Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1894-09-06
REPUBLICAN MATTERS.
THE AMERICAN FARMER IN
THE WORLDS MARKET.
What Does the Agriculturist Think OF
the United States Under Democratic
Rule hlhys That Might Better Have
Been Left Unsaid.
Tho WORLDS NInrkat.

! Living remote from the C0nterS OF
mental and political activity. shar-
ing, therefore, only at vague dis.
lance and in a desultory way in the
activities Of the day, what does tho
agricultural producer think of the
United States unde" Democratic
! ruler He suffers. doubtless; he
! knows for the most part what is
/ going on about him; he reads bis
newspaper and watches the course
of the markets-what does he think
of the causes, the policy, the out
look, the general aspect of affairs !?
Let him who produces cotton have
the first say, because his represent
atives and friends are in the SADDLE
What does he think of cotton at or
about six cents poundP True, it
is produced by him cheaper than it
ever was. The colored field hand of
| .o.day sells his labor at little better
than slave prices, and pays for his
own keep and his family's, so that
the cost of production is down to a
minimum. 1t cannot go lower In
point of wages. And yet six cents a
pound will not pay for it.
Wheat at forty-five cents n busheli
| The farmer who raises it does not
realize that much. There Is no de-
mand for it at higher figure. 1t is
ut that price that he must SELL If at
all, or feed it to his hogs. But of
what use is that? The price of his
pork will not improve his case Go
the rounds OF Anne rican agricultural
| products and the same story faces
the enquirer.
Why is thisP Oh. anybody can
tell the American farmer why. The
price Of wheat and pork to him is
set in the .'world's market" at Liver
pool. The worlds market" is a
commercial forum into which senti-
ment never enters. 1t decides values
upon material grounds. The cheap
est wheat, whether raised By an In.
dian ryot on two annas day; by q
Russian moujik on kopeck a month.
| or an American farmer with a family
| to bring up, with q boy at college
and girl with hopes and ambitions,
is the winner in the worlds market.
In that somber annex of the inferno
the only laws are those of supply
and demand. Liberty, enlighten-
ment, home. education, manhood and
the things that our forefathers suf-
fered in order to establish and dig
nifty, these are aliunde in the world {
market. There all that is moral is
reversed. Where cheapness is chief
justice judgment is bought and sold
for the smallest conceivable consid-
Grafton.
The wise men who have hereto.
fore ruled in this republic hav re
stunned the worlds market. BY
the edicts OF that insensate court
poverty, famine and the brutiliza-
ton of humanity are the sentences
delivered upon toll. They estab-
lished a home market whose Black
stone and Coke were the moralists
and philosophers. They protested
that in this new world at least the
law of maximum rewards for effort
should take the place of the Internal
doctrine that the lowest wins. They
insisted that the American producer
should not be ruined by the compe-
tition of want and ignorance, that
the standard of compensation should
be set by the highest that a man
could get in exchange for his toil
not by the lowest that he would con-
sent to live upon.
Under their theory the ideal tiller
of the soil was the American farmer,
we'll fed, we'll clothed, educated,
rearing his family in prosperity, the
peer of any man alive; not the starv-
ing Hindoo, reduced to 80 pounds in
weight, on handful of rice day.
or the hopeless Russian cultivator
| glad of gill of vodka in which to
extinguish for a few hours the tor
ments of conscious existence. And
the ideal was established. Ameri-
cans hoped and believed there could
be no change. We all used to talk OF
the American farmer as the happiest.
most independent of men; a philoso-
pher near to nature and tutored to
cast the deciding vote in great ques-
tions OF state Then bushel OF
wheat meant dollar. To-day it is
less than half. We have already
been brought into the world s mar
ket, not to any large relation, but TO
the edge OF it, The American far
mer is already in competition in that
dismal Avernus with the half naked
cotton or wheat raiser OF India,
Egypt and Russia. and as our stalls
are filled the competition must be
keener. The price of American cot
ton and wheat, corn and pork must
be set by the price at which these
| hapless remnants OF humanity will
consent to keep their wre tched lives
in them.
That which kept this continent out
OF the horrible vortex Of ruinous
competition with rags and starvation
was the protective tariff. 1t shut US
| effectually out of the worlds market.
| 1t created home market, in which
| the standard Of human life and de-
| cency was set as starting point,
| because the products of pauperistn
were excluded. 1t was fondly be.
| lieved that this continent could furn
ish us all living without grinding
us down to Asiatic levels Why
| should we changer
We see what the worlds market
has done for the American farmer,
says the New York Advertiser. Now
the Democratic party is rushing the
r. \