The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1891-06-05

party, and SO disturbed the whole situa-
ton that no man can confidently fore
cast the political probabilities of the I'M
mediate future.
Is this an indication of passing impa-
| tlence-a turning of weary Enceladus
under the mountain-that will exhaust
| itself in the expression of its discontent'
or is it the manifestation of a great cause,
whose adherents will neither be cajoted
nor brow-beaten into its abandonment?
The answer will depend upon whether
the farmers have real grievances which
legislation can and should redress. Their
| isolation has hitherto prevented united
action, and consequently their interests
have been neglected. Labor organize
tons, special lines of commerce and
manufacturing, special interests Of adj
kinds, have appeared before state and
national Legislatures and their causes
have been considered: but farmers are
not lobbyists, and legislatures have for
gotten them. They have waited, hoping
that the parties they have SO faithfully
supported would come to their relief,
and now, that hope has failed, indigna-
ton is aroused. The farmer has seen
the city prosper and the country
grow poor Tradesmen who handle
his products grow rich, while
he scarcely lives. A blight is
upon the great agricultural interests,
which were once so flourishing, and he
believes is occasioned by unfair con-
ditions. He complains of disproportion-
ate taxation. His property IS chiefly
real estate, and is thus within reach of
the assessor, while the richest men,
whose wealth is chiefly personal property
and can be concealed, bear but small
part of the public burdens. While the
farmers real estate needs and receives
but little governmental protection, 1t
pays the larger percentage OF govern
mental expenses. He therefore demands
that personal and corporation property
shall berr their just share of the cost OF
government.
He complains that middlemen and
public carriers receive an undue proper
ton of what the consumer pays for his
products. He sees that the consumer
pays about the same price for beef that
he paid ten wears ago, while the farmer
gets for his cattle scarcely more than
half as much as he then received.
Meanwhile the great cattle shippers,
who control the markets to suit
aires, and the farmer has mort
gagged his home in order to live.
The city consumer pays seven to ten
cents per quart for milk; and the man
who owns the farm and the COWS, and
who performs all the labor of production
gets only two or three cents per quart.
Is it strange that he thinks himself the
victim of injustice somewhere!
He sees everywhere between himself
and the actual consumer of his products
a multitude of spectators and distrlbu-
tors who manipulate the markets as they
grow rich, while his own constant toll
yields him only meager subsistence.
His wrongs and disadvantages are cas-
lily perceived, but the remedies are more
difficult to discover and apply. He has
indeed done something. In Kansas,
expenditures under the force of his
movement will be reduced about $780,
900 per year.
He has had little experience in legisla-
ton, and many of his theories are wild,
and his proposed remedies worthless and
dangerous. The fraudulent silver dollar
will never enrich him any more than
short half bushel will multiply his grain.
The government cannot go into the loan
business while he waits for markets to
advance. Obligations he has assumed,
however hard their conditions, cannot
be legislated out of existence. But as he
asserts his case, and presses it with his
vote, parties will listen to his grievances,
and statesmen will devise measures for
his relief. The farmer has just cause of
complaint, and his self-assertion will
secure him present consideration and
ultimate relief.-Dr. c.. NJ. Sims, in
Christian at Work.