Wichita eagle., 1890-02-21
OUR NEED, DIVERSIFIED INDUSTRIES

AIGuOus5u ii do IL IuiS tAc uiHS1oiAICdtiOi
of our industries in general has not only
been insisted upon but established by the
craftsmanship of believers in the Ameri-
can system of protecting home labor, yet
as corrolary of establishing and sus-
tanning home markets, the great need of
such diversificatlon of farm production
has received too little consideration. As
consequence OF this lack of integral
production we find ourselves laboring
under a deiuge of grain forced to seek
transatlantic consumers at less than liv-
ing prices, and such a draught Of sugar,
wool, barley and other products of the
soil as to require hundreds Of millions of
dollars from our taxpayers, farmers in
cluded, to be sent out of the country for
the same. These conditions are most
obvious in the west, where diversified
interests have not vet largely obtained,
and consequently farmers are suffering
from low prices tor their products.
American political economy ascribes
those conditions principally to three
causes. namely:
First to the too great production of a
limited variety of farm stuffs, especially
cereals, and
Second, TO the too small development
here among the farmers of diversified
mechanical industries, or, in other words.
of home market.
Third, insufficiency of money in actual
circulation to meet the needs of the
country.
That these conditions combined is the
prime cause Of the country's presest dis
tress can not be denied. The first one is
applicable as a principle, in general
way and at ali times; the second is de-
pendent largely on the first, but perhaps
more SO on the third, which, after all, is
mainly the cause of our present trouble,
and until change is effected there is
little hope of any general and lasting re-
lief. This is made very PLAN to our
mind in a speech recently delivered in
the senate by member of that body,
ex-Secretary of the treasury Teller,
which is. in part, as follows:
MIR. President, the cause does not lie
at the door of either free trade or pro-
tective tariff. The only farmer today,
in any portion of the world, who is ac-
tually q belie.e | may say actually in
prosperity is inside of the boundaries of
France: and the farmers of that country
have more money per capita than those
of any other country in the world With
a population of only about one-half OF
ours they have more money than we
have got.
at might be a question for the con-
sideration of this body whether after all
it is not q lack OF the means of doing
business in this country that has depre-
ciated the price of everything that the
farmer raises. If there was
corn rotting in our ware houses, If there
was wheat rotting there. if there were
rotten and mouldy clothes, the senate
might say the cause was overproduc-
Llon. But when we consume all we
raise, when we consume all we pro-
duce, or find market for it somewhere.
1t does not do to say 1t is overproduction.
1t is the financial policy of this country.
headed and led by few men who have
money. and who propose to put the
screws upon the industries of the coun-
try; / will not use the term To rob them.
but to compel all the industries to pay
tribute to the men who have the wealth
not all wealthy men, because many
wealthy men are engaged in stirring up
the business Of the country, moving the
wheels of progress and commerce, but
the men who are living on the interest
of their money are the men who con-
spired and who have had absolute con-
troll of the treasury department for
twenty years"