Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1890-12-24


ing districts of this continent. brief
| statement of the situation in my own
state will well present the condition IN
the district referred to:
According to the most reliable stats.
tics attsinable at this time, nearly &C
| per cent OF the male population over
ten years of age in Iowa are engaged In
agricultural pursuits, while less than
per cent are employed in manufacturing
| enterprises of all kinds, protected and
unprotected. Years ago that state had
attained the first rank in the Union as q
corn producing state, and this has car
ried her to the head of the column OF
states as producer of the best quality
a.! of beef, pork and dairy products; in
| other respects she is not behind the most
! favored of her sisters in nearly every
thing that pertains TO agricultural pur-
| suits in that latitude. Statistics show
| that the averge wages of able bodied
men upon farms of Iowa are $3.50
| per month, or about 10 cents
per day and board, the lowest
| price paid any class of like laborers in
the state; and yet out of nine hundred
farmers reporting to our commissioner of
labor statistics during the present year,
more than eight hundred claim that this
help at these wages has been
EMPLOYED AT LOSS
instead of profit during each of the
five years last past. Out OF the same
number an equal portion assert that the
actual cost of producing this cereal, the
most profitable of all that are raised
within that state, has, during the same
period, exceeded the entire value of the
crop when harvested, saying nothing
whatever of income from the capital in
vested in the land required to pro-
duce it.
1t is estimated by those making these
reports that the cost of producing an
acre OF corn ready for market Is s.; that
the average crop for FIVE years has been
thirty three and one-Lhird bushels, and
statistics show that the average price sof
this corn in our local markets, soon af-
ter harvest, during such period has
been % cents per bushel, making the en-
tire value of the crop when marketed
81 So, or CT cents less than the actual
cost of production at market rates OF
labor.
What is true of the production of corn
in Iowa Is equally true of ell the great
staples raised on her farms. w hen we
consider the immense capital invested in
the farms of a single state and are told
that for five whole years it has not paid
enough 10 compensate the labor en-
ployed, it is apparent that no other BUSH
ness in this country could have withstood
such condition of adversely during SO
prolonged period; and it il equally GER
tain that had it been practicable for the
farmers of the country to withdraw their
capital from this line of Industry their
numbers would have been greatly re-
duced, even in the best of the agrioul-
tural states. But this was impractlcable
and from the very necessity of their sit
uaton they have continued
BUSINESS BURDENED WITH LOSS
instead of yielding profit Of the mar
ket value of their labor is considered)
out of which this nation has gathered
three-fourths of all its exports, and by
reason of which it has been able to prs-
serve Il balance of trade in its favor that
hes constantly added to the aggregate Of
our national wealth.
1t is, however, if we stop to reflect,
easy to discern that if the chief business
of a country is being done at loss, and
yet the country as q whole is becoming
rich, tncre must be ONE fragrant error
in the industrial system that produces
srrch result. With the facts demon
stratei by statistics as they are, hat the
nation 8 wealth is being constal tly III
creased; that it is largely derived from
its agricultur resources and that those
engaged in that industry are transacting
business at a loss instead of profit, is it
difficult 10 understand that those who
produce the greater part Of the nation 8
wealth do not enjoy it?
We can easily see that il dozen men
were engaged in as many different pur-
snifs md nlpvan than a1
TO give up to the twelfth the entire prof
its they earned, the aggregate wealth of
the twelve might be greatly increased,
but in that case there would be one very
rich man and eleven very poor ones.
If we extend the example, 1t is equally
apparent that if the great body of men
engaged IN industrial pursuits IN any ma
ton are compelled by law or otherwise
TO surrender to a few the profits of their
labor, the nation as such may grow rich,
but its wealth will be concentrated in the
hands of its favored few, while the many,
robbed of their share of the wealth which
the labors of all have produced, must of
necessity remain poor.
/ do not hesitate to say there is no
possible justification for q system of
laws that produces such a result.
No plea for the nations prosperity,
however eloquent mat plea may be-
come, can smother the indefensible
wrong that takes a single dollar from
the earnings of one GLASS of its citizens
and bestows it as bounty upon those
of another.
l will not stop now to question whether
the industries of a nation may or may
not become SO adjusted aud equalized
that a protective tariff could be made
equally advantageous to all.
II is enough to know that they are
not so equaiized in the United States.
If the farmers and la5orers of this
country are required to contribute from
their earnings to build up lines of indus
try in which they are not engaged, it Is
absolutely certain that those who give
must become poorer thereby, while those
who receive will grow rich from the
avails of labor they do not perform, and
1t requires no stretch OF the imagtnal
ton to foresee that under such a system
time alone is needed to divide these
classes in this the proudest pepublio ON
the globe, az the human family is al
ready divided it this most aristocratio
MoNARIHIEs OF THE OLD WORLD. ,1=i
1t is d self-evident proposition that a
tariff levied upon products which q ma