Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1891-08-19
vOTARIEs OF SCIENCE.
Continued from Sirh Page.

| Prospects, AT the outset PrOf. James SAID
| that the condition of the farming class is at
present exciting keen attention in nearly every
| civilized country. The politics and economics
| o. the United States. England, France, Ger
| many Austria and even Russia are busted today
with the farmer they never we're before. In
| one or another of these countries similar ques-
| tions have at other times been discussed per-
| baps even more eagerly than now; but never
before have they arisen in such acute shape in
| all these countries at once. The farmer ques-
| ton, therefore, it would seem. Is no longer q
| local question, no longer confined to the
| United States but is world wide in its import
ance and must be considered, to some extent
| in its international aspects.
| There Is no question now before the Ameri-
| can people more interesting in its economic
and political aspects than this one of the
| farmer and his relation to other classes in the
| community. The remarkable phenomena &C.
| curing in connection with the Farmers Alli-
! ance movement show at once how deeply the
| iron has entered into the soul of the American
| farmer and how thoroughly he has become
aware that for some reason or other he is not
| keeping pace i'll his material, intellectual and
| social progress with other classes i'll the COM
| munity.
HOW IT LOOKS TO THE FARMER.
1t is not surprising that in this awakening he
shonld not at first perceive the true source of
his ills, and that he should attribute many Of
the disadvantages under which be abors to the
Vaccinations of other social classes. 1t Is
natural that he should see in the railroads, In
the gold bugs of Wall street, in the tariff on
imports, in the banks and bankers and in the
| monetary policy of the government.the bitter
| enemies Of his prosperity.
| 1t must also be acknowledged that there is
certain justification in his view OF matters.
Nothing will be gained for US either from an
economic or political point of view by be-
httling or deridiny the views of western farm
ers on the money question. on the tariff, on
| the railroad policy. on taxation and other SINH
lar topics. The American farmer has griev-
ance-a real and true grievance-one that will
not become less by pOopoohing it, but one
which must be carefully studied by students of
| economics and statistics to ascertain, if posi-
BILE, how far it is justified and whether it can
be remedied. and if SO, by what means.
As a matter of fact, the wealth of the United
States is flowing away from its farms into its
factories and railroads; from the country into
the city, from the rural into the urban districts.
The policy Of our railroad companies has borne
hard upon the individual farmer and upon the
farmer as class. 1t has altered all the condi-
tions of agriculture in many sections OF the
country and in nearly all Of them in such way
as needlessly to burden and embarrass the
farmer. The granger legislation of the west
ern states was perfectly justitable attempt to
check the wanton aggression OF many railroad
managers upon the fundamental rights OF the
rural classes, and though it was at many points
unsuccessful it was the first distinct step in
policy of controlling railroad management In
the interests of the public.
Our system of taxation as a whole rests most
heavily upon the farmer. There is little doubt
| that under the method of a general property
tax now prevailing in this country the rural
district Is, relatively speaking. far more heavily
| taxed than the city; the farmer pays more than
the merchant or the railroad owner. That he
| should not be willing to rest quietly under this
burden is not unnatural.
Nor is there any doubt that the financial pol-
icy Of the country, using that term In the
broadest sense, as including the whole system
OF monetary transactions built up by the COM
| blnation OF governmental action and private
initiative, discrimnates very directly and keenly
against the farmer and the farming class or at
least that it discriminates in favor of other
classes, which amounts to the same thing.
THE TARIFF.
Nor can it be said that the tariff policy Of the
country has been managed at least directly with
an eye as much to the farmers interest as to
that of other classes. am aware that this is
much moOted question, but l do not believe
that any one who has taken pains to study other
| tariffs will claim that the farmers, as a class,
have had such immediate influence in fixing
given rates of duty as the manufacturers, for
example.
1t is no wonder, then, that the American
| farmer is In a bad way and likely to be in a
worse one. Along what line does Improvement
| lie! In the first place. of course, in the direc
| tioi VI aittIlUB Tue iuuutuccb aUONe TeIelTeu
| to. Railway policy must be altered at many
pOints-at some of them fundamentally. The
| system of taxation must be read justed and the
| farmer relieved of unjust burdens The tariff
| must be improved; the banking and general
| monetary policy Of the country changed in
| many respects.
THE REMEDIES.
But all these after all mere palliations.
They do not go to the root of the matter. The
forces which are crowding the American
farmer to the wall are world wide and not
merely national forces. He is going to the wall
because he is trying to compete with farmers
of a low grade of intelligence and civilization
III the production Of crops where intelligence
and civilization count for comparatively little
The Russian peasant, the Indian ryot, the
South African boor can raise wheat at such
rates as will surely crush the American farmer
who relies on competing in the London market
livery year sees new stretches of territory
| opened up and brought nearer to London.
which are quite as good as Dakota or Montana.
The whole southern hemisphere will shortly be
| made accessible and every territory that can is
| rushing into the same field of wheat and corn
raising.
The American farmer must seek new crops
| where intelligence and skill count for more
| than mere fertility of soil or iuxtaposition to
| market, and where having once established
| himself he may bid defiance to the ignorance
| ana lneihclency OF foreign peasant, ryot or
| pOor. lHis Calls LOT DrOau ana liberal policy
| toward agriculture in all its relations 1t in
wolves governmental and private cooperation
III the encouragement of forestry and farming
| two branches which. though long divorced in
this country, must go hand in hand if both are
to flourish 1t demands active aid for apri-
cultural schools, agricultural experiment sta
| lions, agricultural fairs and expositions-in a
word for all those various means by which agri-
| cultural science and art may be extended and
made more efficient. Ii our farmers alliances
| grangers' associations, horny-handed sons Of
| toll conventions, &C.. &c, would with all their
getting. get understanding, would, after secur-
| ing. or better while securing, needed reforms
In the railway, tax, tariff and monetary policy
| OF the country, go to the very root of the mat
ter, viz, remedy the Incidence. ignorance, con-
servatism OF tire farming classes themselves in
| all that pertains to agriculture, no American
could have cause to regret even the widest
lubrications OF the tiat-mOney anti-corporation
| demagogue.
| ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGISTS.
| The Society Closed Its Annual Session Yes
Il