St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1890-03-13
ARE WE REALLY PROSPEROUS?

Harper's Weekly, is printed by re-
quest of a republican III politics,
whose occupation is farming and
who believes that the tariff is a bur
den and not a protection to the
| farmer.
The attention of Wall Street has
been directed the last few days to
the financial condition of a very i'm
| portant portion of our population.
| The governor of Nebraska has been
impOrtunIng the managers OF the
railroads traversing that state to re-
duce their rates for carrying corn.
! Finally, with the cooperation OF
other state officials, he has persuaded
the railroad companies to make
what is spoken of as an emergency
rate" on that cereal. The reduction
! that has been conceded is not a large
one, being cent and half buShel,
or about ten per cent upon the prevl
Gus tariff. The basis of the appeals
for this reduction is the abject power
ty of the farmers, and their inability
to market their corn, even at the eX-
ceedingly low yet nominal prices
quoted along the lines of the rail
roads. The idea in making the re-
ductionis that the slight difference in
price will take Nebraska corn to
market in preference to that from
other localities, and thus enable the
! farmer to get little money, though
! only partial return for his labor in
raising it. The success of the effort
has stimulated the state authorities
of Kansas to make a similar one in
! behalf of the farmers of that state.
| This sort of relief can at best be only
temporary, for the market at Chi
! cagO and other markets of shipment
will very soon reflect the stimulated
movement.
1t should be noted that the rail
roads were not averSe to making this
reduction, but were reluctant to do
it, because under the Interstate
Commerce law, they believe they
would have to revise nearly their en-
tire tariff in order to make it con-
form to it. They would, at least in
| the ordinary course OF business, have
to lower the rates on all kinds OF
freight graded approximately as low
as corn. They were also afraid that
the rates they might make solely for
| the purpose of mitigating the hard
ships of the farmers might be used
against them by state railroad com
missioners to force the establishment
| of those rates permanently. The
railroads recognized the dcsirability
of some sacrifice on their part, and
| have doubtless made it upon an I'M
| derstanding with the state authori-
ties that is indicated in the term
emergency rate
Wall Street has been well advised
of this movement, and it has raised
there, as it possibly has throughout
the country, skepticism of the current
reports of general prosperity. 1t has
| been fashionablee ever since last years
crops were assured to refer to their
magnitude as an unansWerable argu-
ment i'll favor OF an Improvement in
general business and more profitable
railOad traffic. 1t appears now
that the luckiest farmers were those
who were the quickest to market
their wheat and corn, for the cnor-
nous yields of both have been Il con
slant weight upon prices. AS an
agricultural nation we have to face
|
and it is condition that affects not
only the pOverty-stricken farmers of
| Kansas and Nebraska, but is felt Sc
riously through all of the richer agri-
cultural sections further east. 1t is q
condition that may have its uses,
since it may force upon the farmers
perception of the fact that the price
of their cereals, which IS their princi-
pal product, is determined by the
price of the surplus of each crop, and
| that surplus is marketed i'll Liverpool
i'll free competition with the surplus
of all other grain-produclng coun-
| tries. So far as grain is concerned,
it is q free-trade market. After an
| appreciation of that fact has obtain
ed, an important factor in the prices
of most of the staple articles that the
farmer buys or needs to buy, namely
the tariff, may be estimated by him
for what it is really worth This
| phase of the matter is beginning to
receive serious attention at the finan-
cial centre of the country, since it is
still held there that the fullest pros
perity of the country must spring
| from its agricultural development
If the millions who depend upon till
ing the soil for support don get an
adequate return for their labor, their
ability to buy is curtailed, and trade
with them is correspondence reduced.
The fact that the earnings of the
railroads all over the country con-
tinue to show increas eS, as compared
with last year, suggests the inquiry
whether business, as q whole, is as
largely dependent upon the agricul-
| tural community as heretO fOre. The
condition described and the figures
referred to, taken together, rather
encourage one to take the negative
of such a proposition. The acquis-
ton of wealth in mercantile and
other pursuits than farming, and the
rapid growth of manufacturing in
dustries, are unquestiOnably chang
ing the character of our population,
so that it may be, as in the older
countries of Europe, that prosperity
upon certain level will conceal in
creasing poverty below it, and thus
| give an appearance-superhcial, to be
Sure-of general welfare. Wall Street
isnot an over-thoughtful community,
but questions like those that have
been touched upon are forcing them
selves upon it. The community that
lives in and about the Stock EN-
change is depressed because its bust
ness is nothing like what it used to
be, and the times contain no signs of
a revival of it And there is a search
inc for the causes that have DrOduced