The Ketchum keystone. [volume] (Ketchum, Idaho) 1885-1899, 1891-04-11
Why Farmers are Disseminated.

Since the close Of our civil wal
the acreage of land farmed in the
country has increased by at least
one-third. Crops have been good
In no instance has famine, blight OF
other impoverishing agency affected
more than a small area of our farm
ing country. The American farmer
has enjoyed bis usual good health
his hocks have fourished and their
| numbers increased with their GUS
tomary rapidity. Everything has
appeared to favor the farmer, and
we have been told over and over and
over again that the country was
prosperous-''never was so pros
porous BEFORE" A quarter of a
century has passed by and the re-
suits Of the evil course we have been
pursuing are being made manifest.
Having been taught in the fools
schools of experience and want, our
farmers realize their ruined state
and are casting about them for a
remedy. They are more than dis
contented, they are alarmed. Toll,
economic, pinch and suffer as they
will, they not only fail of an income,
but debts press them closer and
closer every year, and it is plain
that foreclosure of mortgages and
the reduction Of our farmers to the
wretched condition of renters OF
the soil they till is seriously threat
ened. This is all pessimism, OF
course; but if statistics will persist
in being pessimistic we cannot help
it. That is the matter of those who
made the statistics, not ours.
A recent issue of the Bankers
Monthly-and nobody will pretend
that that journal is over tender of
the farmers interests-gives farm
mortgages in six states, classed as
prosperous, as follows: Ohio, ST.
127, 900, 900; Indiana, $646, 900, 900 /;
Michigan, $5OO,OOO,OOO; Wiscon-
sin, 1857 100000; Iowa, 1867 ,O0O,-
600; Kansas, $685., 100000 Here is
an aggregate of mortgages on six of
our prosperous states reaching the
stupendous figure of So, 432, 00O, 900.
This against one-seventh of the
states and territories. But for the
sake of conservatism let us say it
represents one-ffth of the farm
mortgage Indebtedness of the coun-
try, or a total of ST., 160,OOO,0OO.
Reckoned at 6 per cent per annum
the interest on this sum would be
81 ,O29, 100000! The current in
debtedness of the farmers not Sc
cured by mortgages must be added
to the above, as must, also, the in
terest on state and national debts,
and $3OO,OO0.OOO out of the $780,
100000 annually required to defray
the current expenses of the govern
ment. And even then their burden
is not complete. Like other human
beings they have doctors bills to
pay. They and their families must
eat, and in winter time they must
wear some sort of clothing. A very
bad feature of the case is that illit-
eracy is advancing along with the
advance Of this overwhelming tide
of debts. All things considered the
farmer would be a peculiar creature,
altogether unfit to be citizen of
the United States, were he not dis
contented. Only the most energetic
and determined effort on his part
can now extricate him from the mire
into which he has been plunged by
the incapable or unfaithful admin
lstration of his government. The
reward of his labor, the possession
Of his home, the education of his
children, the liberty bequeathed
him by his fathers are the stake
tor which he must now contend.
Is it strange that he is in revolt
against such state of things, and
cries out: ITO the dogs with polit-
cal parties?"