Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1893-10-04
Alarming Conditions.

ulb Is SlRHlucdnL TACT ana IS START
ling in its nature. Under a system of
much Wanted protection and a gold
basis as a foundation for our money
system these things have come to pass.
At the same time there are bond hold
ers in the east who are worth their
millions in gold bearing bonds, who pay
no taxes at all, protected by class legis-
lation from contributing to the support
OF the government, while here farmer
who has been trying to make living
out of a small patch of ground is COM
PEELED to either borrow little sum to
pay his taxes or have his only substance
taken from him. And yet the farmer
Is told by republican politicians to work
harder and talk less. With these con-
dltions in our very midst it is impos-
sIble not to understand that there is
something wrong. 1t is not because the
farmer does not work hard that he fails
to get anything for his labor; it is be-
cause OF laws made for eastern shy
locks, who want to do all of the talking
and none of the work.
The money system that has been and
is now being forced upon this country
is what is grinding the laboring and
producing classes into these conditions.
The tact that the circulating medium
has been contracted by class laws and
boarded by legalized robbers constitutes
the chief reason, and now, with braZen
lmpudence, it is proposed to reduce US
to a single gold standard. To do so
with the laboring and producing classes
of this country already suffering priya-
tons of poverty from laws of contrac-
| ton is crime unparalleled in It's
righteousness. At the time silver was
demonetized in 1878 wheat was selling
on the home market for $1.3I. Since
that time the prices of all products have
| gradually declined with silver until the
present, when farmers have to borrow
money to support the government that
has through its political heads pro-
duced these conditions. Any assertion
that there has been oyerproduction is
| false. Production is less now in pro-
portion to human consumption than it
was in 1873, yet prices have kept on
falling, and when the people ask for
bread they are given a stone. Instead
of giving three-fourths of bushel of
wheat for dollar they now are expect
ed to give nearly three bushels, and sup
port policy that is intended to perpet
uate the robbery; whooplng it up all
| this time for system by which they are
compelled to pay from AZ to 81 per cent.
premium on everything they buy, for
the purpose of protecting the manufac-
turing class. The value of farm pro-
ducts have decreased while their taxes
have increased in proportion.
Ever since 1878, when silver received
It's fatal blow, the producing classes
have suffered from continual cOntrac-
ton of the prices of their produce,
result of diminishing the money supply
of the country. The reason is very
simple, make dollars scarce and it takes
more to purchase them. In 1873 wheat
sold on change for S1.47 and silver was
$1.32 per ounce. In 1898, after twenty
years Of gold legislation and demoneti-
zation of silver the prices stand, wheat
40 cents, silver 65. And all along the
line the fall of the two articles has been
in the same steady proportion on gener-
al trend. Authorities show that from
1919 to 1878 prices rose 80 per cent. ard
from 1873 to 1885 they declined 80 per
cent. These hgureS are taken from
Soetbeer's tables, recognized as author
ity. Statiscian Sauberback says the
decline since 1873 on general range of
prices has been 6S per cent. In re.
cent article the London Economist
shows the decline during 1890 and 1891
to have been per cent. and since that
time it has been considerably more. If
demonstration of silver did not work
the decline does it not appear strange
that up to 1873 prices were on general
rise and since that time they have been
on a general decline? But we need no
figures to show that values of agTicul-
tural products have fallen, and that this
fall in the two staple products for COM
merce, wheat and cotton, has sent them
below the cost of production. And for
| provides brown stone mansions for its
| pets the farmer now borrows money at
per cent. month to pay his taxes.
Can there be farming or laboring man
In this country who is not free silver
| advocate? Year after year, with de-
creasing values of his products and ar
| duouS toll, his taxes never fall. They
stare him in the face each recurring
| year like haunting spectre, and, as if
| not contented with this, the double tor
ture of interest must be added. One
more thing remains to complete the
catalogue of human woe, and when
rent is added to the list the farmers of
this country will soon be in no better
condition than the Irish peasant or
Russian serf. What heritage to leave
their children.
The adoption Of a single gold stand
ard means the welding of the chains
that are to bind the conditions por-
trayed upon generations to come.
There is not enough gold in existence
to pay the debts if we were forced to
gold basis as is proposed by eastern
bankers and bond holders. The total
amount of individual mortgage indebt-
edness in the United States, as near as
can be ascertained, is about S6,OO0,-
100000. The total amount of private
Indebtedness in 1890 was $40, zoe. OOO, 600,
an increase ovet the amount in 1880 of
thirteen billion dollars, the work OF one
decade. The railroad Indebtedness ex-
ceeds the assets by four billion dollars
and the national debt 5000 900 600. The
| real estate indebtedness 10 +,ro ga =