Middletown transcript., 1894-08-04
The date ON the label on your
paper shows the time to which
your subscriptin IL paid
FARMERS, PURCHASING POWER.


Low prices for grain and cotton are
q frequent source of complaint on be-
half Of the farmer, but as everything
the farmer buys has fallen faster and
further than the products of his farms,
1t is hard to see why the purchasing
power of his crops is not as large as
ever.
The above clipping from the editorial
columns of the Philadelphia Press is
as senseless as most of the newspaper
and stump orator rot of these latter days.
We do not remember to have ever
known farmer who was too stupid to
see the foolishness of such an argument
as is presented in the above sentence.
The farmer who is raising produce at
the present prices il confronted with a
bank account with the balance on the
wrong side, and face to face with that
condition of things, understands full
well that If steam boats were to be
bought for five cents piece he would
not have enough money to buy gang
plank. It strikes plain man very
strangely to see paper, SO ably edited
as the Philadelphia Press, taking the
ground that a farmers purchasing
power is measured by the market price
of his produce. At the present price
Of farm machinery, phosphates and
labor, it costs about fifty-five cents to
produce bushel of wheat, so that the
solution Of the wheat problem by the
farmer who sells his wheat at fifty cents
brings before his eyes the final equation
giving result of five cents with the
minus sign before it, which in mathe-
matics, is called a negative quantity.
and in plain English means five cents
less than nothing, and that much loss
on every bushel of wheat he raises.
To the casual observer, it might at
first sight seeem that general lower
ing and leveling Of prices would leave
the general adjustment of trade in
the same condition as formerly. But
men who look beneath the surface un-
Hnd that there is APPOINT to which
the price of any commodity may go
which will leave the producer of it
without purchasing power Of any kind.
The present deplorable condition of
husbandry is produced by three con-
ditiols. First: The competition of
the Hottentot labor of India, the Dago
labor of South America and that of
the peasantry of Europe. Second:
The criminal expenditure of the govern
ment lands by the United States and
her assistance in the abnormal develop
ment of railroads. Third: The pres
ent attitude of the United States
Government towards her own indur-
tries is such as to be standing menace
to all business interests on American
soil, which grows steadily worse under
the uncertainty of tariff agitation,
which has resulted in the destruction
of fifty per cent. of the American
farmers home market. He may in
vain 90 through the weary maze of all
the snphistries of the vast assortment
of theorists, seeking remedy for his
trouble, and if he be allured into the
belief that his cure is in free trade or
free silver, or in wild cat banking, or
in fiat money or any other of the
erratic schemes Of the passing hour, he
will find himself in the condition of
the man described in the scriptures,
who went forth seeking rest, and find
ing none, returned to his own house
only to find it swept and garnished,
and betook to himself other devils max
ing his last state worse than the first.