Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1890-11-13
oNE-sIDEp PROSPERITY.


The Presidents View OF Prosp~rity-Every
the tarm?-The Farmers Prosperity Has
Gone West and Collapsed.
When President Harrison was at Terre
Haute, Ind, he had something to say
about prosperity. But the prosperity
that the President referred to then was
one-sided prosperity. He counted
prosperity much as Gar Reed runs the
House of Representatives-to see only
one side when it serves his purpose
best and ignore the other side altogethe
1t was the prosperity of the manu-
tacturerS that the President spoke of
He said: 81 was told as I approached
Jour city that there was not an idle
wheel in Terre Haute."
Precisely so; but the President was
very wide the mark when he drew from
this that everybody else was getting on
equally well. 1T is very pleasant to
knoY," he said, that this prosperity is
SO generally shared by all our people. I"
Do the farmers think they are sharing
in it too? Is not the contrary a notori-
Gus fact? Our high protectionist Super
intendent of the Census, Robert P Por-
ter. has said on this subject that 1.-The
American farmer is just now passing
through the gloomy valley of hard
times" and yet Porter iuggles with his
figures and proves to his own satisfac-
ton that "the direct benefits he (the
farmer) receives from the present tariff
are far in excess OF the benefits received
by any other Glass;"
This talk about the farmers prosper
ity in the home market, as the result of
protection, is, however, breaking down
oil oil hn
The failure of the protected home mar
ket to bring prosperity to him was first
felt in the East 1t began in the de-
cline of New England farming villages
and in the desertion OF New England
hill farms Right in the midst of the
greatest manufacturing communities
this decline of farming has gone on
The census just taken shows that the
townships adjoining the principl manu-
featuring cities of Connecticut have
lost about 10 per cent of their popula-
ton in ten years.
In the State of New York the farmers
have failed to share in the general
prosperity that the President boasts of
Already in 1887 Mr.. J. r. Dodge. the
high protectionist statistician of the
Department OF Agriculture, reported as
follows: New York farmers are more
in debt than they were ten years ago.
The average depreciation of farming
lands is fully one-third in ten years
Probably one-third of the farms in tie
State would not sell for more than the
cost of the buildings and other improve
ments. Thirty per cent of the farms
are mortgaged for two-thirds of their
estimated value"
The rorOfoctinniStS alWaUC n1aka tho
same answer to these facts-it is West
ern competition, they say.
But how does the matter stand further
West? Take Ohio, for instance. 4
correspondent of that high tariff organ,
the New York Tribune. writes a letter
to break the force of the recently pub
1ished facts as to the decline of the
farming population of Ohio, but he has
to make admissions which damage his
case fatally. He had to admit that the
farm values of Wayne County had fallen
off six per cent in ten years. and that
the loss of population is still greater.
Every county in the Western Reserve,
he says. shows loss of population in
the agricultural districts In view OF
these facts the Tribune's correspondent
makes this sorrowfu1 admission: mo
one denies that there has been depre-
citation of the farm lands of the State in
the last decade" Then comes the cut
and-dried explanation, ''the attraction
of the cheap lands of the West"
Apparently we are not yet far enough
West Let US try Iowa The Commits
sioner of Labor Statistics in that State
has just made public some facts of a
startling character. He has received
answers to his inquiries from T2O farm
ers Recommended to him as reliable
persons"
He finds that ''seventy-six per cent
Of the farmers of the State are prevent
ed by pressure OF their debts from hold
ing their grain and other products for
the best market prices. Eight per cent
have lost their farms by mortgage fore
closure since 1880" Thirty-eight per
cent of farmers children are kept out
of school fifty-eight days each school
year to do farm work; 6S3 of these
farmers report that since 1885 farm
products have been sold below the cost
of production.
But perhaps our cheerful protection
ist President looks still further West to
find that this prosperity is so generally
shared in by ALL" Kansas and Nebraska
are still further West Does he find the
paradise Of home market prosperity for
farmers in these two States? Is it not
here that the mortgage companies are
| rapidly acquiring possession of farms
| and establishing a system resent bling
Irish landlordism? Is 1t not here that
the Farmers Alliance has gained its
greatest strength as the direct outgrowth
of the hard times which bear SO heavily
upon the farmers?
Where, then, will the President find
| that protection is dispensing blessings
| upon the farmers Echo answers,
| Where?
MUELLER AND MEYER.