Connecticut western news., 1896-10-22
LETTER FROM MICHIGAN.
Mir Editor:

times s'are not what can be called unl- | versal prosperity" President Harrison, | in his last message to Congress, in De- | cember 1892, said: ''There never has | been time in our history when work | has been so abundant, or when wages were so high, whether measured by the | currency in which they are paid or by their power to purchase the necessaries and comforts of life. The general aver. age of prices has been such as to give to agriculture fair participation in the general prosperity" One month be- fore this, the people, relying upon the promises of the democracy to bring about still better conditions, elect ed Mir Cleveland president,
 with Congress pledged to carry out the principles enunciated in the democratic platform of 1892. In August 1893 'the existence of an alarm ing and extraordinary business situa-
 ton involving the welfare of all our
 people" constrained him ito call to- gether an extra session, the peoples representatives He confirmed the ut terance of MT Harrison eight months
 before, above quoted, by saying: With plenteous crops, with abundant promis- es of remunerative production and man. ufacture, with unusual invitation to safe | investment, and with satisfactory assur- | ances to business enterprises, suddenly | financial distrust and fear have sprung | up on every side" And further on he says "values supposed to be fixed, are | fast becoming conjectural, and loss and | failure have invaded every branch of I business" How like the utterance of
 Willard Fillmore in 1851, and of James Al. .A,w
 messages while the country was suffer | ing under the democratic "Walker Tariff of lS46, were these words, when the country was again standing under the shadow of the coming democratic policy outlined iu 1892 Nor have con- | ditions improved in the three years since MT Cleveland so vividly portrayed
 them. So we have the united testimony of President Cleveland and your cores
 pondent, that times are not prosperous. | If any further evidence of general pros
 perity prior to 1893 is wanted 1t can be
 found in abundance, in the annual re-
 ports of the Secretary of the Treasury
 for the years 1S9l2 A
 I venture to express my regret that
 "Democrat" finds in the proposed cleo
 ton of Msjor Mckinley, no hope of re-
 lief from ''the loss and failure that have
 invaded every branch of business" be-
 cause the republican platform does not
 contemplate an income tax to stop the
 deficit in the revenues. But when did
 the levy of an income tax become a
 tenet of democratic faith? And if I
 may be permitted another question
 when was the coinage of silver at ratio not based on the intrinsic value of that
 metal, first made cardinal principle of
 the democratic party? Indeed is any
 part of the Chicago platform democratic? :?
 In selecting states for comparison,
 your correspondent has named, as the
 ones where moneyed men are the most
 numerous according to population. and
 which in point of wealth have outstrip-
 ped the South and West, those states
 whose wealth represents the accumula-
 tion of one hundred years, and seeks to
 compare these, with states which may
 be said to have only just begun real de-
 velcpment, and states which have been
 devastated by the rsvages of war, and
 whose recovery has been retarded by
 the intolerance of their people. But
 for the sake of the argument, let us ad-
 init that the comparison is fairly institu-
 ted. The question is, has republican
 legislation benefited the one and ipjur-
 ed the other? Has it given the New
 England states (except Maine) New
 York, Pennsylvania ard New Jersey an
 undue advantage over Kansas, Colorado,
 California. Georgia, Florida and the
 Carolinas? The Eleventh Census shows
 that the gain in total population of the
 United States from 1880 to 1890 was
 "A 8 per cent. The seven states named
 by your correspondent as having suffer
 ed, show an average gain in population for the period mentioned of 40 2 per
 cent, while the nine states which he
 mentions as having been favored show
 an average gain in population of only
 IA per cent. "Democrat" will hardly . contend that substantial gain in popu- } lation indicates increasing poverty, or
 he would not have excepted Maine from his list of proserous states; because the ) census of 1890 shows that Maine gained [ less than per cent. and Vermont. which
 he includes. actually lost In population. ], An examination of the comparative in- ], crease in wealth in these states, would,
 it is believed, show similar results, but : would exceed the limits of an ordinary newspaper article. But since we are be- } ing told by Mir Bryan that the farmers
 have suffered most, let us take typical , western state for the purpose of compar ison. Minnesota was admitted into the : Union as 8 state in 1858. By the cen. } sus of 1880 her population is shown to have been 780, 773. and in 1890 1.301. 826 gain of 66.6 per cent. In 1880 hel farm mortgages amounted to $36, 900,
 900. In 1890 her farm mortgages had increased to $39. .000, ,00O, an increase of ' S3.00O,000. During the same period
 these same lands had increased in value ' $146, GOO, 900, the farm machinery and
 implements increased $4,O0O,0 and nearly $27, 100000 was added to the value of the live stock upon them; or r net increase in the wealth of the far B mers of STA, 4,O00, 900 in ten years. Nol B is this all A recent official table pre- pared by the bank examiner of that f state, shows the comparative bank de . posits in the different congressional dis B tricts in 1886, 1890 and 1896. We vii
 exclude the Fourth, Fifth and Sixth r districts, because they contain the citie, 0 of St. Paul, Minneapolis and Duluth
 and we have this remarkable showing o 8 deposits in the other four districts !. which are agricultural.
 1st. s2, 2,l2l ,sO6 s4,O5l, ,979 s5, 5,549, ,se q 2d. 926613 2446,s41 4,7l2.23 | Sd. 1898, 942 2,S74 544 4668, ,84 | 7th. 1,159,700 1.853,60 3,094, ,O7! q If any one believes that these farmer. @ will vote in favor of being paid this SIS, 8 900, 900 in "cheap" money. he does no !, know them.
 "Democrat" asks why Florida an6
 California will leave the republican col
 umn. As Florida has not been in the