The western sentinel. [volume] (Winston-Salem, N.C.) 1887-1926, 1890-05-01
DOES FARMING PAY?
EFFECT OF THE HIGH TARIFF ON THE
FARMERS.
Year by Year They are Growing Poorer
Because of Republican Oppression
Some Interesting Facts
Froa, the Baltimore San.

FROM the I5Ittf10fe san.
The readers of the Sun have note!
the results of our recent inquiry, ''does
farming pay?' in the shape of hume
Gus replies from those who know. y
little inquiry has been prosecuted by
an indianapolis journal with substan-
TALLY similar results The farmers Of
Indiana are not, it is found, in as good
position financially, as they were a
year ago. Wheat sells for IS cents,
against 81 year ago. Corn and oats
have fallen six cents a bushel There
IS depression of two cents pound in
the live hog market, while barrel porl,
has fallen to 50 barn ell Other hog
products are down in the same proper
ton. The crops have been satisfacto
ry, but they bring less than formerly,
and the decline continues from year to
year. With this decline of the value
of the farmers product, there has been
corresponding decline in the value
of his land investment. Lands situated
near manufacturing towns like South
Bend have deprecated like the rest.
A farm for which s65 an acre was offer
ed in vain a few years ago, was recently
sold at $50. One farmer, who has ior
many years kept {; record Of his opera
tions, states that toI merlv he made 5
per cent. profit yearly on his invest
ment in a farm OF ii0 acres, while
during the past ten years he does not
average over b per cent. On 320
acres he cannot now 10 rs well as he
formerly did on 40. At the same
time that the profit and capital have
been growing less the cost of living
has been increasing The sugar trust
has pus up the price Of sugar, and the
other trusts, thanks to the protection
they get from high tariff, has follow
ed its example. The ''home market"
afforded by the establishment Of man
ufactures near at hand has proven
delusion, as it pays for the farmers
products onl y the prices fixed in the
foreign market. In New Hampshire
the steam whistles of the factories re
verbrate over the fields OF S51 aban-
doned farms. In Vermont the case is
still worse though the farmers there use
the bells and whistles Of naighboriug
factories in lieu of dinner horns \
cash market for produce at ones door
is of no avail if the cash received does
not pay a profit on the value OF ones
labor and investment The railroads,
with their ch ap trans portation rates,
have de7troyel the superiority Of the
home market over any other, What
the Consumer pf agricultural produce
does nowadays is to send to Chicago
for his beef, t. iinneapolis for his
-four and to Nebraska for his corn, If
his farmer friend in the neigh borhnod
asks a paying price for his produce.
The prices prevailing at canters ike
Chicago and Minneapolis are deter
mined at Liverpool aud London, where
the farmers surplus is sold. 1t amounts
to this, then, that the farmer buys his
sugar and other necessaries in home
market made dear by the protective
tariff and sells his products in a cheap
foreign market in competition with all
the world. How has he gotten in this
absurd position? Every body is pros
pering Just now but be. Evidently
somebody has been too smart for him.
An Indiana farmer tells how it is: The
laws of the country, says he, "are
made in the interest Of anybody but
the farmer, and until ne wakes up to
that fact and demands his right he can
| never have his share in the country 5
prosperity" There is strong effort
| being made by pretended friends Of
| the farmer bsidized no doubt, in
many cases-to divert his attention
from the high tariff, the chief cause of
| his trouble to questions Of currency,
imitation, etc. There is vast deal of
printers ink wasted to prove to him
that the free coinage of silver would
| relieve him of all his woes. Nothing
| could be more ridiculous. The silver
kings of Nevada would like very well
to dupe him into a false position,as the
tariff lords have too often done, but it
is to be hoped that this hard fortune in
the last year or two viii open his eyes
| to his real interest.