Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1890-01-02

man near me sed: "Dang free trade.
I'm fer perfection an high prices" and
everybody cheered.
Then the president called on Jim
Penn to idea for his side, and Jim he
didn't believe he had nothin' to say,
and his first man sed the same thing,
and folks kind o. begun to laff. And
then tha called on Sid Moon, Jim's next
debater, and Sid he sed it all reminded
him of a story. Onct there was a man
at had hooppofes to sell. He had
piece of fat land 'at wouldn't grow
another durn thing only hoopples and
cowcumber pickles. And he went to
town to buy Shawn nife, and while
he was THAR he asked the price of
hooppoles.
''Do you want to buy or sell?" asked
the man.
"What's the differencep" asked the
farmer.
''Well, if you want to sell tina are
mighty cheap. If you want to buy tha
are mighty deer. We pay cents a
peece for poles cut and unshaved, and
4 cents if they are ready to put on a
barrel.''
So the feller, knowin' he couldn't
shave pole for cent, sold all he had
on the place and then went back to
buy enough shaved ones to put on his
pickle barrels, and the
sellin' price was so high it took all he
got for his crop of poles to hoop his crop
of cowcumbers.
BY this time every one was lafin' at
Sid's story, and he went on. Nov
them fellers that KEEP the hooppole
store was lookin' out for their selves,
an nobody else, an advise you to do
the same. Sharper fellers than any of
us keeps congressman paid to make
laws their way. They can look out for
themselves. You better look out for
yourseles. Don't worry about the plow-
maker, onlees yor're making plows.
There's enough of them to look after
their selves. Now my hooppole man
shows what you git for labor. You
can't hardly sell raw wool at all, and
you can't hardly buy blankets. They
amt no money in flax, and they's heaps
in linen. Men that digs coal and iron
are starved because the bosses ses ther
amt no money in the business, and
yet, after that same coal meltS that
same iron you can't buy it 'thout NOR
gagin' the farm. Things what theirs
tariff on costs too much, and you and
I amt got none of 'em to sell; and
things what we have got to sell is too
durn cheap, and always will be, while
we insist on helpin' another an
man tend to his own business.
Now, you talk about factories maxim
wheat sell better. 1t don't. When a
factory man finds he can get furrin'
labor cheaper than the kind he hes had
he gets it. The old men kin git out,
and the new men kin come in, and ther
amt no tariff law agin 'em. Rich men,
what has lots of things to sell, or kin
git along 'thout sellin' at all, if they
wants to, gifts tariff law to purtect
them; but the laborer that amt got
nothin' to sell but labor, and that must
sell Or starve. he amt got no purtec-
tion. His employer may be able to give
him good wages, but he don't never
do it. An when thar's a strike for
livin wages the army shoots the stuffin'
out of the fellers that tries to purtect
themselves an make 'em 60 away an
let the cheap furriner 60 to work.
mo, you farmers are away out to
the end of the string. After protection
makes the government rich-though
God knows that's little good to you
and me and other honest men-and af
ter it makes the manufacturers rich,
and the railroad companies rich, and
the laborers rich, and the merchants
all rich, then, begun, it's the farmers
turn. All they don't want he kin hev.
An, lookin' at your close and your
children's close, and your fences and
stock and barns, and lookin' at your
names on the mortgage record up to
town, and the grOcerY-keepers' ledgers
and all that, 1 don't believe you've
made much at it. I'm agin purtec-
tiOn.''
Well, when Sid set down he was all
of sweat. We didn't know he could
talk that way. and fer minute nobody
sed word. Then they just hollered
and cheered. and Philo Patterson, far
once in his life, set still. When things
got quieter like they called the next
man and on Mike, but they sed thade
talk next meetin', and so the president
postponed the balance of the debate.
But one thing Sid Moon sed stuck into
my craw, an I can't get it out. ''What
they don't want, We kin hev," an it
looks about that way.
JOE.
INGALLS, hasn't skinned 'srebel''
yet, and if he reads carefully between