Alma record. (Alma, Mich.) 1878-1928, 1895-09-27

tlNioc Noului inc lallh'l ~ sVoo,NVOs-
600 less for his wheat, and the sheep
raiser 1861 100000 less for his wool
The planter, the farmer and the sheep
raiser had this much less cash 20 pass
through their hands than they other
wise would have had.
But the gold-monometallists, the
very men who told Us the fall in prices
so much spoken of was for the most
part imaginary, who insisted tina goods
might have fallen but that gold could
not have risen, that any fall in prices
that has occurred has been caused by
overprOduction or perhaps the cheap
ening of production, these very same
gold-monometallists object to the pre-
sentation of these figures as mislead-
ing. They tell us cotton, wheat and
wool are exceptions, or that though the
cash the farmer and planter receives
for his wheat or cotton or wool l. much
less, the smaller amount of cash re-
ceiyed goes as far, or even further, to-
day than the larger sum did twenty
years ago; and that, therefore, the
farmer is better off. We will see.
We fancy that such arguments as
these, advanced by Professor Laughlin
or Mr.. Atkinson, would not be well re-
ceived by an audience of farmers or
planters. The agricultural classes
know too well that wheat or cotton and
wool are not the only products that
have fallen in price, and they have felt
the fall in prices too severely TO be
talked into believing that which their
very senses tell them is not 50, namely,
that the fall in prices has not injured
them.
First as 10 the assertion that wheat,
cotton and wool are the only products
of agriculture that have fallen mater
tally in price. Taking the prices for
1904 as normal, wheat sold as an
average on the farm for 56.1 per cent.
less in 1894, corn 81 per cent. less,
oats y per cent, less, barley 4S,l per
cent. less, rye 37.2 per cent. less, cot
ton $50 per cent. less, wool COS per
cent. less. horses sos per cent, mules
1872 per cent. cows 81 t per cent,
other cattle 29.9 per cent, sheep il.5
per cent 1t is no wonder the gold
monometallists point to corn and ex-
tract what grains of comfort from ii
that they can. Taking these twelve
products of agriculture together we
find general fall in price Of 4l.2 per
cent.
The gold dollar, then, costs the
farmer at least 20 per cent. more exer-
ton today than IT did in lS70-74. He
receives for his wheat 56.l per cent
less for his cotton 81 per cent, less,
for the twelve products given above
and taken together without regard 10
Importance 4l.2 per cent. less. The ques
ton then Is: Does the smaller amount he
receives for the products of his labor
90 as far as the larger amount he re-
ceived twenty years ago? Mr.. Akin
son and Professor Laughlin present
figures showing that it does. The
farmer does not feel that his labor is
better rewarded today than before 1873.
that the same amount Of products will
buy for him more of the products of
others today than ever before, but Mr..
Atkinson assures him It is the case j.
the suffering of the practical farmer
imaginary or is theoretical Mr.. At
kinson at fault;
Mr. Atkinson reas ms from assump-
tons. He assumes the farmer buys at
wholesale, whereas he does not. and he
assumes the farmer goes direct to the
manufacturer when he buys his tools,
while, as matter of fact, he buys from
an agent AS result, Mr.. Atkinson
naturally concludes that the proceeds
of the sale of the farmers products 90
farther than they really do.
But what is of more consequence Mr..
Atkinson ignores the fact that the
farmer IS loaded down with fixed
charges that call for as many dollars
when wheat is at 80 cents as when it
sells for 81. Rent, taxes, interest, all
become more burdensome as prices fall,
and it takes a greater quantity Of pro-
duce to raise the number of dollars re-
quired TO meet these charges. But this
is not all; prices at which the farmer
sells, falling faster than wages and re-
tail prices at which he buys, profits of
farming are destroyed and production
il curtailpd which entails a dpad loss