Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1894-10-17
MIR. MORELAND
RECEIVES A LETTER FROM HIS
SON IN KANSAS.
Wheat Crop Good, But Prices Very Bad
Facing Bankruptcy.

DEAR FATHER:-Your welcome let
ter received, and ] am glad to know
you are all in health. l am hearty
and strong and so are my family, a
blessing from God to us. l shudder
when l think what would become of
my wife and children if l should be
called away. 1t is true they have
loving relatives who would share
life's last crust with them, and that
also carry a small insurance OR nv
life in the Alliance Aid, but that
would soon be exhausted. If our
price was paid for it would help
awhile, but as times are l look upon
1T as only question of time when the
big fish will eat us all up and reduce
us to utter dependency upon very
meager wages for the commonest liv-
ing.
am sorry to feel so. fused to look
on the bright side of life and was full
of hope and energy. How happy l
was and how full of hope when / left
your roof sixteen years ago to acquire
home in this rich country, having
your and mothers blessing upon me
and my bride Dear mother! l shall
never see her face in life
Our wheat crop is excellent think
shall get twenty if not twenty
live bushels per acre, and 1 have
sixty acres in wheat, but prices
are very low, wheat only As cents and
l am afraid it. will go lower, but
whatever 1t brings, after the expense
of harvesting is paid, the balance is
ours. have no bills to pay, having
traded and trafficked" around so as
to pay all my expenses, and Tony,
my son. now in his fourteenth wear,
has been great help to me- Child
as he is, he appreciates the situation,
and we are determined to pay our in
deebtedness off and be free, so we can
meet the struggle before us under a
roof free from debt Little as our
debt is compared with the value or
what was the value of the place when
there was sale for land, we would
have lost it had it not been for YOUR
timely help.
l have forty acres in corn and it is
good, 10 acres in grass and five acres
in sorghum and other crops, 12O in all.
have seventeen head of good hogs.
so think shall be able to pay you
and have enough for another winter.
Tor which l am thankful to my Crea-
tor.
Dear father. have told you more
than 1 ever thought to tell. 1t
relieves me of burden to unbosom
myself to you, who from my earliest
recollections, always rejoiced with
me in my pleasure, and sympathized
with me in my sorrows.
Now, with all which we few years
ago would have called good prospects,
feel like / was facing bankruptcy.
Indeed do. My children must be edu-
Gated. Sarah and do all that we can.
We take magazines and five papers,
and interest them in good reading;
aud Grace have too many cares for
children. My home must be en-
larged and repaired, and much of nv
fences will have to be looked after.
Our clothing is like Joseph's coat, and
while goods are cheaper than ever
known, the money to buy with is also
harder to get, and the certainty that
we can get no relief under Cleveland,
and may be not from the next, makes
me feel like you, ''panickv
The railroad management is our
worst enemy, because they are the
great backbone of the money system.
All the railroads have some particular
bank to deposit in of which the roads
chief officials are the owners or large
stockholders. They are always from
one to three months behind with the
pay, and the immense earnings of the
roads give the bank or banks ample
capital to loan to the public. For ex-
ample, take road that earns Sl,OOO,-
600 month; they paw this month the
expenses of last month. None of
them do better than that. This gives
them $1,000, 900 always TO use that
really belongs to their employees. Then
if they are short they pass that month
until next. and perhaps pay two
months together. Now this ST.
ooo,00o month at 10 per cent
is S100,G0O a year; and if they
run it two months behind it is $780,
600 per year, that the railroad officials
can, and usually do get, that in JUS
tice should go TO the employees Re-
member that all roads, telegraphs and
other semi-publie utilities do this, and
when We see that ths railroad earn.