The farmers' union. (Memphis, Mo.) 1891-1895, 1891-03-05

themselves.
The working people. if goaded to des
peration. have the strength of 4 Samson.
The extremely rich and the extremely
poor are opposing forces, the dangerous
classes in society. and on the increase.
Again | call the Chicago NeH& statiS-
tican to the witness stand Under the
heading, Cause of Decline" tmcaning
farming1, he uses the following lam
guage: In the condition of the farm
ing population in Illinois, the richest ag-
ricultural state in the union, there is
food for serious thought. Why. with
the general increase i'll wealth, the in
crease in purchasing power of the wages
now paid the trades and professions, the
enormous eNpansion in traffic and business
why do We find the condition of the
farmer unimproved. or worse even than
ten. twenty or thirty years ago. dis
contented and restless. pling up mort
cages. drifting toward pea>antry and
Serfdomo 'AgrlCuture. more than all
else. lies 1T the basis of our prosperity,
and there must be something abnormal
in our fundamental conditions when the
creative half OF the population enjoys
less of the fruits of its iabors than the
dependent industries. trades and pro-
fe>sions, when Il >tuprndouSly Increasing
aggregation of wealth and population in
the cities is attended by :; dimiuutiun i'll
numbers and 4 steadily growing impov-
criShtuent of the agricultural classes
If farmer had said So much is this
he would be called Il grumblcr. But be
that As it may. ask who gets al! the
profits on farming" 1t goes manI! to
the taX-gathcrer. moncy-Ioan"r. aid
transportation companies. For want of
time ! Will discuss the profits on only
one Of Se-tranSpurtatlon companies
and see if they be one of the robbers.
Here again | submit facts stronger than
any words of mine. Here | stop to re-
mark that we are all proud OF our rail-
road system and its management. In it
we have Il state pride. as Il system sur
passing that of any other state in the
union. Their management is in the
hands of men of ability and integrity,
too. Those men are intrustcd with these
immense properties to make money for
the companies, and in this are doing only
what thousands of good men would do
under like circumstances. The wrong
is mainly in a system of laws and the ad
miniStration thereof that permits corpO-
rations to take advantage of the people
Here. then. is the railroad and ware
house commissioners report for the year
1854. These reports are made up from
the books of the corporations, and are
said to be substantially correct. On page
i.2 is Il table giving earnings. expenses
and net income for that wear from their
Illinois business. This table includes
all the railroads in the state, or SO much
of each as is within the state, and Civ
ing their earnings within the state also.
| find their total income from all sources
for 1884 to be ST. 457,2 23s, and their total
operating expenses. repairs and taxes to
be $50. i1.33, ,22,-leaving a balance of net
profits on that years business Of 500
091. 1.554.
Pretty good. 1t is near sc per cent.
of the entire gross receipts. For the
year 1886 | find the balance OF profit to
be some more. but will omit the figures.
Then what was the difference in profits
between the farmers and the railroad
| companies upon their respective bust
| nesses for the year lsS4 within the state:
The railroad companies had Il net in
| crease Of S2o.097, ,564. but how did the
account stand with the farmers? Vol
| ume ~ of the Agricultural Report shows
that on the production of the corn crop
| in 1884 there was a loss of 81 $50. .J59.
and on the wheat crop of the same year
| there was a loss of s., so, ,3S9-makiug Il
total of S20,6.s. .9is. This shows Il loss
of near 5000, 900 more than the railroad
! companies net gain. To meet these
| losses and pay the taXgatherer and
| money-loaner mortgages had to be made.
The better to show who gets the
money, please note the following: As
stated above. the total income for all
the roads in the state for 1881 was
S5G, ,451,::3s. Now, how much of the
| farmers produce would be required to
| pay this sum? Value of beef cattle
| sold the same year, So, 521. .145: hogs
the same year S24, s54; surplus
| wheat sold the same year, S13, 1882
total, $50. 5o5,Ga3. (Agr Rep. Vol.
| 22.l
| Sales from beef cattle hogs, and
wheat comprise nearly all of the farm
er's income. From these sales we re-
| ceived 500, 601. .623, and paid to trans
portation companies in the same time
SO. .45...23s. The taX-gatlaercr and
| moncy-lendcr got TIL" balance.
| Who gets the money? Does farming
| pay? No. 1t has ceased to pay, And
| Is there not here a reason. a good and
sufficient reason. why agricultural dis
| tricts are being depopulatcd? If this
| state of things shall continue depopula
tion will go on until the survival Of the
fittest only will remain.
| We hear people boast of our boundless
resources and vast aggregation of
| wealth; of our 1000 miles Of railroad
| trackage in the state, and making more
every day. OF what avails all this if the
workers in the fields. toilng twelve
| hours in a day. cannot make both ends
meet? They are sinking. sinking into Il
state of dependency on those who CON
| troll the wealth and resources of the
| state.
Yes, the farmers want relief from the
government, but they will not get it.
No, never, unless they shall organize
purposcly to accomplish it. To this,
| however, the aristocracy is always unan-
| imously opposed without regard to party
The aristocracy don't care a nickel
| which old party wins in the election. 1t
is all the same to them: it is fish for
their net. And should the farmers at
any time get uneasy, and show some dis
position to organize. the aristocracy will
then rally the bell-wethers and whip
pers-in of both the old parties and send
them out among the shorn lambs. and
they will say: Lambs, you make a
mistake; you must stick to the old
reliable party. You look cold
this October morning: see
your fleece is gone. but our party has
not got it. 1t was the other party that
stole it, Stick by the old reliable
party" On election day the bell
wethers collect the lambs at the polls.
and they stick The aristocracy turn
aside and smile. The lambs smile not:
but as they return to their fields they
resolve to work little harder and later
at night, to make, if possible, enough
over and above the shares paid the tax
gatherer and transportation companies
to pay another years rent on that mort
gage. You see they will not leave their
farms unless they are obliged to do so.
In the columns Of great New York
daily the aristocracy says: There seems
to be but one remedy. 1t is in the
change of the ownership of the soil and
| creation of n class of landlords on ono