The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1895-09-10
IN THE HEART OF eoLDBUeDoM.
Something About the Metropolis of the
Extreme N~ortheast--A City OF
Wealth and Poverty, Largely
the Latter
BosroN, Mass Sept. 2, 1895.

ThOnQQ SuI1O040O~ ~
featuring towns and cities, Boston goes
riubt ON holding her own-and absorb
inc the wealth of the Nation. Massa-
cbTaetts is. or ought to be, the most
n-rosnerous State in the Union, and
BOSTON is the greatest commercial,
financial and manufacturing centre.
The per capita circulation in Massachu-
setts is put down at about $3.50, or
nearly ten times that of the United
States as a whole. If that be true, the
people ought to be in good shape.
But alas! combines, corporations and
monopoiies have gotten in their fearful
work. The actual per capita in circu,
lation is not much more than it is in
North Carolina. Toe money may be
here Ia great deal of it is), but it is not
in sight. Gilt-edge security can get it
from the banks. Not one in a thousand
can furnish that security, but if all
could, it would be a crime to make peo-
pie pay interest on money that ought
to go into circulation and stay there,
without individuals having to pay in
terest.
The people of Massachusetts, r bet
ter off than they are in any Southern
State, but they became so while there
was prosperity in the land. The young
man who attempts to Start in life here
now will find the same obstacles star
ing him in the face that he would see
in the South or West. If he is a
laborer, he will fed wages lower than
ever before and work uncertain. All
these yarns about factories starting up
with such tremendous orders ahead
and voluntarily increasing wages are
poppycock. A few have done this for
effect. They had been running on
short time or closed for m onths. The
farmers of Massachusetts, and adjacent
States are not prospecting az they
should. They are selling a dollars
worth of their products for a so cent
gold dollar. The merchants of Boston
and other cities are not selling goods at
all briskly.
"Assignee's sale" is the common sign
you read. The whole city is for rent.
Goods are cheap. A dollar will go a
long ways-if you have it. Only the
corporations are holding their own
Bank reports show that Boston has a
large amount of the gold in this coun
try. Perhaps this is true, but 1 have
been here nearly one week and have
not seen a piece Of gold money. Ali
the money in circulation is silver Rad
gaeenbacks. That makes it plain to
me that silver end greenbacks is the
peoples money. 1t is all they want, all
they ever get. When the banks con-
tract the currency by destroying green
backs, and the government contracts
it by refusing to coin silver to replace
the money that is constantly disappear
ing then a crime is committed and the
prosperity of the Nation becomes stag
nant. The great wheels of commerce
will not turn without silver and green
backs. Cut IF the source of blood sup
ply and the human body dries up. Sill
yer ard paper money are the blood of
a republic, and as neither kind of
money is now being made, it is easily
undel stood why the Nation is slowly
but surely drying up The per capita
real estate mortgage Indebtedness of
Massachusetts is $144
Boston is. in some respects, a hand
some city. The population is strictly
Yankee and foreign. Few Southern
people come this far north. The popu-
lation is nearly all white. You see two
thousand white people to one negro.
The colored people who want to be on
equality with the whites should come
here. Negroes have all the privileges.
You can see them eating in the finest
restaurants and hotel dining rooms,
also sitting in the churches.
Boston had a population of a little
over 498, 900, according to the census of
1890. 1t is probably a little over a half
million now. She has t~wenty-eight
railroad stations, seventy eight fire de
partments, in as many parts of the city.
She has 2, 100 lawyers to get her people
out of trouble, or vice versa, 2 900 mag
~istrates, 1 900 doctors to cure or kill,
700 preachers, over 400 drug stores and
2 1000 saloons, ia banks, and about 800
policemen. The city covers thirty
seven square miles of territory. Many
of the public buildings, hotels, resi-
dences and churches are fine. The
streets are well paved, but narrow in
all the business portion Of the city.
They are also very crooked. More so,
l think, than any other city. They
are long and short, cross each other in