The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1893-11-16

production, then it is readily seen thai
the workers among the $4,000, 900 who
inhabit the farms Of the United States
have for eight years received no more,
than laborers' wages and could pur-,
chase but the barest necessaries. AS
prices now current are 81 per cent below
the average of 1886 to 1890, it follows
that the products of the farm are now
sold below the cost of production, and
that the farmer is wholly without pur-
chasing power other than such as results
from his wages as q common laborer.
Granting that present prices even
cover the cost of production, or say 49, Is
an acre, it is evident that every cent that
can be added thereto will be in the ma
ture Of profits or rent and will add that
much to the purchasing or debt paying
power of the cultivator, but there is
abundant evidence that $8.15 does not
represent tho actual average cost Of pro-
ducing the staple products, and that the
farmers debt paying and purchasing
power has been reduced to that of the
lower class of labor and will afford him
while present prices obtain but the
means of the most meager subsistence.
That present prices are below the cost Of
production appears probable from the
fact that outside a few favorably stu
ated communities there has been no re-
duction of farm indebtedness iMrecent
years, while the farmer has over wide
areas from year to year been reducing
his purchases Of the products of manu-
facture, although his revenues have been
81 per cent above the present level.
AS 206, 900, 900 acres aren now employed
in growing staple crops, it follows that
the power Of the farmer to purchase
is this year $1,56S, 900, 600 less than it
would be If he was receiving the price
Of 1S66-70 for his great staples. If the
prices now realized in the farm markets
equaled those received from 1885, to 1875,
the farmer would this year be able to
spend 81 ,450, 900, 900 more for manufac-
lures and other commodities than he will
be able to spend with prices at the pres
emit level. Were prices now equal to
the average Of those obtained from 1879
to 1880, the purchasing power of the
farmers would this year be augmented
by $76s, 100000. s
Should the crops of 1898 give average
yields and the prices equal those current
from 1851 to 1886, tho farmers spending
power would be 1886, 600, 900 greater than
with present prices. Even with prices
as low as those prevailing from 1885 to
1890, the farmers of the United States
would have $685., 200, 900 added to their
debt paying and purchasing power in
1898, and like advances on the other
products Of the farm would create an
ample fund for building and general inn
provement, thus employing more labor.
Much stress is laid upon the necessity
of cheap food for the wageworler, li-f
what possible benefit can be deri,
from a cheapness that deprives the So
600, 1000 who produce food and fiber OF
the ability to keep the wageworker EN-.
ployed by buying the products of artisan
and operative?
Doubling the present price Of wheat
would probably add the price of six or
eight days labor to the cost of the years
supply of bread for the average family,
but with wheat at an average of 81 per
bushel at the farm markets and other
farm products at proportionate prices
there would be no idle mills, and the
Garner of wages would have that easily
procured and constant work which
would assure him the continuous ability
to buy bread. Would not that be far
better than existing conditions and
bread unattainable, though low in price?
We recently published statement to
the effect that the 1000 young women
employed in the Warner corset factory
at Bridgeport, Conn.,, had been reduced
to half time; that 800 Of them were un-
able to buy food and were fed by the
charity Of their employer. Such condi-
tons exist because the women upon the
farms are unable to renew their corsets
with wheat selling west of the Missiy-
sippi at from 80 to 40 cents bushel.
The relation between the price of
wheat, the lack Of power to buy corsets
and the idleness and Inability of the
women of Bridgeport to buy bread is as
obvious as that between the earth's
movements and day and night.
However people may have disagreed
about the late Zach Chandeliers states
manship, no one questioned his success
as merchant, and this was due as much
to his power of Discerning economic cen
ditions affecting his CUSTOMERS as to the
unerriug judgment with which he FRO
vided salable goods. Soon after the close
Of the civil war, being asked if he could
find sale in the farming districts for a
lot of rich dress goods which he was
shipping to small inland towns, his reply
was characteristic:
''Sell thenl Sell them! Why the
women on the farms of Michigan have
discarded homespun and caiicoes for silk
and merino, and no farmers son now
thinks of going out to rlow unless
dressed in doeskin trousers and calfskin
boots. DON'T you know that wheat is
selling for So a bushel?"
Such was the late Mr.. Chambers way
Of stating the operation Of that economic
law which enables people to buy liberal
ly of the products Of others.
Mills and furnaces ara idle and opar-