Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-07-19

and humanlze them. The temperance issue
has lost its conjuring power, besides many
temperance farmers do not want prohloi.
tlon II 1t is likely to hurt the sale OF cider.
Sharp Practice Not Ever Profitable.
Anyone familiar with the subject will in
dorse the major part of what this man says,
and yet the average nearby farmer can
scarce, with all his sharp practice, make
living, and the elucidation of the problem
is one worth the careful study of economists.
Ihat 1t arises from mismanagement, 1gnor-
ance, narrow minded hoggery or a dlsln-
clnatlon to work is evident There Is
merit in the complaint Of the farmer OF to-
day that he pays relatively high prices for
what he buys and gets low prices for what
he sells, but the farmers at the begin
ming OF this century, with very few labor
saving appliances, were happy and pros
porous, yet they paid 80 cents yard Tor
calico which to-day can be bought for
to-day granulated can be bought for cents,
AZ cents by the barrel they paid 30 cents
yard for cotton jeans and shirtings, 70 cents
for handkerchief, rs cents yard tor
muslin, 65 cents yard for gingham, 81
yard for cambric, and Is cents a paper for
pins. Work was'done by hand and farming
implements were very dear. Matches were
unknown, and the people guarded their fire
as carefully as did the sacred vestals,
1000 years ago, or borrowed from their
neighbors, or used flint and tinder. On
the other hand most of what the
farmer sold rarely brought as much as it
does now, and aside from cereals less than
one-halt, and frequently not more than one
third; butter seldom sold for more than IL
cents pound, or eggs than cents dozen.
The farmer got 81 and cents for dressed
beef. 1t brings more than twice that much
to-day. Mortgages and machinery were al
most unknown.
A Remedy for the Matter.
There is remedy for all this, and if peo-
pie teach politicians that they have graver
duty to perform than the maintenance of
party supremacy it will be found. But a
condition precedent is that farmers and all
laborers must make up their minds, first, to
be honest themselves, make their political
servants follow suit and the privates in the
ranks must inform themselves, as servants
are not apt to be more honest than their
masters nor to study the interests Of those
who do not themselves know them.
We are often told that commerce is the
gests that facility of communication has dis
tinctly lessened the responsibility of man.
ufacturers and tradesmen Che might
have added farmers) 'and our poor human
nature is such that when the bond of respon-
sibility is loosened there is tendency
to dishonest gains" Markets are greater
and more numerous and competition in
them tends toward cheapness rather than
toward excellence. Edward Atkinson says
that the difference of one-eighth of cent
yard in the cost OF cotton goods is some
times enough to decide whether an extern
sive market should be controlled by one or
by another nation. In consequence the
fabric is made cheap at the expense of quail
ity; the best berries, apples and potatoes
are found at the top of the box or barrel
butter is adulterated and there is seemingly
no end to the rascalities practiced to the
injury of both health and pocket.
1t is suggested as remedy that middle
men be abolished, and the old relation of
producer and customer be restored, so that
dishonest makers will be unable to change
from market to market as fast as found out.
But the complexity of modern trade is such
that relief is not likely to be found in this
and the writer, in despair, con-
cludes: eff commerce were ever the hand
maid of religion, SO far as religion still con-
Germs itself with morals, she has become al
most suspicious character, whose service
is of doubtful value and her behavior the
source of infinite vexation, if not of scan-
daL"