Workmen's advocate. (New Haven, Conn.) 1883-1891, 1890-04-05
AGRICULTURAL DEPRESSION.

Hush, all OF you Edward Ath inson
is speaking Edward Atkinson has
spoken.
The wide-awake and inquiring mind
who directs Bradstreefs agency was
sorely puzzled of late. From all quar-
tiers came reports of financial distress
among the farmers. 1t was freely said
that a thick, oppressive, but frigid
blanket Of mortgages covered the agri-
cultural regions. The President of the
Kansas Farmers Alliance, in letter to
members Of Congress, had startled the
public by a statement that single law
firm in southern Kansas had a contract
for the foreclosure of 1900 mortgages.
Freight rates equivalent to one and
half bushels of grain for the transpo rta-
ton of one bushel not only forced down
the prices of agricultural products on
the farm, but, by preventing or limiting
shipments, kept up prices at Chicago
and other great centers of speculative
distribution. Where will all this land
as? inquired Bradstreefs. If the far
mers fail in any great numbers where
will the country stores be? If the coun-
try stores fail where will the wholesalers
be? Where is Atkinson? Mr.. Atkinson,
won't you -?
And Mr.. Atkinson, who was just then
sitting on his tripod, like the old Roman
witch, said: 81 will"
And with wave of the hand he dis
missed the distress. Allelujah!
Hang the distress said he; where is IL?
don't see it, "The corn crop, the great
est crop of the country, steadily in
creases in the face Of declining prices"
Is not this conclusive? People are never
so prosperous as when they produce
more and get less. The farmers, there
fore, are most prosperous class; infini-
tely more prosperous than the plutocrat,
for instance, who gets more as he pro-
duces less. Mortgages Who complains
of mortgages? "There can be no great
or widespread distress in section in
which farmers have been 80 ready to
borrow money and have so fully justi-
fed the utility and benefit to themselves
of the existing system of providing ca
pital on mortgages, by the huge increase
of product, in the face of lessening pri-
ces, which their own work has brought
about"
The parts quoted are verbatim quota
tons, and the italics are Mr.. Atkinson's
also.
While denying the existence of wide
spread distress among the farmers,
this champion humbugologist does not
deny, however, the existence of "indi-
vidual distress. But don't ask him how
many cases of individual" distress in
class are required to constitute wide
spread" distress in that class. This is an
idle question, which he does not propose
to consider, 80 long at least as his own
class feels quite comfortable. If you
ask him, however, the cause of indivi-
dual distress, or even if you don't ask
him, he will say, most oracularly: "Ac-
cording to my observation, both COM
pulsory idleness or apparent want of
work, as well as failure to get good
living out of fairly good land, are mainly
due either to unwillingness or incapacity
to adopt modern methods or applian-
ces." And again: "New inventions, new
tools and new forces during the last
twenty five years have brought pro-
found change in all the conditions of
manufacturing industry - = have not
similar changes in method and machin-
cry worked even more rapidly and