Dodge City times., 1891-07-17
UNDER A CROss-FIRE.

UNDER A CROSS-FIRE.
From the Salina Herald
Here is nut for the farmers to
crack at their leisure. There is meat
in it and and they would best lose no
tine in getting at the kernal of it.
We are living under two institutions
of law, the influence and power of
which are felt by every class of men in
the country.
1t is the purpose of one law to pro-
duce universal depression in prices;
and it is the purpose of the other to
take certain selected classes of the
people, small minority at that, out
of the sway of the common conditions
generated by the other law, and even
so load them with with artifcially high
profits.
A law passed in 1873 which, in its
main essence, is still in force, has had
the effect Of putting all forms Of farm
produce 35 to 10 per cent cheaper and
the second law heavily taxes this pro-
duce thus cheapeDed, to raise the tri-
butte which is added to the profits of
certain selected industries.
The first law which demonetiZed sill
yer, cheapens everything but gold, yet
the second law establishes a tariff to
protect certain industries from the
general depreciation thus wrought out,
at the expense of the mass of unrro-
tected taxpayers.
All farmers are victims of both laws.
Many feel the full effect of the price
depression for which they get no rec
ompense in any form, and they are
then compelled to submit to ruinous
levies on the residue left them to pro-
tcct certain selected Industries from
sharing the same common misfortune.
There has never been class of men
Of any such pretcntions to political
power in any nation in the world in
any age Of history, SO cursed by the
work of any other law. 1t is the work
of these two laws in these two branch
es, commerce and finance respectively,
which SO far as the American producer
is concerned, is cancelling TO the pro-
ducer nearly one-half of the immense
natural advantage with which nature
has surrounded him when in her most
generous moods above all other agri-
culturalists of the world. 1t is these
laws which are his curse, and the curse
is powerful and malignant enough to
rob him and his family of nearly half
the blessings which nature has shower
ed on him and to lower him beneath
the level of his class in other nations
when they possess not half his natural
advantages.
We say these curses Of law lover
his condition from the unequaled emf
nence of natural advantages to a condi-
tion beneath his class in other nations,
advlsedly. The reasons are these:
First that class in no other nation los
es half the money on its surplus pro-
ducts through the gold standard con-
spiracy; and second, that class in no
other nation is required to pay approx
imately SO heavy toll on its product
ions In the form of indirect taxes. De-
tailed compilations show that little
England, whose landed interests have
not been yielding third of the pro-
duce of American farms, has had the
value Of its produce reduced to $500,
OOO, 600 year by the destructive op-
Grafton of the gold standard system.
What then must be the loss of Ameri-
can farmers.
1t is conceded thot wheat and cotton
to say nothing Of other produce, would
have tended to advance instead OF de-
cline in late years, as it is a demonstrat-
ed fact that consumption has been
steadily pressing upon production, and
yet these two crops, at the yield of
of 1887 and at the prices of 1873, be-
fore the gold conspiracy had got in its
work, would have been worth S235,
100000 more than at the prices of 1887.
This immense difference, which is near
ly equal to the total amount received
for the surplus of those crops export
ed, is therefore the tribute levied on
only those two crops to enrich favor
ed class with other peoples money an d
labor.