The farmers' union. (Memphis, Mo.) 1891-1895, 1891-08-13
WHY ARE PEOPLE POOR?
HARD WORK AND GOOD CROPS
OF NO AVAIL.


tion Companies Rob the Producers of
the Products of Their Labor.
Why are people so poor?
This is question often asked and
seldom answered. Poverty is usually
the fruit of Incidence and thrift1css-
ness, but at the present day another
cause must exist; for it is an accepted
fact that no people on earth work
harder and economiZc closer than the
American farmer of today.
Years ago he dispensed with every
luxury for himself and family and has
been content all through these long
years with the bare ncccssarics of life.
The harder he has worked and the
closer he has lived the poorer he has
become, and less money he has seen as
the fruits of his toll!
What then is the trouble? Why is
1t he can not prosper?
The answer is found in one word
impossible.
For years and years he has been
struggling at u disadvantage
odds have been heavily against him.
He has uniformly made good crops,
but he has not been able to get back
the money and labor expended in
making the crops. Every year he has
found the balance against him. In
stead of having at the end of each year
q surplus over and above his expenses
to lay up for a rainy day, he has found
that he has become deeper and deeper
involved, which has rendered it i'm
possible for him to thrive and prosper.
The sales of his crops have been less
than the actual cost of production, and
he could see in the future nothing but
ultimate bankruptcy confronting him.
To what must his misfortune be at
tributablc? Why is it that his honest
toll has gone unrcIuited? Why is it
that the squalor of poverty hangs like
d pail over his homestead? Why
should the wolf howl at his door?
There can be but one answer The
direful cause, the malignant agency.
is to be found in the unjust financial
system OF the national government a
system which was made to serve the
interests Of the rich man and work the
destruction of the poor mana system
which has put three-tifths of the en-
tire wealth of this nation into the pOck-
cts of one-twentieth of the population
a system which has created in this
country plntocracy Of thirtv-one
thousand millionaires and an army of
three millions of tramps begging for
bread.
How has this been done?
We point first and foremost to the
iniquitous national banking system, a
| plan 10y which the government loans or
| ISSUES all the currency of the country
| TO few rich men called national banks
at one per cent. per annum, and these
| banks compel the farmer to pay one
| per cent. per month-twelvc per cent.
per annum. BY this maneuvcr the
| government virtually "holds down
| the farmer for Shylock to bleed him
for twelve per cent. per annum-and
| Shylock makes Just eleven per cent.
| clear by the operation. When the
farmer pays twelve Per cent. for money
to make his crops. and the sales of his
crop amount to only three per cent.
profit on the amount he has borrowed
and invested he loses nine per cent. by
the operation on every crop he makes.
This is just how and why the farmer
has come ont of the little end of the
horn" This is why the farmer is so
poor.
But why is it that he can't sell his
crops for more money, for living
price? Fifteen and twenty years ago
he got thirty cents pound for his
cotton, one dollar bushel for corn
| and two dollars bushel for wheat.
| Now he gets only eight cents for cot
ton, forty cents for corn and eightytive
cents for wheat. What's done all this !?
The want of money in the country has
| done it. There has not been enough
money i'll circulation to meet the de-
mands of business in fifteen wears
| The cause of this trouble has been
brought about by the inordinate greed
and tvranical power of the rich class,
those who control the money They
have got possession of all the money
and now want possession of all the
property, even if it should reduce the
plain people to the estate of scrfs. To
make dollar more valuable, to give it
greater purchasing power. it was
| necessary to make money scarcer.
When money is plentiful all prices are
| high; when money is scarce prices
rule low. Twenty years ago when
money was plentiful one bale of cotton
would bring $50; now when money is
scarce it will take three bales of cot
ton to bring $50. Yet it costs just as
much to make a bale of cotton now as
it did twenty years ago.
But how has the government man
aged to work this great hardship upon
t.he farmer?
The~goyernment committed this
cruel act on the eff2th f2t, day of April.
1866, when it enacted what IS known
as the "Contraction act. it was then
that this pernicious system was inaug'
urated. The object and intent of this
act was to reduce the circulating me-
dunn by chilling in and destroying all
the treasury notes called green
backs" which was effected by the sale
of bonds; its effect was to starve out
the toiling millions who depended
upon the "sweat of their brow for
their daily subsistence, that the ''mon-
ev power" might become the sover-
eign of this country instead of the
people. Before the passage of this act
there were only $40 failures that year
in the United States; farm products
brought goou prices anu the farmer
was prosperous and happy: labor was
| we'll paid and fully employed.
The per capita of currency then was
So, and there was not tramp in all
the land. The following year the
work of reducing the currency was
vigorously pushed, which caused ,, ,3st
business failures. In 1868 there was
retired from circulation S463, ,000.0 900
and business failures reached 5000
money was tight and financial spasms
frequent.
In 1869 there was five hundred mil
lion dollars taken out of the circula
| tion and there were nearly 1900
failures.
This system of reducing the curren
cy, taking the money out of the reach
Of the people went steadily on. until