Waterbury evening Democrat., 1894-04-23


 fast The letters from all over the country | arc really pathetic, and the appeals from l tho farmers often sound like a wall. I | have never known time of such general di>cuntcnt in the farming regions, accom- panied with sO littlc hope. Why, even in | the darkest days of the war the people did
 not despair as they do now. They seem impressed with an idea that this slow and | mcrcilcSs contraction of prices must go on for years. They ask what we arc doing, | or trying tO do. or what can be done but it is plain that they do not see any immc- | diarc rrmcdy.
 Now, you heard what this Chicago man said. and you notice that, like all the oper- ators in grain, he says the farmers will be injured by this bill. Well, the farmers say that they want 10 be injured in just that way, but these men have got to the point that they arc not even willing for the farmers to decide as to what remedy they will attempt. There is not q line in this | bill to prevent any legitimate dealing in | futures. All we aim to do is to stop these
 wind sales and short selling which go | away ahead of the crops and dcprcss the price of the grain before it is harvested,
 and 95 per cent of the farmers arc in fla vOr of the bill.
 \ Piece of Deliberate Legislation.
 Now I want to call your attention to the history of this bill and show the per sistcnt demand for it. because it is savage ly attacked on tho ground that it is new and uncalled for thing This is my eighth consecutive term in the house, and I have been member of this committee from the start and chairman of il in five of my eight terms. From the first there has been q de mand for such legislation, and it has stead ily incrcascd. In the FifUiCth congress WIG began the discussion and investigated the matter with labor and patience of which our opponents know but little. In the Fifty-tirst congress we reported q bill, and in the next il passed the house by 3 to l,
 but was amended in the senate and came back in the closing days of the session,
 when I could not get it considered.
 ''OncS moro We have gone carefully over the whole ground, have thoroughly consid cr,d every actual and conceivable objection, have listened with unwcaried patience to every man who had anything to say on the subject, and the result is that this com mittcC has voted in favor of the bill by II | to .. The opponents were MT. ApSlCy of | Massachusetts and Mir. Baker of New ] Hampshire. both Republicans, though I ! don't know as that makes any difference, | aS the eastern Democrats would probably l vote against our farmers just the same. | Now. if a bill which was asked for through
 
 | congresses. discussed in the public prints
 and all possible defects pointed out and then discussed and improved and adopted by nearly unanimous votc-if such q l bill, 1 say, is not deliberate legislation, the word has no meaning. Yet denuncia- | tion and sarcasm arc poured upon me, and
 I am held up to ridicule for striving to
 carry into effect what is practically the
 unanimous wish of the farmers, and by
 measures most carefully considered. The Depression In Agriculture.
 Do you consider these wind sales, as | you call them, the leading cause of the de- ] prcSsion in agriculture:"
 ''Oh, no; there is q combination of causes. The characterization of silver in so many states and nations was followed in its successive steps by decline in farm produce. It is idle to say that it had no effect The correspondence in declining prices and successive demonctiZations was entirely too close and regular to be mere accident. The protective tariff has also contributed enormously to tho injury of the farmer. and these and other causes have produced a concentration of wealth in few hands which is simply unparalleled, and that in its turn has operated to in crease the agricultural depression. And this leads me back to tho first subject mCntIOned-thc dlilculty or getting to- l gethcr So many causes have combined to produce the trouble that each man natu- rally sees most of the cause nearest to him and thinks it all important The sad and really mOmcntOus feature of the case is ] that there is such a lack of hope. That ! class of farmers who arc in debt and strug- ! gling against continually falling prices
 seem to have lost the nerve and spirit nat
 ural to our people. : ll there is tend ency to give up and let the increasing evils continue v
 Shrinkage of Prices.
 "Since the late veto all the gold men and a few silver men with whom I have
 talked think that silver as a money metal
 is doomed, and that the battle is over. If
 that be trus, how long, in your opinion, will it be before we reach bottom and 8 | general rise of prices for the farmers be- | ginsi''
 Not in 70 years! It Is matter of plain | mathematical demonstration that with | steadily increasing population and produc- tion the relative supply of gold is steadily decreasing, and the result must be a slow
 but unbroken shrinkage of prices until they get down to point which now seems incredible. But it cannot go on so Such | process in this ago of the world would l be prevented by reyolution-in Europe if