Audubon County Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Audubon Co., Iowa) 1885-1894, 1891-10-08


on poultry, two-Ihrds on eggs and three-fourthE
on butter. Just what 1t costs to produce q
dozen eggs or pound OF butter o. course ctn
be clearly stated. This extraordinary state
ment on page 81, to which have alluded, comes
to us in naked form without showing the de
tailed inquiries put sne Ule persons of Sr" H and
loss, and but for the fact that extracts from the
published answ ers of many OF these persons are
put in the report 1t WOULD not be possible Tor US
10 even CO. lecture the nature of the inquiries
put TO them. find on page 80 of the rep RI an
answer in these words NOT Dy any mean ntts a =.
much profit as s. 0C0 loaned at per cent since
1880; as q rule 1t has returned e6,95O less. FROM
this answer infer that the inquiry put was
whether there had been profit or loss in farm
ing as compared with the pront that would W
ure from the loaninR of t5,O w at per cent nj IN
tertst compounded every six months Tor
period of ten years. Five thousand 90 lars
compounded for ten years at per cent ylelds
o. q5O so that this correspondent at lesst must
have understood the inquiry in that way, and
assume that the same character OF inquiry was
put to every farmer. - a. ,oo
acre farm worth 900 with slt0O in stock oo
cupled by the owner and his family, We worhe1
5S SkS ven si siSse ss6 # we count The family
living on the profit SIDE but when we allow lair
pay for labor about half that only can De made
IL by extra skillthe products have been much
greater the owner 10 entitled to the skilled Ia
bor." / might give other instances showing
that this was the Inquiry put 10 inc Ia lners ny
the commissioner OF labor, and yet the report
carefully conceals the inquiries made 10 order
% induce these answers, so that IN these In
stances il the inquiry was made That L INFER
was made il is not strange that so many farm
srs gave the answer sought by the commission
er. The cases are rare indeed Whe, man on
gagged in any occupation having 10000 capital
las been a0le to make In ten years e25, $50 on
that capital employed. O1e farmer illustrates
. .s,s tn in the o @9sI RaRRy is mis-
lesding to compare the profits of money loanlne
with faIm ming, although such doubtles was noI
intended, but money is an unproducuve power
and be gOmDOunde0t money III o per cen
compounded will soon absorb the wealth OF the
world, but there is no such thing as compounu
farming Another thing which mai es the
comparison unjust to farmers is the TACT tbat
the lua ming and profits of endle-s millions cat
be centralized In the hands of one man, Whlle
the farmers profits must he limited to what he
can actually produce" 1t will be seen from
these answers the farmers had put to them a
series Of questions which were clearly lntendeo
TO compel an answer of loss rather than OF
gGin TheJ efOTe, when Gov Boies and his com
missioner of labor say that these statistics are
the statements of farmers they are Statements
based upon inquiries which were not legitimate
and were misleading as respect the things in
Quired about, 49,
might give many other Illustrations from
this report showing that Its intent and purpose
10 TO show that the people of Iowa are oppressed
with losses on every hand. Let me give one ad
dtional illustration respecting this report, show
ing its abs OIute unrelabi ity On page 273 is the
ht aiding National, State and County lndebt
eapess" from which it appears that the state
debt of Iowa is s246,435, or ID cents for each 10
habtsnt; that the county Indebtedness is Vi 81
estate mortgage indebtedness upon both farms
and city lots is placed at tl99 LOCO. The last be-
ing the statement of the snperihtendent of the
census, or Sl04 per capita. These three items OF
state. county and individual mortgage indebt
edI ess, show per capita indebtedness OF
tIO6 for each inhabiIant. Then the com
missioner says, "a conservative estimate
considering the national, state, county
municipal, cal estate and chattel mortgage in
debtednA would place the debt burden of the
people of 10 iva At about $3.50 per capita rot in
Guiding the vast debt represented by interest
bearing commercial paper This $2S0 per capita
calls tor an annual interest OF 1880 from ev
cry man, woman and child in the state estlmat
ed ats per cent per annum, which represents
in the aggr, gate S22 ll9,S53SO, paid as interest
annually by the producers OF Iowa. This ID
sufficient 10 prove to peope unacquslnied win
Iowa that 1t is one OF the best, II not the best
state in the Union. No state could long endure
such drain upon her productive Industries
without most prolific soil, and the most I'M
bounded resources. That Iowa can sun pay
pie from actual starvation, places her among
the most productive regions on the globe and
her people among the most Industrious and
frugal found among the nations of the earth. "
This quota ion purportsto show that the PEG
pie OF lows have an annual interest burden OF
more than t2s, 100000 that they mutt pay TO peO-
pie outside 0t the state. Subtrscting the per
CAPITA of tli e from the per capita OF t2sU we
mortgage Indebtedness of the state OF Iowa,
and her portion of the national debt
according TO The statement of Ibis com
on a year per capita basis of the population OF
Iowa is thus stated at 1892 $50 9Ol. Now add the
actual Indebtedness, state, city, county and in
dIVIduRl, and this commissioner makes Iowa
burden d with debt of 3jU12OCO, or with n
S5,OOOOOO Of the total in interest bearing debt OF
The unned States, and h. makes our in crest
burden ecu 81 to the interest burden of Lhe
tire interest bearing debt of the United States.
This report, with the endorsement of the gov
ernor, sent to the p Ople shows that we have
municipal indebtedness and u chattel mortgage
indebtedness of 1882 0OOW0 The municipal deOt
as thIwn by the census OF 1880 was in round
numbers ~, hOO GOO anc il has not been inCI eRsed
materially since, leaving q ChaItel mo- gage
debt OF tGI,ON 900, an sb,urdty on its face. |
submit that report making up statistics of
lhls character Is utterly unreliable as respects
any deductions 10 be made from 1t.
The chattel mortgage indeb edness of course
can only he estimated. but in the natur. of
things 1t must be small II is safe to say that
IN re is an exaggeration in this report of at least
tSz0, UOOOO, aud yet we are asked 10 believe that
10 the ext-n of IS 100000 in all. IL seems un-
nee ssRry for me to 20 into a detailed sta temC Mt
showing the fslsity of the deductions made by
the cnmmiss oner IN his report and endorsed
and apr yer by the governor, becau SO II as
SHOWN from this commissioners report there
mas been a loss upon every farm product in
Iowa during these last five years, and II in al
dttion to that loss there has been drain of S22-
UOO,OOO annually for interest alone upon the
debts which are described in this report, or tll0
OOO,OOO in five years, aud another drain for the
multiplied revenues derived from taxation
amounting 10 al 10 nearly SlV,WOW0 per an
NUN, or $50 600 in addition it would sec m in
the nature of things that Iowa must Indeed be
Impoverished and her people in the direst dis
tress. One would suppose that our aims
houses and poor houses would be filed t.
repletlon amid This general ruin. What are
the factsT The are that the census discloses
that the total number in our aims houses and
poor houses for 1880 were l62l, and outdoor
paupers 1874, or one to each S4S of the population
In p or houses and one TO each 500 in pODula.
ton receiving out door relief and, when it also
sDp' ars that there are twelve states in this
union having more paupsrs relatively than Out
own, ae have been remarkably successful in
VeW OF our great misery and want II we lOOS
abroad we will see that in 1885 Great Britain had
q paupers for each !, 900 of her people and in
lSU ~ for each 1000 of her people.
NOW, viii hgut Roi into detail, let US see
something of the growth and development of
Iowa during the last decade between 1880 and
1890. The valuation of our property in 1880 was
lfl0 millions, or 1871 for each man, woman and
child in the state. During the ten years last
past as SHOWN by the census of 1890 we have q.
creased This wealth s27S 754 400, giving us a total
q wealth in he state of Iowa of 1893 millions
OF dollars, or SSSS for each man, woman and
child in the state, having Increased our popuIa
ton 2S7 600, a increased the per capita wea tn
w per head during these ten years. Whatever
button of wealth in o,her countri,s or
as resp cts its distribution in Iowa 1t will be con-
ceded that wealth 10 this state is reason ably
well distributed; that having none very rich and
relatively not many verg poor, that this wealth
Is found IN every part OF our stste on the farms
who has eyes to see. PrOduction-we have in.
creased largely the area OF our production. By
turning 10 the census of 1890 1t will be seen that
IN the chief PRODUCES of our state we rave made
substantial and in some of them large increases.
In 1880 we had 792, 322 horses; in 1890 we have
lfl2 OI9 horses, or increase OF 1851 or about
o. per cent increase, so that now with the excep.
uon OF lu1nGis we own more horses than any
state in the union. But we have not only in-
creased our horses in number but we have
greatly inc eased their quality and value. 10
1886 for the nrst time in state fair was locat-
ed permanently at Des Mones upon lands pur-
chased by the state. AT that annual meeting
many speeches we're made showing the grow h
and development of our state since the aRricul-
tural society was organized in 1854. The elder
Mr.. ClRTkson then said that when the state 80.
etety was orr aDzed in 1854 there was not such
thing as blooded horse in the state of Iowa
and but one herd of short horn cattle Whilst
our progress and development in the improve.
ment of bree has been constant and great IL
10 well known that between 1880 and 1890 we ha va