The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1891-03-14
THE DECLINE OF FARMING.

THE DECLINE OF FARMING.
The decline of the farming industry of
this country dates from the accession of
the Republican party to power, thirty
years ago.
Up to that time the farmers owned the
land they titled, were free from debt and
generally well to do. Since then the in
dependent lsnd- holder is being displaced
b. tenants, and the landlord !. class is
steadily growing stronger Unless the
present tendency is checked, there will
soon be a condition of affairs in the matter
of landlords and tenants similar to that
which has been the curse of Ireland
Hitherto, the rural population of
America has been unique in the position it
held. The agriculturists were independ
ent, progressive freemen, owning the land
they lived upon, acquiring wealth rapidly,
and in general condition TO excite the
envy of the less favored peasants of
Europe. Their general condition was bet
ter than that of most classes of employees
in the mechanic arts, and served as a con-
slant Indictment to tle latter either to Sc
come independent by the possession of a
farm
The census returns show that for more
than sixty years the rural population of
New England was dense, but that during
the last thirty years there have occurred
wholesale abandonment of farms by owners
and a substitution of tenants in their
laS hat I he
tendency towards dependent tenants ON
farms in the place of owners is being more
strongly developed in Illinois, Iowa and
other western states than it is in New
/. England.
The cause of this decline il farming is
not far to seek. The prosperity of the
American farmers enabled them to
produce large surplus of farm
products, which they could export. This
surplus even now, amounts to one-fourth
of the product of the farms. The pay for
this surplus is of course such articles as the
farmers themselves do rot produce, mostly
manufactured goods. Naturally enough
| this pay for farm products would soon have
caused the farmers or their agents to be-
come merchants on an extensive scale for
they would have manufactures to sell after
supplying themselves. The American
| farmers thus come into direct competition
with American manufacturers, in the mat
ter of supplying the other half of the PEG
pie of this country with manufactured pro-
ducts. But the manufacturers, that is, the
factory owners, are few in number and are
mostly men of great wealth. 1t was there
fore easy for them to unite in order to make
war on their great rival, American
farming, which constantly tended tt
undersell them and to reduce theii
profits. The farmers, on the
other hand, seven millions in number
widely separated, and not wealthy like the
mill owners, would not unite IN self defense
against the mill-owners, but were actually
led to believe that if the exports of farm
products were to be reduced so that the
mill could supply all the manufac
tured goods used in this country, then
there would be so many hands employed BY
the mill as to consume all the farm
products that are now exported. Tn,
farmers did not know, of course, that il
every manufactured article imported il
payment for the exported farm surplu.
were made here, the additional manufac
turing would give employment to only one
fifth the number that find employment il
producing the farm surplus, and that thes
additional laborers in mills could consume
only one fifth of the farm surplus. 1t take
critical study of the censns and other au
thoritative statistics to learn tina
plain but at first hidden fact
that if manufacturing is substitute,
for farming only one-ffth of the numbe
of hands will be employed. Machiner
does the work in manufacture; men do tn
work on farms. Machinery can be pun
chased by the wealthy, but men can not
hence the wealthy aristocrat prefers man
ufacture to farming.
J The mill owners persuaded the farmer
, that the home market that would resul
, from stopping the import of manufacture
goods and making them here, would b
greater than the foreign market the farm
ers then had, and then induced Congress t
lay heavy taxes on all manufactures in
ported. These taxes bear upon the farm
ers precisely as if they were levied on th
farm products exported, for, the importe
goods are simply the pay for them. Thirt
years of taxing the pay for the farmers
exports 80 per cent. of their value has cril
pied the great farming industry, an
threatens to enslave the farmers as mel
tenant proprietors. Farming has neve
fiourished in any country if it was contine
to the home market, and the evidence
the decline of farming under the home ma
ket policy shows the downfall of that il
dustry unless the policy is changed.