Lewiston teller. [volume] (Lewiston, North Idaho) 1878-1900, 1890-10-09
10, the Poor Farmer!
Oregonian

40
Oregonian.
Superficial reasoners, who take for
their text the woes of poor farmers, and
preach calamity sermons thcrefrom, are
just now making themselves heard
from one end of the country to the
other. OF course, it is somewhat UNI
charitable to suggest in this connection
that the agricultural vote is large, and
that the presidential year comes on
apace, but the truth is that outside of
this suggestion, there seems to be no
cause for the wholesale pity that poll
ticians are bcstowing upon farmers at
present. Ben Butler early sounded
the agricultural calamity. l note in
speech, bristling with agricultural
woes, winding up with gentle hint
that he alone knew the remedy for the
ills that he SO feelingly deplored, but
that he was just now out of politics and
not called upon to advise the people,
and politicians of lesser note have since
piped necessarily endless variations of
the same strain.
General John G. Black is the latest
orator who has spoken to farmers from
the calamity text. AT a recent politi-
cal meeting in Aurora, ILL.,, this "com-
plete physical disability" beneficiary
of the pension bureau harangued the
wealthy farmers and prosperous citi-
zens of that locality upon their woes,
striving hard to make them believe
themselves on the high road to finan-
cial run, the ultimate goal of which
was the almshouse. He cited as proof
of this the fact that the mortgages on
Illinois farms aggregated the enormous
sum of $l42 600, 900, and in his feverish
desire to make the most of these figures
he neglected to add that according to
the census of 1880 the farms of the
state were worth $1,000, 100000 and
that as shown by the same authority
but $4,000 of the go, 900 farms of the
state were under mortgage. Nor did
he hint that the live stock on these
farms, or the crops exclusive of wheat,
In single year would wipe out every
dollar of farm Indebtedness.
The Chicago Herald declares that
there is no business in the state in
which capital and enterprise are en-
gagged that is SO little in debt in pro-
portion to its value and products as the
farming interest. 1t is no doubt true
that in Illinois as in many other states
unthrift, mismanagement, and UNI
avoidable misfortune, as the result of
drouth and other enemies to agricul-
tural sue ess, farms have in many in
stances been mortgaged and the efforts
of their owners handicapped heavily
for years by interest. But the figures
above quoted disprove the political
shrek Of agricu tural ruin that is aris-
ing from the Threats of campaign ad-
vance orators who yearn over the
farmer and tenderly compassionate his
woes a out election time.
The farmer earns his bread in the
sweat of his brow. There is no mistak-
ing this fact, but that he Is therefore
an object of pity is an assumption
wholly unwarranted, and one which
is, indeed, boldly disproved by his life
Of sturdy independence. Moreover,
all of the calamity orators in the coun-
try cannot make his lot a deplorable
Dne as long as crops are abundant and
his assets in aggregate heavily over
balance his Indebtedness. They have
him some mischief, it is true,
by artfully plying him with feigned
for trumped-up woes, but
they have not yet succeeded in making
him pauper in his own estimation or
IN the just estimation of sensible peo-
pie who have an old fashioned habit of
oasing their opinions upon figures and
acts.