The Black Hills union. [volume] (Rapid City, Pennington County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1889-1904, 1891-02-05
EMBATTLED FARMERS.
FOR HOME AND COUNTRY
THEY'RE RALLYING.

h filters and Toilcrs Are the Bono and
sinew of tho Nation-The Great Wealth
Producers, But the Smallest Con-
sun ers.
The farmers of the United States are
up in arms. They are the bone and
sinew Of the nation; they produce the
largest share of its wealth, but they are
getting, they say, the smallest share for
themselves. The American farmer is
steadily losing ground. His burdens are
heavier every year and his gains are
more meagrc; he is beginning to fear
that he may be sinking into a servile
condition. He has waited and longed
for the redress of his grievances; he pur-
poses to wait no longer. Whatever he
can do by social combinations, or by
united political action, to remove tho
disabilities under which he is suffering,
he intends to do at once and with all his
mig1t. There is no doubt at all that
t,> farmers of this country are tremend-
tusly in earnest just now, and they haye
reason to be. Beyond question they are
suffering sorely. The business of farm
ing has become, for some reasons, ex-
tremely Improbable. With the hard
est work and with the sharpest
economy. the average farmer is unable
to make both ends meet; every year
closes with debt, and the mortgage
grows till it devours the land. The la
Dor bureau, of Connecticut, has shown,
by an investigation of. 500 representa-
tive farms, that the average annual re-
ward of the farm proprietor of that
state, for his expenditure Of muscle and
brain, $1s1. 81, while the average annual
wages of the ordinary hired man is
1886. SO. Even if the price of board
must come out of the hired mans sti-
pend, it still leaves him a long way
ahead Of his employer. In Massachu-
sets the case is a little better; the aver
age farmer makes $326.49, while his
hired mar gets $345.
In a fertile district in the state Of New
York, u few weeks ago, an absentee
landlord advertised for a man to man
age his farm. The farm manager was
to have his rent, his garden, pasturage
for one COW and a salary of $3.50 a year
for his services and those of his wife.
There was a rush of applicants for the
place. Who were they? Many of them
were capable and intelligent farmers
who had lost their own farms in the
hopeless struggle with adverse condi-
tions, and who were now we'll content to
exchange their labor and their expert
cnce against a yearly reward of $3.50.
The instance is typical. Throughout
the eastern states, with the home mar
ket which protection is supposed to have
built up at their very doors, the farmers
are falling behind.
Says Prof. C. s. Walker:
A careful study OF New England farming
in the light of all points of view, carried on
for the past ten years by means OF ~statisti-
cal investigation, personal observation dur
ing carriage drives from Canada to Long
Island sound, and Intimate association with
all classes of farmers, assures one that the
man who cultivates an average farm anC
depends upon its profits alone for the sup.
port of himself and family, if he pay hi!
taxes and debts, cannot compete with hi!
brothers, or attain to their standard OF liv'
ing, who, with equal powers, employ then
in other walks Of life.
The same story is heard in the centra
states. In Ohio farms are offered foI
beggarlY rents, and even on these favor
able terms farming does not pay. Tenan
farmers are throwing up their leases ant
moving into the cities, well content tt
receive as common laborers S1.2'
a day, and to pay such rents and to rul
such risks of enforced idleness as tn,
change involves. At the south the cas-,
is even worse. Under a heavy burden
of debt the farmers struggle on from
year to year, the phenomenal growth o
the manufacturing interests in this sec
ton seeming to bring him but slight re
lief. And ever in the west we find TIN
recent corn crops mas been consumed TO,
fuel; and over vast areas, Mr.. G. Woo
Davis tells us, wheat sells at from 40 tt
so cents, oats from 9 to IL cents, ant
corn from 10 to 10 cents a bushel, an,
fat cattle from IL to 8 cents a pound
Under such conditions the life of a west
ern farmer cannot be prosperous. From
Kansas and Nebraska and Dakota tn
cry is no less loud and bitter than from
Connecticut and New York and Nortl
Carolina.
The causes of this lamentablo state O
things are many. Who shall estimat
them? Mr.. Davis gives this list: Mono
metallism, deficient or defective circu
lating medium, protective tariffs, trusts
dressed beef combinations. speculation
in farm products, o%ver-greedy middle
men, and exorbitant transportation
rates.
These are a few of the disadvantage
of which farmers o complain. Doubt
less several of these causes are workin,
against them. Whether, in their dag
nosis of the disease, they always pu
their finger on the right spot, may b
doubted. People cannot always b.
trusted to tell what alls them. The pa
tient knows that he Is suffering, but h,
does not always discover the nature O
his malady. Mr.. Davis gives strong rea
sons for the belief that the root of tn
difficulty is Overproduction; that Their
are too many farms: and tina
more corn, wheat, oats, beef an,
pork have been raised than the coun
try can use. There is the foreign maj
ket, to be sure; but in that the farme
of the west must compete with the Low
priced labor of India and of Russia.
his product is very greatly in excess O
the wants of his own country, he will b
forced to sell at very low prices. TIL
fact seems to be that the less Of thes
staples the farmers raise the more the
get for them. The short crops OF thi
year may, very likely, bring them NOR
money than the enormous crops of 1889
The comforting assurance OF Mr.. Davi
that the acreage Of farms cannot in
crease so rapidly in the future, ana lii
population will soon grow up to the foo,
supply and will redress the balance II
the farmers favor, is one that may vel
be cherished.
But granting that this is the chile
cause Of the depression OF agriculture
other cause of considerable importanc,
should not be overlooked. The enor
nous tribute which the farmers of til,
west arc paying to the money-lenders O
the east is II source of their poverty
Scarcely a week passes that does no
bring to me circulars Of banking firm!
and Investment agencies ali over tn,
west begging for money to be loaned OF
farms at 8 or 8 per cent. net. The COS
of negotiation and collection, which tn,
farmer must pay, considerably increase
these rates. The descriptive lists O
farms which accompany these circu
lars show that these mortgage
are not all givonIzalfor purchas
money. l find In one Of the agriculture
papers the following figures, indicatin,
tie increase in farm mortgages in Dan,
COUNTY, Wisconsin, during the year1889