The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1891-07-22
Pen Picture Of the Republican Can
didate for Governor of
Iowa.
He Owns Farm Costing $21,6l7.
Which Is Mortgaged
for 10000.
Neither PatrOnizes Home Merchants Nor
Soils In tho Home Market
His 5000 sparkler.

bpouoeh6 OF tno ot. Louis Republio sends
that paper the following: This ia the home
OF Hiram q. Wheeler, the republican can-
didate for governor of Iowa. Itis a prospei-
ous country town of about 1000 population,
located in one of the finest Agricultural re-
gions of the state. The business men and
merchants seem to be doing a fairly thliv-
ing business and within its unpretentious
confines are many pleasantly located homes,
with neatly kept lawns and handsome
shade trees, whose spreading branches af-
ford welcome retreat from the scorchinp
rays OF the fierce July sun that beats down
upon this broad expanse of prairie.
Tho Mapleton branch of the Chicago d
Northwestern railway pieroes the town plat
and affords ample means of communion
tion with the outside world,
Tho passenger traffic OF this
line has considerably increased
since the Cedar Rapids convention, and this
is the stopping point of nearly all the pill
grims; for Farmer" Wheeler, as the poll
ticians of the republican faith are pleased
to call him. lives hard by the little town
in fact the 100 acres which comprise the
territory of its Incorporated limits was
originally part of the Wheeler farm,
just west of the town plat and within
plain view is the home of Mr.. Wheeler, a
pretentious mansion of the Queen Anne
style of architecture. 1t is an elegant home
and no mistake. Its exterior, handsome
and commanding as it is, furnishes but
faint idea of the elegance of it's interior.
1t has all the conveniences Of the mansions
of the wealthy dwellers in the cities. The
woodwork is veneered with foreign woods
of an expensive kind, and the furnishings
are of the sumptuous order.
bric-a-brao gathered in foreign travel and
pictures possessing n moderate degree of
artistic mort are strewn about in amp 10
profusion. Luxury and ease pervade the
entire premises, not sign of the toll and
prlvations which are supposed to be the
lot OF the western farmer being anywhere
visible.
Mr.. Weeler's office building, located near
the great barn where he keeps his impo ted
Percheron horses. has an air of luxury
about it also. In the room which is devoted
TO his private use its occupants desire for
the enjoyment of ease and comfort is every
where seen to be gratiied. large Turkish
rug hides most of the pine floor brio. a
brac encumbers the mantle, pictures hang
upon the walls, and books, apparently more
for appearance than for use, rest generally
undlsturbed in their appropriate case.
From the general managers room, adjoln-
ing that of the proprieto", telephone con-
neotion is had with the offices of the three
division superintendents upon different
parts Of the great farm.
Il is this arrangement that caused Mr..
Wheeler to be known as "the Farmer by
Telephone" and made him the subject of
cartoon i'll Puck. He has a fine body of
land. In compact form lie the ten sections
originally purchased by him, and all of
which he owns now except the quarter SEQ
tien given to the railroad for the town plat
nl JttIln To &b,
company to locate station there.
But Mr.. Wheeer's career as farmer
does not furnish a conspicuous illustration
of the truth of the republican claim that
farming pays in Iowa. 1t is true that his
land has increased in value five or six fold,
but that is owing to what Henry George
would denominate the "unearned incre-
msnt." This enhanced value has been ere
ated by the settlement of the country and
the improvement made upon surrounding
sections, and not by labor expended by Mr..
Wheeler or under his direction, upon his
own land. Asi4e from the house and the
pretentious barn located near it and the
office in which he does his work, there is
nothing on the Wheeler farm of an expen-
slve character-except the mortgage.
1t is divided into large fields by barb wire
fences-an article cheaply constructed-and
few superintendents houses and unpre-
tentlous nbodes of the hired help. But the
mortgage is a luxury of more magnificent
proportions, and it reaches from line to
line and corner to corner, enveloping not
only the entire ten sections and 1.-The ap-
purtenances thereunto belonging" but the
goods and chatteis such as the growing
crops thereon contained.
In this respect few farmers in Iowa can
compete with Candidate Wheeler. The
records of the county tell the story. They
show CONVEYANCE to MIR. Wheeler on Oct. |
=, 1873, of 1865 acres Of his present farm
for the sum of $ll,7S0.33. On Sept. 10 of
the same year he purchased 2,Sl0 acres for |
the sum of S9,S3G.75 making the present
farm OF 6,l75 acres cost him $2l ,617, or
trit1e less than $3.50 per acre. The records
further show that upon Oct 6. 1873, he
mortgaged his entire property for $1S.OOO
On Aug. 81, 1877 this mortgage was paid off !
and new one for $4,000 entered of req
ora. On Nov. /, 1881, this mortgage was
Cancelled and one for $4,000 was recorded,
covering the same property. Nov. 2, 1886, a
second mortgage for $4,000 was put on
top OF the other, making n mortgaged in
debtedness of $4,000 unsatisfed -day.
This Is sos, 5S3 more than the land origin
ally cost him. 1t is $1l.50 per acre, or over
transferred to him. This is record few
Iowa farmers can show. and none would
care to show. The census of 1890 gives the
nortgaged indebtedness of all the land in
Iowa at S2OO0O0,O00 in round numberp.
This falls far short of the Wheeler stand
- tA "iNSh w Soino up W Lue example
aet by the Sac county farmer, the 36, ,O0O, 600
acres of land in Iowa should be plastered
over with S4l4, 900 in mortgages. Ii Mr..
Whsoler hns been eminenty successful in
his pastoral pursuits. the balance of the
Iowa farmers have been conspicuous fail
ures.
Farmer Wheeler belongs to a party that
prates a good deal about the ''home mar
ket' He doesn't practice his partv's pre-
cepts., Although n large consumer, he sell
dom buys anything in Odebolt. His sup
plies come direct from Chicago Wholesale
dealers, and are shipped in at advantageous
freight rates. His farm machinery, his
grocery, clothing and general household
supplies all come the same way. This way
OF doing irritates our homo merchants, and
not few OF them of republican politics
Will vote against him in November. None
OF our middlemen ever get dollar out Of
Farmer" Wheeler. He markets. hls pro-
dnce just as he buys supplies in Chicago.
HIS corn and oats and wheat and live stock
90 by the car-load to the Chicago markets,
subject only to the tax OF tho commission
man and the railway freight tolls Proba-
ply the latter are not very heavy, for II ia
known that ho hns a stand in,'t particr-
larry with the Chicago a. Northwestern,
In 1889, when II candidate for governor
aSs first time, he did his preliminary work,