Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1891-05-18
ANY PORT A STORM.

The agricultural classes who seize
so readily upon the glittering offer Of
| the sub-treasury scheme for more
money and cheaper money, are not to
be condemned without hearing. Let
us look at their side of the case, and
hear what may be said for them.
The farmers as class are poor. They
live isolated from the world and from
each other. They work hard and long,
in the heat of the summer sun and the
chill of the winter wind. They are
frugal and saving in their habits. Tenn
perance is an almost universal virtue.
And yet with all their breaking labor,
their vigorous self-denial, their frugal
ity that verges upon parsimony, they
lay by no wealth, or very little. A bad
crop year comes: flood washes the
young plants out of the ground or
drouth parches them and shrivels
them up. The chinch bugs or the Hes
sian fly destroys the wheat fields. or
the rust blights the growing stalks.
The boil worm devastates the cotton
fields, cholera gets among the hogs,
foot rot or scab among the sheep. fever
seizes the cattle, and CHAMBERS carries
off neighborhood of horses. A whole
twelve month OF toll yields no reward,
against the evil temper of the elements
that assail the husbandman. Ruin
stares him in the face, and he seeks the
money lender, and mortgages his farm
for a third of what it is worth.
Then he finds when he has planted
mortgage that he has one crop that
never fails. Day and night, Sunday
and holiday, in rain or shine, the in
terest grows with cheerfulness that
knows no abatement. Neither drouth,
nor floods, nor insect pest, nor any in
fictitious distemper, can affect its vigor.
At stated seasons it natures, and the
farmer has to take care of it.
Is it q thing to wonder at if the far
mer feels in a vague sort of way that
there is something wrong somewhere?
He may not know what it is, but he
knows that there is something out of
joint. His years work has brought him
very little money. and that is gone as
soon as got, in paying the interest on his
mortgage and the store bill. If he had
more money he could do more. There
is scarcity of money in the land, and
the currency is insufficient to meet the
demands of active business. Why? He
doesn't know. for he is not trained
fnancier, and the financial authorities
themselves differ. so that he has little
or no confidence in them. But one
thing he knows, that if there were more
money it would be cheaper, because
when he raises a big cotton crop it is
cheaper than when the crop is cut
short. And if he had cheaper money
he would not have to pay so high rate
of interest, and a larger circulation
would put up prices, and he would get
more for his cotton. To his mind, the
one thing to do is to get more money
in circulation, and any scheme that
looks to that end is acceptable to him.
1t may fail, but on the other hand it
may succeed: and if it does fail, can it |
make his condition any worse than it |
is now?
Such is the farmers condition. such |
his argument, and such his conclusion. |
The sub-treasury doctors offer him
cheap money and plenty of it, to pay |
off his mortgage and sell his crops. He |
may not believe implicitly in their
promises, but the scheme gives CLEAN
of hope. and he seizes upon it. The
sailor tossing on tempestuous sea
steers for any port that offers harbof'-
age for his wrecked vessel II may
carry him among enemies or canni-
balls, but he has a chance to escape
them, and he knows that on the raging
ocean he cannot much longer survive.