Kansas agitator. [volume] (Garnett, Kan.) 1890-1905, 1891-07-21

is doing it from sinister motives, and that
he is purposely slandering his own State
in order that he may gain some personal
or political advantage.
the Senator was then and is now editor,
and files of the Capital, OF which he at
that time was associate editor, are repro
duced to show what were his opinions
then concerning the Indebtedness OF the
people. That is all very well, and we are
pleased to know that in that respect at
least the Capital is disposed to be truth
full. Now, II the Capital will do as the
KANSAS FARMER has done, manfully
acknowledge that at that timewe were all
ignorantly in error, and that while we all
believed the mortgage Indebtedness OF our
people was not burdensome, more recent
Investigations have shown we were wrong
and that official investigation by the
Census Bureau gives US the exact truth.
We were not only in error, but our error
was very great indeed. For example, II
the reader will refer to the KANSAS
FARMER for 1888, he will find in our issue
Of August 16, toward the close OF an
article under the head kansas Farm
Mortgages, after referring to the munich
pal Indebtedness of the State and esti-
mating it to be about SIC, OO0, 900, we placed
the aggregate Indebtedness upon farms at
about $3O,OOO,OOO. The same statement
was made afterwards in the Capital, the
same person having written both. That
was in August, 1888, and the matter was
written the first time that our attention
had been called to this subject. So
startling were the figures presented by
the st. Louis Republican, whose state
ments we were combating, that an esti-
mate was made, based upon what we at
the time presumed to be reasonable, with
out pretending to know anything about
the subject in exactness, we gave our
reasoning at the time. Those articles in
the FARMER and in the Capital called
down upon us innumerable criticisms.
Responsible men in different parts of the
State gave us what they said they knew
to be facts concerning the actual indebted
ness of the people in their particular
localities. So many and so earnest were
these criticisms that we extended our in
vestigations, revising our estimate as a
result, and in "The Way Out" which was
prepared in the latter part of 1889, we had
come to the conclusion that our figures
were too low by about so per cent; that In
fact the farm mortgage indebtedness OF
the people of Kansas amounted to but
little, il any, less than $6O,000,00O. The
criticisms upon that statement satisfied us
that we were probably still too low, but
we were not willing to revise the estimate
until we had official information concern
ing the fact; and in all of our political
writings during the year 1890, and in all OF
the public addresses made by the editor OF
the KANSAS FARMER during that year,
$50, OOO, 900 was taken as being about the
correct figures. With others we united in
what came to be very general demand
upon the authorities to have this mortgage
question thoroughly investigated by the
Census Bureau, and after long and
earnest siege, Congress appropriated q
million dollars for that purpose in sup
Elementary act. Early in April of this
year, Mr.. Porter gave us the first figures,
and in a preliminary review OF the
situation, he showed us that there
we're at that time in his possession at
Washington, abstracts Of about 100000
mortgages upon the farms and homes OF
the people in this country, and under date
of April %, he gave US Census Bulletin
No. 3, containing the official figures for
Ama Stntas Iowa and Alabama Tha