Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1896-09-24


dertaken almost exclusively for the
purchase of additional lands, and the
proceeds Of the mortgage in actual
cash going to swell the savings of the
quickly increasing ranks of village
bankers and tradesmen. Thousands OF
successful firms, anxious to give their
children the benefits of city education,
moved to Chicago and many of these
men are today counted among the
leading citizens of the western metro
polls.
Meantime the price of the farm land
in central Illinois has risen from $25
an acre in 1876 to SIS, $50 and in some
cases 500 an acre in 1894 and1S95. And
as every succeeding rise in value OF
land meant corresponding addition
to the number of small capitalists
eager to invest their savings in farm
mortgages competition for this class
of investment grew proportionately
keenr, leaving the borrowing farmer
the option of picking and choosing
who should be his creditor, and, in
short, practically debating his own
terms for the loan. Not a word about
the free coinage of silver, except here
croakings nobody needed outside the
circle of village loafers at the corner
groceries. The crime of 70" slept
peaceably in its grave, and even
Coins Financial School, had not
yet started on it's mission of mischief
to convert contented farmers into dis
gruntled and contentious agitators.
An era of low prices for agricultural
products, not confined to this state
only, nor yet to this country, but uni
versal wherever men obeyed the
scriptural Injunction to till the
EARTH" offered the first setback to
the uninterrupted quarter of a century
Of progress and plenty. Farmers all
the world over, who never heard and
probably never will hear. of the
"crime Of 49," suffered no loss than
the farmers of Illinois from the fact
that nature and science had outrun
the demand of the non-productive por-
ton of mankind. Commercial disas-
tiers, such as the business community
passed through twenty years previous
ly, made the summer of 1893 memora
BILE az an epoch Of general ruin.
But, unlike the panic of twenty years
ago, when the agricultural community
quickly recovered after the spasm had
passed, the year 1893 brought in it's
wake blight more lasting and more
hurtful than anyone had dreamed pos
sible on the former occasion 1t
brought the free silver agitation.
Levelheaded farmers, answering in
their loyalty to sound political princi
pies, dazed by the unnatural and pro-
longed depression, fell easy victims to
the sophistries of the free silver agita-
tor. That something was wrong the
farmer realized. Speculation and
overproduction had injured his mart,
and for the first time in the history
of American agriculture a lasting set
back threatened the farming communi-
ty. And at this juncture the free sill
yer agitator caught the unsettled farm
er. instilled into his mind the per-
nicious doctrine of reputation, and
for while at least threatened to con-
vert the honest farmer into dishonest
repudiator of his just debts.
Fortunately for the good name of the
farming community the free silver agi-
tation has reached it's zenith just at
the time when it's effects begin to show
with telling force upon its misguided
followers. Already the difficulty of
renewing mortgages has shown farm
ers that the will-o'-the-wisp which
they have been pursuing can but lead
them to a quagmire. Already the haste
to renew loans, which will not mature
for months to come, betokens a
changed state of affairs between farm
er debtors and creditors more forcibly
than tons of campaign literature could
depict. Men who for decades have
dictated their own terms to lenders
suddenly discover themselves in the
position Of suppliants anxious and
humble as the ne'er-do-weels who were
the scorn Of the community for their
shiftlessness. The consciousness of a
wrong intended makes moral towards
of men who have grown gray look
ing the world in the face" And the
beginning Is but yet. if this insane
free silver agitation is not speedily
expurgated from the agricultural COM
munity.-Chicago Post.