Alma record. (Alma, Mich.) 1878-1928, 1896-10-16
IN THE YEAR $500.
The Wise Men of Kansas
A FABLE.

was idle, labor unemployed. The we'll
TODD could not make profits, the poor
could not pay their debts, and every
body was sad and gloomy Each man as
he met his neighbor would solemnly say
in the language of the Hon james Fad
den, ''what tell, +" and modify pass on.
Then there arose the wise men of
Kansas. They Were mighty i'll their
day with honeyed words they beguiled
the people. They painted i'll colors of
night the oppression of labor, and the
suiferings of poverty. They pictured
in hues that paled the mornings rosy
glow, the delights Of luxury, and the
blessings of wealth.
FrenZied by the intoxicating dreams
they exclaimed, wherefore are we now,
all rich? Go too now Let us abolish
poverty. Let us legislate ourselves into
atfluence. And the people heard and
were smitten with the delicious dream
| Then the Governor assembled the wise
men in special session and thus adj
dressed them:
| "Most noble, brave and mighty yeo-
mans our people groan. The burden is
heavy upon them. Early and late they
toll and eat the bread Of disappointment
and bitterness. Make We laws for their
deliverance.
We are the greatest State i'll the
| Union. We are big enough and rich
enough to have Il policy of our own,
regardless of what other States may do
or may not do, Let us be patriotic \
Kansas policy for Kansas is the need of
the hour. Wheat it hard to raise, and
| the yield is light and uncertain but we
are great on corn.
The notion that the price must be
governed by the law of supply and de-
| mand, Is superstition by means of
which the rich plumber and Cypress
honest toll. Make We, therefore, a law
in accordance with which sovereign and
august statute corn shall be put upon Il
par with wheat. They shall be inter
| changeable, bushel for bushel, and the
price Of corn shall be the same us the
price of wheat. Do this, and the people
OF Kansas shall rise up, and call We
blessed, and all the world, except the
money lenders, shall hail We us the
emancipators of mankind
The wise men passed the law as the
Governor had advised and all the people
of the State rejoiced, for their cribs
We're full of corn. They could hardly
contain themselves till the Governor
had signed the bill, which raised the
price of Kansas corn from fifteen to
fOrtytive cents Il bushel All the people
now felt rich. They bought many lux
uries and the most of them went into
debt. They wondered that they never
before had found out that wealth was
simply matter of legislation, and they
felt great pity and contempt for the
ignorant and superstitious people of the
other states. Then the farmers from
the other states began hauling their
corn TO Kansas. Long lines of wagons
came winding along the road. Boats
tloated it down the rivers, and the rail
roads rushed ii III from every section of
the country. 1t seemed us if the
country was all corn and it was all
headed for Kansas. The people of
Kansas took their medicine, that is. they |
took the corn and gave up their wheat |
The farmers from the other states |
thought the Kansas people were queer, |
but they kept bringing them their corn. |
Corn came Ill and wheat went ont. And |
besides all the Kansas people had gone |
TO raising corn, because it was more |
easily produced than wheat, and was TO |
bring just as much III the market as
wheat, for the wise men had decreed |
that it should.
1t was not long before Kansas had all
boris corn.
When the other states saw this vast
and knew that ii sooner
or later must come on TO the market
The price Of corn began TO decline till it
could be purchased anywhere except in
Kansas, for ten cents bushel. In
Kansas it was still forty-five cents.
which was the price of wheat, but there
were no buyers. Neither could anyone
exchange corn for wheat. When the
autumn came, the Kansas people did not
have any wheat for seed. Then they
sent TO the neighboring states, and i'm
plored the farmers to exchange wheat
ut parity with corn. But the farmers
said, 1--WE will exchange one bushel of
wheat, for four and One-half bushels of
.orn." "Our law" replied the Kansas
people, put corn and wheat at parity.
They are equal, for our wise men said
they should be" And the farmers re-
Piled, "your wise men are asses. let
them eat their corn" So the Kansasans
went back home, and all their people
were i'll despair
The more corn they had the less it
was worth, and they had nothing but
'orn. Day by day the times grew
harder.
linen unc GONenOr again assembled
-he wise men and said to them most
picturesque and glittering
fools, there is but one bigger
TOOL than yourselves. 1t is he who now
addresses you.
We thought we could bluff the ever
asting law of supply and demand with
our statute. We thought we were pa
iriotic. We were idiotic. Let US hon
sstly acknowledge our asininity, repeal
,ur fool law, get back into line with the
Dther states, and imagine no more that
we are wiser than the whole world. Do
his, and may we live long enough to
know that the other states have ceased
angling at our folly, and that our own
state has ceased cursing us.
Then the wise men repealed the law,
out it was many years before the people ,
recovered from the effects of the corn
,raze.
MoRAL.-We are big nation, but we
ire not the whole earth.
ANOTHER MoRAL.-Legislation can