The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1894-06-07
FAR WEST VIEWS.
Interview With Senator Petit
grew of South Dakota.
He Speaks Upon Agricultural
and Economics.
ON THE GOLD BASIS
Mr.. Pettigrew Has Some Strong
Feelings.

Feelings.
WASHINGTON, June T. [Special.] =
"Of course they will pass the tariff bill,
said Senator Pettigrew in the course of
lengthy conversation the interests of his
state as connected with legislation. But
they will not pass it soon as they are
promising. AS a matter of course, the
Democrats must pass some kind of a bill
reducing the rates of the Mckinley bill, but
/ feel pretty certain that they will not get
it into the hands of the conference commit
tee before the second week in July anyhow.
1 think it quite possible that the last and
accepted count is correct-that is. that all
the Democrats will vote for it but one, and
also Messrs. Kyle and Allen, but don't be-
lieve Senator PETER will You must not
take this as my prophecy, however, for L
am not in the prophecy business. / only
say it is the latest count, and L know of
nothing to the contrary 1t gives US a bad
whack corn barley, but otherwise we can
stand it,
South DaIota's Interests.
SIS there any other measure of prime i'm
portance to South Dakota-the canals, for
instance?"
NO; we are not in the navigation line ex-
cept for the Missouri river, and that stream
does its own work without regard to con-
gress. The great scheme for a big canal to
run up In0 mississippi from NA1nn6dpOllS
and then eastward to Duluth is so utterly
impractical that we simply laugh at it,
and even if it could be made it would not
concern us much. Neither would the Henne-
pin canal, for that matter, much as some
people imagine, and my guess is that if
they ever do perfect that sort of navigation
it viii be by enlarging the ditch they now
have from Chicago down to the Illinois
river. All that, however, is so far off that
it doesn't interest US thousandth part as
much as the rate of duty on corn and bar
ley. You see, it costs US 25 cents to ship corn
to New York city and nothing like as much
to ship it from Argentine.
1T is all nonsense to say that tariff
couldn't make any difference in the price
so long produce a surplus In the
first place, we do not really produce a sur
plus of corn in the United States. We
grow an enormous amount, it is true-30
years ago the prophecy of such amount
would have been laughed at by farmers
but we work it all up some way, into meat
or spirits or grain preparations, and popula=
ton IS increasing so rapidly that we shall
very soon use it all. You must remember
that the area on which corn can be grown
is not one-tenth that suitable for wheat,
taking the whole world, and think you
will find in the development of the west
that corn and pork have been in the run of
years the surest foundation of prosperity.
In the second place, take notice that if we
were raising only enough corn for this
TONS use, and the Atlantic cities and the
lower gulf region could be supplied by free
imports from South America, it would hurt
US very seriously. You see, they would bring
in just enough to keep our prices down all
the time, and now that there is a chance of
the farmer getting something out of the
tariff it's shame for US to lose it."
Diversified Crops.
"But is not wheat your principal crop?''
''Oh, no. indeedi All that wonderful val
- Do1~ r.,
diversified agriculture, and that is the rea-
son why our farmers have not felt the de-
preston much and have gained steadily all
along through it. 1t really makes me rub
my eyes sometimes when ride over to
Yankton and see the contrast between the
first time went through there from Sioux
Falls, when l got my first contract from
Surveyor General Beadle. / made some
money on that surveying job, tOo-pretty
near the first I ever made-and it came in
very handy. There was then and for quite
awhile afterward only one house on the
road, and it was such a shack that camp
ed on the prairie rather than sleep in it.
Now the whole region IS as thickly settled
any farming district in Illinois, and one
rides through a constant succession of corn
and wheat and barley and fax, miles on
miles of the richest and loveliest country in
the world, where there we'll to do farm
ers with good houses and barns, out of debt
and with money to lend.
Last summer l visited my old camping
place, where / used to wake at dawn and
hear the whole prairie whirring with the
noise of birds, and where game was so plenty
that one didn't have to 20 out of the road for
it. From that spot looked north and south
10 miles each way over an unbroken ex-
panse of corn. May be there were breaks in
it, but in looking over the level I could not
see them. and it is so through all the valley
of the VernilliOn, where only yesterday, as
it seems, / chased elk and hunted ante
lopes- It's the richest valley in the world,
and those Germans, Scandinavians and
Yankees are just the people for it-a class
of people you can depend on under all cir
cumstances.
81 must give you one case After got
start in the land business used to attend
to their papers for new settlers, and among
them was Mr.. Addegarde, a Scandinavian,
who had just 800 left after paying for his
fling and with that he started in on the
raw prairie He now has 6, 500 acres of land,
1,5GO cattle, about 1 600 sheep and / 600 hogs
and 10, 900 bushels of old wheat in his gran
airy. He owes no man cent, and if you
were to talk this stuff about suffering farm
ers' to him he would think you were a lu-
matte. Just the same he is holding onto an
immense amount of wheat for a higher
price. All through that country you will
find the farmers prosperous and living in
nice houses, and many of them have pre-
served the old sodhouses in which they first
lived. using them for toolhouses, and it's
delightful to see the contrast
As to the Gold Basis.
''And has the gold basis hit you any?"
There was transformation scene on q
small scale. The phrase gold basis'' SEEM
ed to operate like the touch of the invisible
princes sword in the old pantomime The
senator at once grew very animated and pro-
ceeded to pitch into the president, the Dem
ocrats, the Repu blicans of the east, Wall