Idaho County free press. [volume] (Grangeville, Idaho Territory) 1886-current, 1891-04-17
SlNGLE TAX DEPARTMENT.
THE PEOPLES "SUPERB CONDls
TION."

Depew, while hobnobbing with otheI
nabobs in Europe, publicly declared tina
The condition of the American people i,
superb" From the standpoint of {
money king who knows little and carei
less about the real condition of affair.
in this country, it doubtless looks thai
way. Such men never probe below tn,
surface of society and try to find out how
people live, what are their resources
their prospects. their opportunities,
their struggles for existence. With the
railroad kings, the Wall street gamblers
and the great land monopolists, the con
dition is generally superb But how is
it with the toiling, struggling millions?
Let us, for example, consider the condi-
ton of the poorer classes, in the larger
cities of the United States. | mean
those who ore honest, sober, and will
ing to WORK for a living. Mr. Depew
must know, or he ought to know, that
ten or a dozen of our larger cities
contain hundreds of thousands of such
persons who live from hand to mouth,
and are constantly struggling with all
their might to keep starvation at bay,
and whose best efforts bring results
only sufficient to prevent them from
becoming absolute paupers. The New
York Tribune says that in crowded dis
tricts of that overcrowded metropolis,
hundreds of human beings are slowly
dying from lack of sufficient nourishing
food. The Sun says that 10000 work
ing women in that city are trying to
exist on wages so small that they vii
in all probability be driven by necessity
to crime or lives of shame. In the tene-
ment house districts, 200, 600 persons to
the square mile are crowded into tene-
ments and compelled to exist in condi-
tons that are not conducive to physical
health. moral culture nor intellectual
development. In every one of our large
cities, and in most of the smaller ones,
thousands who have labor to sell find
the labor market glutted In land of
plenty there is want; in land of in
dustry there is enforced idleness; in
land of prosperity there is misery; in
land of glittering wealth there is pinch
Ing poverty; in a land of boastful free
dom there is abject slavery And es-
pecially marked are these contrasts in
our large cities.
And what is the condition of the
farmers-a very numerous class, and
class whose interests are at the bottom
OF all national prosperity? A few facts
and statistics, gathered from trust
worthy sources, will tend to indicate
the superb condition of the American
farmers
The Bankers Magazine is authority
hat la fa
cages of Kansas amount to $685., 900, 600;
those of Indiana, S640 900, 900; of Iowa,
E567, 100000; of Michigan, $500, 900, 600;
of Ohio, 81, 431, 900, 600 At 6 per cent,
S2O0,000,000 would be required to pay
the interest on these mortgages, as the
total in the five States is So, 431, OOO, 900.
By little figuring / find that this
grand total of mortgage indebtedness on
farm property in only FIVE States exceeds
by Sl,S46, 100000 the entire national
debt, principal and interest, as
reported at the close of the fiscal year
ending the Both of last June. What
superb condition." and what a glori-
Gus outlook for the farmers of those
States! And their circumstances are
fair sample of what prevails in nearly
all the other agricultural States. sta
tistics of the agricultural bureau of
Illinois show decrease in the value of
farms and farm property in that State
during the past year of 1000, 900. Gov
ernor Campbell, Ohio, who is farmer,
says the depreciation of the same kind
of property in his State, in the past ten
years, aggregates $50, 600, 600. The
tenth census showed that the United
States contained one million and TWEEN
ty-fve thousand tenant farmers; and
surely the number has increased rather
than decreased since 1880. Hugh Nc
Cullough, the great Republican finan-
cier, who was Secretary of the Treas
ury under two administrations, declares
that while rents in cities and large
towns are steadily increasing, agricul-
ture has become so depressed that good
farms offer no inducements to tenants
to hire them at rental of 6 per cent
on one-third of their assessed value
An in this connection it is pertinent
to inquire, who owns and controls most
of the available land which rightfully
belongs to all the people? Largely it
is in the hands of wealthy landlords
greedy spectators and grasping syndi-
Gates. The Schenley estate owns 1000
acres within the limits of Pittsburgh
and Allegheny cities, from which the
heirs draw 81, ZOO, 900 rent annually.
Vanderbilt owns ., 600, 900 acres, Murphy,
of California, 100000 equal in area to
the State of Massachusetts,; Disston, of
1900, 900; the Standard
Oil Company, 100000 and railroad
own 210, 900, OO0 Then there
are $1,000, 600 owned by foreign noble
men, who are not citizens of the United
States, owe no allegiance to our gov
eminent and spend their money else
where. striking instance of this
kind is Lord Scully, of Ireland, who
owns according to our laws) 10000 |
acres of farm lands in Illinois, These
lands he parcels out to small tenants,
who work like slaves for bare living.
and turn over the bulk of their earn
lngs to their foreign landlord, his in
come from that source being $500, 900 |
per annum. In 1860 the producers of |
the United States owned 43 per cent. of |
the wealth; in 1870, SO per cent. in 1880,
only 20 per cent; in 1S90-don't mem |
ton it! More land is owned by railroad !
than would make six States |
as large as Iowa. Since 1851 no less |
than ISL, 900, 600 acres of land have been |
given to railroad companies-of which
the Illinois Central got subsidy of
;, 500, 600 acres. Facts like these could |
be multiplied almost indefinitely, but |
enough have been presented to show
what superb condition" the Amer