment ever in the front
rank of all other sentiments. The num-
Der of the rich, the prosperous and the
happy, compared with the number of
the unfortunate, the poor and the miser-
able, being so small, their expressions of
prosperous times tend but little TO tighten
the color of the deep and dark sentiment
of hard times. Excepting some localities
affected unfavorably by the season,
the times are as good now with
the people generally as they have ever
been in ours, the grandest nation on
earth; the nation of homes, the nation of
happiness and the nation of freedom,
where the government rests with the
people; where every man is greater than
nd oil h. at ha
expression of the popular will of the
people.
The times are no harder with the
farmers of our land than they are with
any other class of the people having
like amount of capital invested in their
business. A 81 900 invested in |
farm land will pay just as much in
terest on the investment in the average !
number of cases as 81 1000 invested in a
business block in a city, or in stock of |
merchandise, or in loan on a farm, city |
property, chattel or other security, or in |
bank stock, railroad stock, or stocks of |
any other kind, or 81 900 invested in any |
other line of commerce. a 81 900 simply |
represents 81 900 worth of labor stored |
up. A man who requires $1,000 to keep /
him for one year and earns the entire /
amount in six months can rest for the /
next six months, as he has done twice /
as much work as was necessary in the
first six months, AMI he thus stores away
one half of it for the last six months. Or
he can continue to work through the en-
tire year for a number of years, and thus
store up enough labor to bridge him
over as many years without work as the
number he has worked. A 81 900 repre-
sents so much labor, capable of being con-
verted into any line of industry required.
1t may become farmer, a machinest, a
mechanic, a grocer, a banker, steam
ship operator, railroad operator, cat
tie dealer, a packer, a street payer,
sewer constructor, a grain dealer, dry
goods merchant, a barber shop, a sum-
mer resort, a saw mill, an electric lighter,
a distiller, a horse racer, or a "Wall
street manipulation, or for that matter,
a small sized "gold bug" And it will
labor and operate in all of these various
channels with equal skill, with equal
adaptation to the business, and with
equal earning capacity in the average
number of cases. The immutable law of
supply and demand makes this so. If
this is not so why do not the farmers sell
their farms and invest their money in
the other channels of trade and COM
merce, which they claim are earning
more money per the amount invested.
The secret of the farmers complaint is
the secret of every other mans COM
plant. The reason why the majority of
the farmers are not prosperous Is the
same reason why the majority of men
engaged in other occupations are not
prosperous. The majority of the farmers
do not own their farms, just as the ma
jority of men engaged otherwise do not
own the capital necessary to carry
on their business. The merchant
with an unpaid for stock of goods is Just
as truly mortgaged as the farmer who
has a mortgage on his farm. The mer-
chant who has to pay rent for the build
ing in which he keeps his wares IS Just
as truly paying interest as is the farmer
who pays interest on mortgage. The
farmer owning 81 600 farm. who places
a $500 mortgage on it, has simply sold a
half interest to the money lender, and
the interest that he pays the money lend
er is rent for his half interest in the
place, nothing more. The merchant
having $500 stock of goods in a $500
store room is in exactly the same situa-
ton: he must pay one-half of his profits
to his co-partner in business, the owner
of the building. If he borrowed the $500,
bought the building and paid interest on
the money, it would not change the
amount that he would be required TO
pay. The tenant of the half only Is bet
ter off than the tenant of the whole.
The farmer who has farm 10 mortgage
and who is required to pay rent for that
proportion of the value of the farm
which is represented by the mortgage, Is
much better off than the moor devil of "A Z
farmer who has no farm to mortgage I
and who must pay rent for the entire
place, With the merchant, regarding
his wares and his ware rooms, the stu
alton is the same. The only difference
between the merchant and the
farmer Is that the merchants debts, or in
other words, the interest that others own
in the merchants wares, l. not evidenced
by written mortgage. Every merchant
who is forced 10 suspend business by his
creditors either by assignment, attach
ment or execution is Just as truly fore |
closed under mortgage as Is the farmer 4,
who has his mortgage foreclOsed in the
courts And for every farm mortgage .
foreclosed there is a foreclosure Of some
merchant or brakeman for a default IN
accounts for goods. wares and merchan-
disc in like amount. There are a large
number Of people continually going 70
the wall throughout the country, bat
the farmers compose no larger per cent J
Of that number than the men engaged in
other lines of industry and owning like !
amount Of capital.
IL NAV be true that the rich are grow :
ing richer and the poor poorer, and that J
the rich are growing fewer in number. :
L IL.