Kansas agitator. [volume] (Garnett, Kan.) 1890-1905, 1891-07-21

other words, the property of the people
under existing conditions is not worth as
much as their debts amount to. We have
not said, at any time, and we do not say
now that here and there and yonder par
ticular piece of land is not worth more
than it's assessed valuation, or that 1t is
not worth and would not sell for as much
as it was worth and would have brought
five years ago. What we do say, and what
every person knows to be true, whether
he is willing to admit it or not, is that the
market value of property, not only in
Kansas but in all the agricultural States
of the country and in all the agricultural
sections Of the States, has been so enormous
that if it were put up at public auction on
notice it would not sell for as much as the
total indebtedness Of the people.
1t is time that our public men should ac-
knowledge the actual conditions confront
ing them, and it is time that writers for
the public press should not only be willing
but anxious to give to the people the actual
facts in order that our legislation may be
made to correspond to what the conditions
demand. You elect man to public office
and Immediately stuff his ears full OF false
statements, intending primarily to influ-
ence his judgment in favor OF the power
which we all know is destroying the peo-
pie. The census report shows, and we
know without the fact being shown, that
the people who are in debt are paying from
10 per cent. to 40 per cent. for the use OF
money, while no business, except that OF
money lending, is making anywhere near
so large profit. We al know that farm
ing has not, in the last forty years, paid
more than an average of 2 per cent. per
annum on the value of the farmers in
vestments, and as result OF this, while
we have been tOiling to make homes for
ourselves, we find that our condition has
been growing worse instead OF better;
while the financial condition of the men to
whom we are indebted is growing better
and better every year. That is to say, the
masses are growing poorer. The masses
who do the hard work, who produce all the
wealth in the country, while the few who
lend the money are growing richer and
more powerful, more impudent, arrogant
and merciess every year.
Now, another statement. The Capital
estimates that the real worth of farms in
Kansas is three times their assessed valu-
alton. That may be true, but II they are,
is it not strange that nobody is willing to
pay that for them? Is 1T not strange that
money cannot be obtained for more than
one third of that estimated value? Is 1t
not strange that when farms are sold I'M
der DEGREES of court that there are no pur-
chasers for them at any price; that they
are bid IN at the costs of court? Then
again, we have not estimated that all the
land in the State is not worth as much as
the debt which is due upon mortgaged
farms. We have always included the
railroad indebtedness and municipal in
debtedness; but the Capital assumes that
we are doing the railroads injustice, and
asks why we do not give railroad figures
as they really are. Let us see what those
figures are. BY reference to the first page
Of the report of the Kansas Board Of Rail
road Commissioners for 1889 1t will be found
that the bonded debt of all the roads on
the Goth day Of June, 1889, was sis7, POI ,62l.
1t appears, however, that this covers all
Of the mileage of the roads, outside Of the
State as we'll as inside. BY turning to
pages 15S and $50 of the same report, it
will be found that the figures for Kansas
roads alone-that is to say, the mileage
putting together the bonded debt and the
stock account, which the Railroad Com
missioners in this same table regard as