The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1896-09-27

the high-water mark of 1,514,578 souls
was reached. Since then the decline
has been as follows:
1897. o.. ................ 1,5l4,578
1890. 90. e.. .........,....... l,425,3o3
1893 o.. ........ ............ 1,366,613
1894. ,............... l,338,3ol
1895. O.. ............ q. 1,334,I34
Observe, however, that last year the
State lost less than 1900 inhabitants,
as compared with $4,000 lost the year
before. The tide has already turned,
and next year we may see a gain, The
loss since 1887 has been most severe,
of course, in the arid western counties.
Harper county has shrunk from 1855
to 9.235 and Stanton county, the worst
sufferer in the State, has only 13 per
cent left of its population in 1887. But
some of the eastern counties have also
lost considerably, showing that there
have been other causes than lack OF
rain to drive off the inhabitants.
Many metropolitan papers in the
East love to explain this loss OF popu-
lation as wholly due to the rise of the
P0pulist party. 1t suits their bigotry
and their pet theories. But Populism,
IF we consider it a social or political
disease. is not a cause in itself; 1T Is
the effect of the conditions OF farming
life i'm Kansas during the past 10 years,
and the sooner the East comes to hold
this view the better for us all. L ne
people there are not fools, and no
political party could possibly be found
ed and made to flourish because IN
some sections there was lack OF rain.
We might as well have expected a new
nartv i'm Kansas because of the grass
hoppers. No, natural obstacles to
prosperity in any farming region,
which are apparent to the duIlest
mind. do not breed anarchists" as our
Eastern friends love to call them. Such
obstacles viii diminish the population,
but will not start revolutions.
To explain the political phenomena
of Kansas land we might include other
Western States as wel) two prime fac
tors are necessary. First, a highly IN
telligent reading, debating, restless
populations: and, second, prices for
farm products that have no bottom,
In Kansas for ten years past these two
factors have existed and the result was
inevitable. If the people had been like
the serfs of Russia or the ryots of India
there would have been no Populist
party. When the grasshoppers came
no one could question the cause of
the disaster to Kansas; when a sum-
mer passed without rain it was easy
to explain why there were no crops.
But when the grasshoppers stayed
away and the rains were bOuntifuI and
the crops were so beautiful in their
fitness that every heart was gladdened,
and still farming was Improbable and
the interest and taxes went unpaid,
there was room for debate as to the
cause of it all. The question of prices,
upon which the most learned men
cannot agree, naturally enough furn-
ished Kansas with a peg upon which
to hang a grievance. There is where
your revolution" started; and if you
will stop the fall in prices, or raise
them, your revolution" will stOp-sO
far as Kansas is concerned. There
are, TO be sure, other grievances I'M
considered-sucha as grievances regard
ing railroad transportation, of which
President Stickney, of the Chicago
Great Western, spoke so strongly early
last month before the Interstate Com
merce COMMISSIONERS if any one
factor of the situation can be termed
the cruX it is prices for farm products.
Now, what was the price of corn
last week? / quote from the daily
papers: Corn and oats broke all price
records Saturday on the New York and
Chicago exchanges. On the Chicago
Board of Trade September, or cash,
corn sold down to 1874 cents a bushel,
and September oats at 145s cents
bushel. As the freight rates from most
grain producing Western States to
h h = n
cents per 100 pounds, it means that the
farmers get only IA or IS cents bushel
for their corn and 10 or II cents for
their oats" Fifteen cents a bushel
for corn! The average price a bushel
in 1889, when the crop exceeded the
two billion mark, was 1873 cents: in
1890, 500; in 1891, 40.6; in 1892, 1914;
in 1893, 36.5; in 1894, 45.7; in 1895, 26.4.
The price of corn, to be sure, much
more than wheat, is governed largely
by local conditions in this country,
and there is an enormous crop this
year, but am simply pointing out the
facts and not discussing the silver !
question. There is and can be no dis
pute as to the great and general fall /
in the prices of the great farm staples /
And who dares predict that the bottom /
has been reached?
When the wage-earning classes of /
the East oftentimes rise up in great +.
strikes, amounting almost to armed /
re aeliion, over a slight change in wage
schedules, is it surprising that the far
mers of the West form a new political !
party or adopt heretical views regard
ing the silver question, in the face of I
reductions in their incomes, extending
steadily over a long series of years and
having apparently no end? If Mr..
Carnegie's high-priced workmen at
Homestead can shoot down the Pin
kertons like rats and receive the APP
proval of the present candidate of the
gold Democrats for President, cannot
the Kansas farmers send Jerry Simp-
son to Congress or Mr.. PETER to the
Senate?
AS for the free coinage of silver, who
knows? 1t may be that the general I
fall in prices is not due to demonetiza-
ton at all, but simply and solely. as
David A. Wells insists, to improve
re in