St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1895-07-22
POOR RICHARD MATERIALIzEs.

POOR RICHARD MATEREALILES.
Poor Richard, the identical wise
old man who gave the farmers of d
century ago such sensible counsel,
materialiZed the other day before a
meeting Of farmers who had met to
discuss the political questions of the
day, and especially the decline in
the prices of their products as COM
pared with those of the decade fol-
lowing the war. The candidate for
the legislature had descanted on the
wrongs Of the farmer and the oppres-
sion of the corporations, and a pos
sible candidate for congressional
honors had assured them that some
mystical power of silver had dragged
produce values down with it. The
kerosene had burned low in the
lamps, and the smoke of pipes had
obscured the air, when from some
Where out of empty space into the
gloom there came onto the rostrum
q venerable man, with gray locks
Banging down his shoulders, clad in
Che doublet and hose, the low shoes
with silver buckles of the fathers of
the Revolution.
-.- Into the silence of the awed and
Staring crowd came the quavering
voice Of age saying: my children,
you differ little from your sires and
grandsires. AS you have been talked
to tonight, and as you talk, your an
cestors talked and were talked to
when 1 trod the earth. Taxes then
were too high, money was too scarce,
the usurer fattened on us, and the
demagogue pandered to us and fiat
Why do you make such a surrender
of your common sense and your judg-
ments? Why do you not think, in
stead of parroting the thoughts of
others whose motives you do not
know? Is money scarce? For whom ?
Is there any one of you who, having
money for it? If money We're plenty
as the sands Of the sea, could you get
it for nothing? If you could, would
you? But the scarcity makes the
prices of your product low, you
say. Are you sure it is that? Do
you not each Of you produce now
more bushels of wheat with less
labor than did the farmers of my
day with their hand sowing, their
sickle reaping and fail threshing
Haven't you yet learned that price
is inevitably cheapened as the cost
of making falls? Mayn't it be part
of the reason of the fall that you
can produce ten-fold what your
fathers labor could, with less labor
But, setting that aside, is it only
the price of your produce that has
fallen? Do you buy nothing? Dc
you yet spin the yarn and weave
the cloth for yourselves and fam
lilies? Do the wives still sit UP til
midnight, plying the needle to max,
your garments? Have you forgotten
what you paid for what you coul,
buy with the proceeds of your crop
even so short a time ago as afte
the war the man spoke to you abou
just now? Are your woolens NOR
costly than when you got so cent
pound for wool? Were your shoe
cheaper to you then than now? Wi
not the bushel of wheat buy NOR
yards of calico than in the day
you mourn? When you who go boz
rowing, and sorrowing as you 81
does the money lender ask you tn
same annual charge for the use c
his money that he did? Be candi
with yourselves, my brothers. d
not deceive yourselves, nor let otf
ers do it. There is not one law fc
you and another for others. In tn
long run, the law of compensate
obtains its own. You get what you
product is worth to produce; and yo