The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1893-10-12
THE DECLINE OF LAND AND WHEAT.


1t was about eight years ago that we
heard Frank Hurd Of Toledo ADDRESS
an audience of farmers in Clyde, Ohio,
on the robbery of the war tariff. Since
then we have had a still bigger dose, in
the Mckinley bill.
Frand Hurd, in that address, predict
ed that unless these onerous tariff taxes
were reduced, that "some farmersin this
audience will see the day when wheat
will be worth only 60 cents a bushel,"
In that audience was Mr.. Lyman,
a bright newspaper man, (now Demo-
cratic editor in Helena, Montana,) who
was representing the New York Sun.
Mr.. Lyman was astonished at this
sensational prediction, and many of the
Republican farmers, who were present,
sneered at Hurd, and many pronounced
him fool, with vulgar prefix.
Well, some of these farmers have
lived to see Frank Hurd's prophecy
verified, and no doubt some of the same
men, who sneered at Frank Hurd eight
years ago, are now realizing dolefully
on his prediction of GO cent wheat.
According to the Philadelphia Manu-
facturer the enormous decline of the
agricultural products of the country
has so impoverished the farmer, partic.
ularly in the South and West, that they
cannot purchase what they actually
need, and this poverty increases day by
day.
The farmers and planters number
about 100000, and as their purchas-
ing power decreases the merchants and
m anutacturers must inevitably suffer
with them.
Current prices are 81 per cent below
those of 1SS9-90, forcing the products
of the farm to sell, as rule, below the
cost of production.
Right here in Stark county, right
along the track of great trunk line
of railroads, in the garden lands of the
world, and amid the shadows of manu-
featuring cities, our farm lands have
declined in value, year after year, and
the record of mortgaged farms is ap-
palling
And yet these same farmers, many
of them Republicans, hide bound to
party fealty, are willing to accept any
excuse for their condition that any
plausible demagogne has been able to
offer, and they continued, year after
year to vote for the men who have de.
ceived them and for the policy that
has robbed them of their substance.
While lands and land products have
been cheapened every year, millionaires
have multiplied and money has become
scarcer and harder to get, and taxes
have enormously increased.
One of the members of the House of
Representatives the other day pre-
sented the following figures, in an effort
to prove that the decline of prices has
actually made our national debt, at the
present moment, larger than it was at
the close of the war:
The national debt, as given by the
Secretary Of the Treasury In 1866
7S,OOOO 600
Paid on principal 766 900 900
rad In interest. st..".................2 253S 0DO
Paid as premium. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS. 5S,OOO,OO0
Total paid. ,S52, 900 900
Amount due in 1888 027 $50 900
Had this debt been contracted paya-
bic in wheat 1t would stand as follows:
In 1865 the entire debt could have
been paid with BUSH OF wheat..,... lOO7, ,0OO, 900
Paid pri inclpa bush, of wheat...... 1essOOO 600
Paid as interest, 297i,OOO0lO
Paid as premium " 62OOO,OOO
Total bushels Of wheat............. 5O92, ,O0O 600
Amount due in 1893, bush. OF wheat. 2O5I 800 600
This statement is true; and it is ap-
palling. Think of over a quarter of a
century of onerous taxes, with war
tariff in operation every day in the
year, and still the enormous war debt
not reduced, counting the value of our
greatest staple now, and comparing
the market value of this same staple |
at the close of the war.
, Speaking of this deplorable situation,
the result of quarter of century of |
rule, with every law, hnan-
cial and economic, the sole product of |
control, the Atlanta Con-
stitution says:
After paying more than balf of our
debt, we now find that the
appreciation of the gold dollar'causes
us to owe in the shape of staples many
times more than the original obliga-
tion."
The trouble with the Republican
farmers appears to be that they
only read one side. They do not
read Democratic literature,
Our Democratic farmers should take
especial pleasure in calling the attention
Of their Republican neighbors to the
rapid downward tendency of land and
,he products of the soil, under the Nc
Nnley policy. Call their attention to
heir own farms; and then show them
lhe opinion of the greatest Republican
Of his day and generation-James G.
Blaine-on the Mckinley bill.
"There is not section or a line of the
sntire bill that will make market for
Tor another bushel of wheat or another
1arrel of pork"
Farmers, have you not had enough
If McKinleyismp
Have you not had enough of the
home market?"
Have you not had enough of the