Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1893-10-12
Free Wool in Montana.

free wool IN Montana
One of the largest wool growers In
Montana writes to Justice, Bateman &
Co.. of Philadelphia, as to the outlook
in the wool business in that State, and
his letter is so faithful an account of
the distress that the Democratic party
has brought upon the farmers of the
country that it L1ay well be reproduced
in these columns. The agricultural
situation and distress among the wool
growers of Montana is, after all, but
little more severe than it is in Ohio,
and if the farmers of this State en-
courage Congress to go on with their
tariff tinkering" by voting the Demo
cratic ticket this fall then indeed will
1.-THE evil days be upon u.s." Here is
the letter referred to:
Your announcement of arrival OF
wool is at hand. Prices fixed to differ
ept grades are terribly ruinous to a
Montana sheep man. A great change
has come over the spirit of our dreams.
Our check-book once so sought after
and held in high respect by everybody
and in such constant need is now a
thing of the past. Bankers and mer-
chants do not see you before you get
out of your wagon when you come to
town. There is no strife to sell your
goods and to overdose your orders. A
half breed Indian may get sack of
flour on the promise of load of wood,
but credit to me is fatty refused. The
other day l took account of my grub
pile and found in stock 80 pounds of
-four, five pounds of bacon, two pounds
of tea, Is pounds of sugar and 10 mouths
depending upon it. 1t costs me about
$500 per month to run my business.
have about 5000 stock sheep now with.
out a price. Mutton sheep will bring
81. One year ago stock sheep were
worth S.. to-day they will bring
nothing. I have known good brands
offered for 81 per head and no buyer,
and yet we can't afford to turn them
loose, and so must continue the expense
of keeping them. can't borrow a dol
lar from bank nor get pound of
grub on credit nor have ] dollar to my
name. All sheep men are in debt more
or less at the end of the year; their
mutton aud wool brings them out.
This year we are under water out OF
sight. What to do we do not know.
Most sheep men have decided not to be
under the heavy expense of breeding
any more, but run what we have got az
cheaply as possible and turn them off
for mutton. Our ranch improvements
are all for the accommodation of sheep
and are worth nothing for any other
use. A sheep man does not farm at all,
but buys all his grain from the farmer
pay out on an average about S4, 900 a
year, and nearly every doll:.r of it is
paid out in the neighborhood to labor
ing men. merchants and bankers, and
now we probably will be robbed of our
several years hard toll within the short
space of year or SO, for let me assure
you that sheep can not be run in Mon
tana with free wool, and all this to
crafty or to prove the falSity of a mis-
guided political faction. Yet, Sumpter
must fall and no argument will avail.
hope, if possible, that afew Democrats
at least in the Senate may have brains
enough and humanity enough to stay
the terrible ruin"
Speaking of the position of the SOL
dier on the pension question, at the
National G. A. R. Encampment at In
President Harrison said:
He will not ask that any who have
obtained a place on the
pension roll shall remain there. He
will ask that that other familiar maxim
of the law, that fraud is to te proved,
and not presumed, shall be applied to
the soldier"
They have Confederate war journal
in Washington now. The object of
this periodical is to glorify the men
who fought to destroy the Union snd to
keep before the rising generation the
sacrifices and heroic struggles of "be-
loved Southland" for slavery and a
cotton empire. Grover Cleveland, Hoke
Smith and Commissioner Lochren are
Ill evidently among its constant readers