The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1893-05-25
RELATED TRUTH-THLLINe.

Secretary Morton, who succeeded Gov.
Rusk in the Department of Agriculture,
finding evidently that the public was
likely to forget him. has written out his
views of the outlook and induced re-
porter to take them as an interview.
There are two or more columns of it in
Eastern papers which are kindly dis
posed toward the Secretary, but the
Western Democratic papers have no
room for such opinions as the following:
Because of the enhancement by virtue Of
tillage and building improvements the
same number OF acres OF lana In gwen
county of Iowa or Nebraska may. in 1889.
Garry mortgage five times as great as
they could carry in 1879, and yet be In debt
O less per cent of their value than they
were IN the latter-Dsmed year
If Secretary MOrton's party leaders
and organs had stated such truths as the
above in 1889, 1890 and 1891, and had not
put forth statements of farm mortgages
in the several agricultural States show
ing an Indebtedness from FIVE to ten
times as much as they were in fact, the
Populist uprising which Mr.. Morton de-
plores would not have taken place in
Kansas, Nebraska and other new States
That was the time when the present ut
terance of the Secretary of Agriculture
would have been useful, but at that
time he preferred silence. Another
fact which the Secretary states is
worthy of consideration. 1t is:
Statistics show. 1 believe. that in the
dry goods bueiness only about 3 per cent.
of oil the merchants W h0 have entered the
trade have been successful. leaving "a per
leaders show as bsd state Of affairs among
the farmersf
While the failures and assignments in
other branches of business are frequent
ly announced, Mr.. Morton calls atten-
ton to the fact that embarrassments of
this nature are of rare occurrence among
farmers. Returning to the subject of
mortgages, the Secretary says:
Every one acquainted with the West
understands that many of the mortgages
upon farms represent the very money
which constructed the house In which the
farmer lives. the barns that house his cat
tie aud the fences that surround his land.
But three years ago Secretary Nor
tou's party leaders throughout the West
would not permit anyone to understand
that farm mortgages represented i'm
provements, but insisted that such bur-
dens represented debts incurred to OBJ
tain the necessaries of life, and that
they measured the increasing poverty
and indicated the hopeless bankruptcy
of people engaged in agriculture. Upon
the subject of transportation and the
railroads, against which the demagogues
of Secretary Morton's party have
launched their anathemas. the Secretary
SAYS:
OF course. the conditions have changed
very much. The railroads have brought
the markets for the great popul0us centers
TO the doors of the farmers of the North
west less the cost of TRANSPORTATION, and
that cost is not so ext0rtonste as would
seem. when you may ouy barrel or Hour
at retail. delivered at your house In New
York, for 81 more than you pav for the
same quality in Minneapolis. and that IS
cents out of the dollar goes to the drsy
man who hauls it from the groceTs. The
profits in railroad transportation have de-
clined with rhe snme ami. possibly. with
greater rapidity than the profits in farming
during the last decade.
wv hiio there Is nothing new N the
foregoing statemciis. if the Democratic
leaders of the West had been as candid