New-York tribune., 1891-05-02
FlLSEHOODS ABOUT FARMERS.

Allowance must be made for the natural 1eel-
inc Of truthful correspondent at the West VINO
finds in "The Chicago Weekly Index" certain
sentences which, being restrained by strict re-
gard for parliamentary propriety, he does hou
mention as a pack of lies, but only as Such
slush., few sentences may proiitably De
quoted to show what sort of information Is gwen
by the Farmers Alliance to its dupes
For many years the farmer has been at the mercy Oh
bloated bondholders, monopolsts and mortgage srpS,
and although he cried relief his peadngs were put
of with excuses OF various kinds. Ihe Demo-
cratic party was not in power long enough 10 accoHi
plish any reform for the bcterment OF the arher "eo
il so disposed and result two-thrds Oh the hohe
steads in Bleeding Kansas" now held by Eastern
mortgage sharks who are drawing from to fer cent
roontb in advance. The people In Ireland arc III
mnch better circumstances than One-haf the FARMERS Ill
Kansas For their produce there is no MARKET NoIh
In used for fuel and the tax charged by rarodH lor
TRANSPORTING grain is so exorbant that 1t is iooauy
effort to attempt it,
There ought to be not single Schoolboy IN
Kansas so ignorant as to believe these assertions
If he can see n train of cars going Eastward ne
can discover that there are persons VINO are
foolhardy enough to attempt TO ship gram TO
market. and who actually do it every day IL
he can read anything that pretends to be
newspaper, he can learn that there Is Market
for wheat corn. cattle. hogs and other products
al Kansas City, and another at ST. LOUIS where
remarkably high prices are paid, netting 1ailh-
ers for grain more than three times the cost OF
raising. If corn is anywhere used for fuel IN
Kansas, when it is selling at 60 cents buShei
in Kansas there are some extraordinary f0olS
in that State. Nor is there a solitary Irish boy
in Kansas public schools above the alphabet
class who would not ask his father why he did
not 20 back to ireland if people are so much
better off there. The obvious feet is that the
writer of these sentences must be destlIu'e oi
any care for his own reputation for uuthiulheSS'
and equally destitute of respect Tor MS readers'
The story that wo-thirds of the homesteadS
of Kansas are now held. by Eastern mortgage
sharks might have been gnOrantly believed ana
ronooted two months ago But it is now more
than q month since some results OF the census
of mortgages were published in all parts of the
country. 1t is true they did not embrace exact
figures for Kansas, but for Iowa they did, an
adjacent State of similar conditions ana IN Iowa
only 3.24O.432 acres of land were mortgaged
ont of 5.5O4 900 in the State or but one III
eleven There may yet be in Chicago some doit
81 stupid as to believe that the proportion III
! Kansas is 10 per cent and in Iowa per cent
but the chances are a thousand to one that the
man who makes such an assertion is aware that
census returns will prove it lie.
The assertion that the Democratic party " was
not in power lcng enough to accomplish any
reform for the betterment OF the farmer Is
queer kind of untruth If it relates to hanSas
| that party has not been in power there and II
il relates to Congress- the Democratic party had
for four years power enough to pass se'er'ii
thousand laws and would have had no opposl-
ton from anybody if it had ever tried to pass
one really for the benefit of farmers. The writ
or seems to intend an untruth by implication
he wants to have it believed that the Democrats
made no effort professedy for that purpose.
But the worst measure the Democrats attempted
to pass. and the one on which they wasted near
" all their time the Mills Tariff bill, was con-
stantly advocated on the ground that 1t was
needed to save the farmers, and presumably
there were Democrats who believed the story