The Dalles daily chronicle. [volume] (The Dalles, Or.) 1890-1948, 1891-10-12
THE REASON WHY.
wER SEEKS TO SOLVE THE CAUSES
OF DEPRESSION.


iously by Changes in Commercial Uses
of Farm Products--Coal Oil Against
COrn--A Better Era Promised.
Many writers and political economists
have attempted to give the reasons why
the farm has not paid during the last
twenty years. Before 1861, we will say
for about fifteen years, farming and its
commerce had been going along smooth
ly. There were no violent irruptions,
changes or huctuation of prices.
The farmer knew from the past
what the future would be, provided
always that there were no radical
changes. Farming was then conserv-
ative business. There was no specula-
tion in it but rather a certain steady in
come. Land was free by homesteading.
1t was for the most part ready for the
plow and though millions of acres of
rich prairie land were brought under
cultivation yearly the growth of the
country and commerce absorbed the
product and the farmer was prosperous.
Railroads, canals and cities were being
built and the farmer was feeding the,
builders. We supplied the world with
cheap cotton and many other things.
Taking things all in all it was very
comfortable time for the farmer. Yet
he worked hard, was prudent and gen
orally out of debt. The prairie farmer
then got into that peculiar habit of buy
ing up all the land that joined him and
the neighbors he bought out came west
to grow up with the country and in that
way the great trans Mississippi was
quickly settled by men who understood
farming in all its details.
Now we come to review the causes
which brought about radical changes in
farming. We will begin with alcohol
Indian corn made the cheapest alcohol.
1t was generally used for light in the
shape of camphine and burning fluid.
1t was used largely in cooking, in the
arts, and shipped in large quantities to
Europe to be converted into so-called
brandies and other liquors. All of this
alcohol or nearly all was made from
corn. In 1923 coal oil came into gen.
eral use, entirely displacing the burning
fluid. This would have been a serious
blow to the corn grower if the war had
not interviewed. The war, with its great
wastes of provisions, labor and lives,
really saved the farmer from bankrupt
cy. 1t brought about high prices un-
dreamed of before. Money was plenty,
especially in the great producing centres.
Corn continued to be king. 1t was the
foundation of pork, beef and alcohol
the sinews of war. The cutting off of
alcohol and the internal revenue tax
placed upon it had no appreciable effect
on the farmer. The result has been that
war prices and plenty of money begot
extravaganza. The old prudent ways
were dropped and forgotten. Was. the
old better than the new? Perhaps it was
safer and carried with it more COM
Portable and restful life. The farmer of
the last twenty years wears more frills,
rides where he used to walk, and has
much more style than he had in the
fifties. But is he happier and having an
easier time of it? Those who have en-
joyed the privileges of both periods can
see but little difference in the pleasures
and comforts.
We now come to the causes of the
present general depression. With the
late deplorable situation among the far
1ners of the prairie states-and their con-
dition reflects on all other states, for
prairie state prices rule the prices of
provisions throughout this country and
to limited extent the commercial
world-alcohol still has much to do. It
is to-day carrying the full war taxes first
placed upon it. This tax the corn
grower has to pay. The excise tax of 80
cents gallon largely prevents the use
OF alcohol. If the removal of this tax
would cause the use of one third or one
half more spirits by cheapening its price
that would measure the portion that the
farmer pays. And if it caused the use
of one-third or one-half more it would
enhance the price of corn justehat much.
with the usual reflex influence on the
prices of all other foods.
Corn was not only knocked out in
price by the tax on spirits but also by
doubling the corn producing area and
the extension of railroads. Pork made
from corn was refused admission into
some of our foreign markets. Another
thing to be considered is that one man
and horse could only cultivate twenty
five to thirty acres of corn in 1855. while
In 1875 and since, one man with two
horses and improved implements can
cultivate twice as much with greater
ease.
The whole farming method of the
South was changed by the war. Before.
the cotton grower, his negro and mule
were fed by the corn grower. After the
war he was not able to buy corn and
was forced to feed himself
Such are about one-half the causes
that have led up to the great depression
in agriculture. The wonderful recupef-
ative powers of the nation, the great i'm
migration with the money brought with
it and the millions set free by the nation
in paying its debts are the forces that
have sustained the farmer in SO far as
he has been sustained. If it were not
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