Reporter and farmer. [volume] (Webster, Day County, Dakota [S.D.]) 188?-1946, 1896-07-16
TO CUT DOWN WAGES.
BY Paying Labor In Cheap
Dollars.
Why Ex-Governor Boies Wants
Free Silver-Eich Landlords
Could Then Make
Big Profits.

Elk. Governor Horace Doies az Iowa is
franker than his fellow siIycrites, who
pretend that their 90 cent dollar scheme
would benefit tho working classes. Ia a
recent interview he says:
81 have myself in this state two
farms, paid for largely with money |
have earned as a lawyer. One is a farm
of 2, 500 acres of land, and the other
contains ]. 900 acres. With the present
price of labor and the present price paid
for farm products, no man in the world
could take either of these farms, even if
/ should present him with the ground.
and make a dollar out of it. / mean, OF
course, that ne could not equip the farm
and pay interest on the money invested
in the equipment and wages for labor
out Of the income he would get by sell
ing the products. A farmer who works
himself and is assisted by the labor Of
sons and daughters could make a small
farm pay. But no farm is profitable
when conducted on the basis of o manu-
featuring business. Cheap and abundant
money is the only remedy for this intol-
cradle state of things"
This is a candid admission that he
thinks that wages ore now too high, and
that in some way free silver viii give
the farmers cheaper labor. The more
fact of an increase in the price Of farm
products would not make farming profit
able, If. as is claimed by most of the 10
TO j leaders, wages would be doubled
along with doubled prices Of everything
the farmer buys. Mr.. Boios clearly ex-
poets that the rosult OF ''ch8ap and
abundant money" will ba the practical
reduction OF tho price paid for farm la-
bon. This would no doubt be q very
good thing for q rich IMAM with s, 800
acres OF lsnd. But what does tho poor
iaborer think of the scheme: Are the
American people ready 10 vote for a
debased currency which viii reduce the
wages of the workers?
Next in importance to the confession
that free silver would cut down wages
is the admission that "a farmer who
works himself can make q small farm
pay What kind OF farmers does Mr..
Boies expect to see prosper Men who
have bought up big tracts Of land which
they hold ont Of use in the expectation
Of selling it at high price, and ia the
meantime are working it with hired la
Dor? That Is not the kind Of farmers
which Americans wish to see thrive.
Tho man who owns and works his own
land i tho ideal farmer of this country.
The biz estate with its gangs Of hired
men IN = do while new territories arc
being opened mp, but the welfare of the
republic depends on the men who Guilt
vate the soil owning the land they till.
III e~x-Giovern0r Boies thinks himself en-
titled to m income from his land with
out working it himself, he is very much
mistaken. No farmer should prosper who
simply towns land and expects to
make a profit out Of other men labor.
That under free silver 4 few men could
use cheap money to speculate III land
and get rich cut Of the toll Of the under
paid laborers is the very best Of reasons
why the masses should vote against il.
Ex-Governor Boies admits that tho
farmer who works can make his farm
pay. But III Another part Of tha same
interview he,says that farms bought 90
or % years ago cannot he made TO pay
interest on their cost. This IS d strong
argument against cheap money, for it
was the greenback initiation of the war
period which pat the prices cf land SO
high that the men who bought farms
hayc been struggling ever since to nay
Nor them. The heavy mortgages, with
high interest rates, which arc crushing
SO many farmers, have their origin in
tho high speculative price OF land caused
By the cheap money craze Of the last
generation. Free coinage would repeat
the evils brought about by the overis-
mes of greenbaelss, and while not help
ng the present owners Of farms would
benefit spectators and make it harder
or the millions of landlass and home
ess men TO get a piece Of land on which
0 make d LIVING.
Dir. Boies is evidently q sincere man
nd is advocating free silver with the
aea that it will help men, like himself,
tho own big tracts Of land. But as the
My results Of that policy would be the
epudiation Of debts, the reduction q
ages and the enrichment OF the men
no speculate in land but do not work
themselves, lac is not a safe guide for
onest citizens.
WHrppEN GRAHAM.
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