Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1891-03-05
THE FARMER TO GET ON TOP.
AN INTERVIEW WITH "ELI PERKINS,
THE LECTURER.

S say to the farmers and the Farmers A
S lance. l can't talk commercial nc
! farm matter in my lectures, and l can
: get this idea to the farmer"
"What is the idea you want to get
, the farmer?"
"It is this: The farmer" said Mr. Per
kins, sis about to see good times. H
will soon be on top. have talked witt
Dalrymple, who has forty thousand
acre farm in Dakota. and to Bookwalter
the great thinker of Ohio, and witt
President Harrison, and they all agree
that the farmer, who has been the un
der dog for fifteen years, is now to ge
on top
"How?" asked the reporter.
swell, in the first place, what killed
farming was the opening up of 100000
acres of new land in Dakota, Nebraska
and Manitoba. Clerks and bankers
turned farmers and went to raising
wheat at 81 so per bushel in Dakota
They soon overdid it; raised l00,000,000
more wheat than was wanted in this
country, and it went down to 60 cents
in Dakota. Then the fancy farmer slip
ped back to New England and left the
poor solid farmer to grub it it out. This
| 100,000,000 bushels of wheat had to go
to beggar's market in England. That
means 60 cents in Kansas. When wheat
gets higher than 60 cents in Kansas,
or 81 10 in England, England sends to
India for her wheat"
"Well, how is the farmer to be saved?"
"This way: The beggar's market in
England is to be done away with next
year. Our surplus last year was 60,000,-
900 bushels this year there will be no
surplus and we will consume our own
wheat, and the farmer will get one dol
lar bushel for il"
"How do you make that out?"
"Why, millions of acres formerly CIV
en- up to wheat in the Northwest is 60
ing into sugar, fax and dairy. The pro-
tective tariff has stimulated these indus
tries and reduced the wheat acreage
6O,0O0,000 bushels.
"Where are these new industries?"
"Why, they are taking out 300 bar
rels of beet sugar day at Grand Island,
Neb., and it pays so well that other fac
tories are going up in Lincoln and Nor
folk, Neb., Sioux City and Aberdeen, 5.
D. The whole North Platte and Jim
River country in Dakota are going into
sugar"
"And the flax interest what of that?"
"Every one is going into it in North
ern Iowa, and the lake country in Min
nesota is duplicate of the Irish linen
district. Two linen factories are now
making cloth, towels and sheets in Iowa,
and linen factory 100 feet square is
going up in Minneapolis. The tariff on
Irish md German linen has done it. We
used to send out $60,000000 annually
for linen and sugar. This money will
stay in America, and make good times
here. You ought to have linen factories
in Kansas City and Sedalia. The fiber
is valuable now."
"How about wool?r
Hundreds of carloads of horses,
which have done nothing but plow for
wheat, are coming out of that Dakota
wheat country to be traded for sheep in
Ohio and Pennsylvania. The country
about Mendon and Bismarck is being
stocked with sheep in place of raising
wheat. 1t is the firm opinion of Dal-
rymple, the great Dakota wheat raiser,
that there will be 60,000,000 bushels less
of wheat raised next year than the year
BEFORE"
"Then, again." continued Mr.. Per-
kins, ''20,000,OO0 bushels of cheap wheat,
made on cheap dollar land in Manitoba,
used to tumble down on our farmers |
from Canada. They bucked their dol
lar land against our SIS and $50 land. |
Now there is tariff of twenty cents a |
bushel against that cheap Manitoba
wheat. This will keep it all back, and
our American farmers will have the
American market and Canada can have
the beggars' market in England"
"Then you think the tariff will help
the American farmer?"
"It will send him to glory See the
coming inl Plate glass
is being made in fifty places and has
dropped from 81 so per square foot to so
cents. We've sent $20,000,000 a year
to France and Germany for plate glass.
Now this glass will be made here and
our farmers will be benefited, and not
German farmers. We have been send
ing $30,000,000 a year to Wales for tin
Now l know of twelve tin plate manu-
going up in this country, The
Welsh tin plate factories are coming
over here. Mathal & Ingram, of Balti-
more, the largest tin plate goods makers
in America. are putting in a plant i'm
ported from Leanelly, South Wales to
make their own tin. They have been
using two hundred thousand boxes of
Welsh tin every year, made by Welsh
men, fed by Welsh farmers. The tin
,ariff does not go on till July, but when
t comes there will be tin factories all
over the country ready to meet it.
"Yes," said Eli, "we'ye been sending
5000, 100000 abroad annually for these
hings. Now they will remain here
yes, being made here, with competition,
lown will go the price, as with plate
glass and nails, and our farmers will
'eed the men who make them, and our
armer will buy them cheaper than he
lid before. Nails are 81 90 a keg to-
lay, while the tariff on them is 81 90.
downs prices. 1t is only
when prices get so low that the manu-
acturer is about to fail that the trust
comes. Don't be afraid of the trust,
'armers! The trust is the last dying
,asp of the manufacturer. No manu-
acturer making money goes into trust.
The Farmers Alliance is trust You
lid not go into it till you were starving.
But the farmer will soon go to glory"
"How long will the farmer be on top?"
It'll times are so good and he is
making so much money that everybody
will want to go into it. But the farmer
has a corner on land now. We cannot
open up another Dakota. If they want
farm lands they must buy the farms now
nainu u cultivated and thaSe will UO nm