People's party paper. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1891-1898, 1892-07-29

waited, and the number Of tenant farm
ers had risen to 81 per cent. To what
extent similar changes from ownership
to tenantry are going on in other States
we are yet to learn, if the inquiry of
the Census Bureau extends to them
also, as it is to be presumed that it will
We know, from the reports of the Mas
sachusetts and New Hampshire COM
missiOners, that there are in those
States large number of farms not only
untenanted, but classed as abandoned
by their owners, and offered for sale at
incredibly low prices. The drift of the
rural population into large cities
where, besides the attractions they
hold out, enterprising men may hope
to do better than in farming and labor
is better renumerated, has unquestiOn-
ably induced the younger members of
farming families to abandon the old
h0mesteads and seek their fortunes
elsewhere; but underlying the several
causes we have mentioned there seems
to be some force at work that is reduc-
ing the number of farmers of small
means, and is building up, as in Europe,
race of tenant farmers.
ultimately connected with the
changes going on from Independent to
tenant farming is the decrease in the
value of farm property. We have re-
ferred above to the abandoned farms
in Massachusetts and New Hampshire,
and to these may be added those of
Vermont. We now come to the inquiry
just made into the value of farms in
Connecticut by Mr.. T. S. Gold, secre-
tary of the State Board of Agriculture.
His report covers replies from 10Y out
of fOVx init hot tot Il 0I% oh
the responses only come from 300
farms, they afford, in his opinion, a
basis for computing approximately the
value of the remainder. The average
price Of the farms on Mr.. Colds list is
$28 per acre. In the census of 1880 the
average value of the farm lands of the
State was said to be $49.34 per acre.
Here said the Providence Journal,
Sin little more than a decade is an
apparent decrease in value of more
than S21 per acre, and though, of
course, it would not be fair to put the
average value in 1880 in comparison
with the value Of land in 1892, it is diff
ficult to believe that farm census to-
day would show an average value close
to that of 1880, for it is to be remem-
bered that the price asked for the farms
included in the secretary's report is
probably much higher than could be
secured on actual sale.' Moreover, the
report shows that in certain small
towns some 5000 acres are offered at
an average of S. per acre, and farms
with buildings in good repair at one
third the price that was asked for them
twelve years ago. 1t is complained
that one cause Of the decline is the bad
! condition of the roads, and a similar
complaint comes from Maine and Rhode
| Island, where like depression in the
value of farm lands exists"
| Mr.. Stewart. Mr.. President, this
! shrinkageis not confined to farm lands.
In the report just submitted by the
Committee on Finance, who were in
structed to ascertain the market price
commodities and labor, to ascertain
whether that price was advancing or
declining since the passage Of the Nc
Kinley act, am informed that there
has been an average shrinkage in the
price of commodities and of labor OF
about per cent. That was up to the
time the committee closed it's labors
which was last December, was it not
Mr.. Carlisle. If the Senator will al
low me, | will state that the subcom-
mittee undertook to ascertain the re-
tail prices of two hundred and fifteen
articles at seventy different places in
the United States during the period OF
two years, beginning in June, 1889, and
ending in September, 1891. The result
of it's labors shows that while prices oil
some articles rose more than three pei
cent. during part of the time after the
passage of the Mckinley act, yet at the
end of the period the prices of the two
hundred and fifteen articles taken al.
together were forty-four one-hun.
dreths of one per cent. lower than they
were at the beginning.
Mr.. Stewart. Notwithstanding the
Mckinley act
Mr., Carlisle. Yes; the prices first
went up for several months after the
act was passed, and then the tendency
to reduction began to show itself.
Mr.. Stewart. That was up to Sep.
TENDER, 1891
I Mr.. Carlisle. Yes.
Mr.. Stewart. There have been abou
ten months of fall since then.
Mr.. Carlisle. 1t has been about elev.
en- months.
Mr.. Pasco. 1 wish to ask question
of the Senator from Kentucky. Does
that include protected and unprotected
articles
Mr.. Carlisle. The committee selected
2l5 representative articles, which were
supposed to enter into the common con
sumption of the country, without refer
ence to the question whether the dutie:
were increased or diminished upor
those articles by the Mckinley act.
Mr.. Stewart. Did the committee ex.
tend its investigation as to prices o.
commodities in Europe during the same
period?
Mr.. Carlisle. Part of the time the
committee succeeded in getting the re.
tail prices in England, bat not to suct
an extent as to Justify anything like ar
accurate comparison of prices.
! Mr.. Stewart. The fall in prices there
would be greater than here.
Mr.. Carlisle. [ am not able at this
moment to state what it was.
Mr.. Stewart. The fall in price;
would be much greater in England. II
my observation, from what little inves.
cation | have been able to make, anC
from the statements of English papers
there has been in the last two years q
fall of over ten per cent-some put it as
high as fifteen per cent-in the genera
{ range of commodities in Europe since