Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1890-08-28
DEPRESSION
In AGRICULTURAL INDUSTRY.
Its Character The Cause of 1t, and
The Remedy.

Its Character The Cause OF Ii, and
! The Remedy.
Address by Col. C. L. Poorman at the Har-
vest Home Picnic, in Stewards Grove,
Near st. ClairsviIIe, Aug. 21.
FARMERS OF BELMONT COUNTY: On
the invitation of the President of your
Association am here, with others, to dis
cuss questions affecting your interests
as part of the great agricultural indus
try of the country 1 am not farmer.
and it is little singular that neither of
the three persons specially announced
as speakers on this occasion are, or have
been farmers, to the extent of working
land as business of life.
The fact that these speakers, selected
by yourselves, are not practical farmers,
indicates pretty clearly that the farmers
of Belmont county, educated in the
school of practical experience, are not
here seeking information as to the best
methods of cultivating wheat or corn,
or making butter or cheese, but that
they recognize the fact that there are
causes and conditions entirely indepen-
dent of the methods of cultivation and
production that are potential factors in
producing prosperity or want of prosper
ity among farmers as well as among
other classes, and that these causes and
conditions may be understood and dis
cussed by others as well as by farmers.
| assume, then, that your speakers are
not expected to discuss the methods of
raising wheat or making butter, to deal
with conditions and causes, and, if pos
sible, trace and explain the causes that
have produced the relatively depressed
condition of the agricultural interest,
and if possible, suggest some practical
remedy.
The first thing, in my Judgment, Is to
ascertain exactly what the condition is
Conditions are good or bad relatively.
There are ebbs and flows in the prosper
ity Of every industry, and comparisons
are made of the present condition with
that of the most prosperous within OBJ
servatiOn, and complaint is made when
it falls below that condition.
The present condition of the agricul-
tural class is not as good as for the fifteen
years after the war, when prices of all
commodities were higher than now. You
will pardon me, however, if l say that
their condition is better now than at any
period prior to the war, and better than
is the condition of the agricultural class
in any other country in the world.
l will not now attempt comparison
of the condition preceding the war with
that which followed it. The older men
and women know of the hardships of
farm-life, with its toll in the absence of
tools and machinery, and its want of
comforts and luxuries that preceded |
1860, and you all know what remarkable |
changes took place when the quickened |
genius of the country began to furnish |
the improved machinery and improved |
methods, and abundance of cheap sup
plies Of clothing, household comforts and |
ornaments, that are now found on every
farm and in every farm house. Then
came the demands of the great war for
supplies, and new and enlarged markets
were opened for all of the products of the
farm in the rapidly multiplying towns
and cities built up for manufacturing
purposes to supply the demand for new
and improved machinery, better cloth
ing, and greater comforts of life, that
sprang into being in the period of abun-
dant money following the war.
The tidal wave that carried the agri-
cultural industry to high prosperity in
that period has been receding for years
until it has reached period of depres-
sion exactly such as is incident to all in
dustries at times, but the condition is
not as bad nor deplorable as pictured by
some florid writer's on political economy,
or by graphic speakers who chin for
coin, or this grand gathering of intelli-
gent, well-dressed men, women and
children, with their healthy, cheerful ap-
pearance, as the representatives of the
agricultural industry in Belmont county
would not have been possible.
Theories are cheap. Almost every
man now has theory as to every con-
dition that confronts him,and with null
tiplied organizations representing each
class and industry, with special theories
that interest the particular class, it Is
difficult to gain attention by discus
sion of causes that are general in their
operation and affect special interests in
a slow but well defined manner.
We are told by one set of theorists that
the demonetization of silver has caused
the trouble. BY another class that it
was excessive tariff taxation that did the
work. BY an other class that trusts
and combinations have been RESPONSE
ble." BY another class that it has been
excessive and unequal taxation. Others
assign special causes in endless number
and variety, and insist with equal con-
fidence that each of these in turn is re-
sponsible for the trouble.
While each may have been factors in
a limited way, neither nor all combined
can, in my judgment, have produced the
result Silver WAS demOnetiZed in 1873,