The Monitor-register., 1896-08-21
Free Coinage Catechism for Farmers.

this Catechisn? A. They reply that
whether the gold standard of currency has
helped the wage Garner or not, it has
seriously hurt the farmer.
@. What do they allege to be the
average farmers condition. A. They
declare that as a result of the gold stan
dard, the farmers of this country have
fallen into desperate state of poverty.
@ Is this true? A. 1t is not.
@ How can you prove that it is not
true? A. BY the fact that farmers have
been buying more farm land under the
gold standard of currency and raising
more crops. By the fact that farmers in
many Western States are paying off their
mortgages. By the fact that in the grain
country, outside of parts of Kansas and
Nebraska, farm lands are selling for
much more than they brought half
! dozen years ago. Finally, by the personal
testimony of experts.
@. How do you know that the farmers
are buying mora land? A. By the in
crease IN acreage planted
@ Give figures. A. 10 1872 the con-
bined acreage of wheat, corn, oats. barley
and buck wheat in the United States was
65 42S, 119: in 1894 it was 1928, ,428, ,092;
increase nearly 100 per cent. This years
acreage is not greatly changed from 1894
@ Would this increase have been possi-
BILE if farming had been losing enter
prise? A. Certainly not. When people
find that they are losing money in busi.
ness, they are apt to stop that business
altogether The last thing they do is to
| extend the same business to double its
former magnitude.
@. How do you know that farmers are
paying off their mortgages? A. By the
best of authority, the statements of the
loan and mortgage companies which lent
the money.
Q, Can you give any instance? A. One
company, the New England Loan and
Trust, lately published, in an official
statement to it's security holders, the fact
paid off during last March alone. OF this
amount $92, 1854 was paid before the
principal was due.
@. How do you know that farm lands
have risen in value2 A. In Iowa, particu
larly, We base our information on
numerous deeds of sale made within the
las1 year or two, showing advances of 10
to 20 per cent, within four to ten years,
| in the value of land sold.
@. Have all farm lands risen in value?
A. Not all.
@. Where are the chief exceptionss A.
| In parts of Kansas, where the uncertain
climate has made the original purchase a
bad investment; in parts of Nebraska,
where the rainfall is uncertain, and where
| the opening of Oklahoma lowered the
price of all neighboring farm country.
These we're the unlucky experiments,
such as are found in every trade.
Q. What personal testimony have you
as to farming conditions generally? A.
Mr.. Prime, the well-known crop expert,
| and thoroughly unbiased authority,
lately said in published interview: "The
farmers in the West were never so we'll
off as they are to day. They never had so
much to eat and drink, or better clothes
TO wear, or owed so little"
@ But is it not true that almost all the
farmers are heavily in debt? A. 1t is not.
@. How do you know they are not? A.
By the statistics of the United States
| census.
! @ What do these statistics show? A.
By the census of 1890 there we're in the
six States of Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska,
Minnesota, North Dakota and South
Dakota 720. 479 families cultivating farms.
OF this number 248 $50 families had
mortgages on their farms, 23O. 72S owned
their farms free, while 241, ,001 rented
their farms, and, therefore, had nothing
to do with mortgs ges.
Q. What does this signifyP A. 1t signi-
fiss that in six representative far Western
| grain States hardly one third of the culti-
vators of farms have on their land any
mortgages whatever.
| @. But are not the farmers in the South
more heavily in debt than this? A. The
| proportion of Southern farmers under a
mortgage is wholly insignificant.
Q. Give some figures. A. By the 1890
census, families owning farms free in
Kentucky numbered $3.50; families
owning mortgaged farms numbered 4991
In Tennessee farms owned outright we're
1O3,346; mortgaged farms, 3431. In Ala
bama the proportion was 68,79s to 3131;
in Georgia it was II, 116 to 2491. In North
i Carolina, 101, 321 to 52O1.
Q. Would not free silver coinage help
the farmer to larger export trade? A.
Not unless they sold their grain abroad
for lower price than they sell it now,
because they must sell in competition
with all the world.
@ But if gold was at a premium, would
| it not be profit to the farmer to sell his
grain abroad for gold, aud then sell his
gold here for deprecated silver? A. Every
| thing he wished to buy with the depre-
| oiated silver-clothing, carpets, furniture,
farm mplements-would rise exactly as
much.
Q. Would not the country's export
trade be helped by free silver coinage? A.
Our export trade has increased since the
| demonstration of silver, and, since our
adoption of the gold standard, more
rapidly than ever before.
Q. How large was this increaseP A.
Since 1879, the annual exports of the
United States have increased 1874 per cent.
@ In what produ cts was this export
increase largest? A. In products of the
farm.
Q. Comprising what? A. Grain, cotton,
tobacco, meat, live cat tie, sheep and hogs.
@. What was the increase in these pro-
ductsP A. 10 1872 we exported 1854. 906,
637 worth; in 1878, $515. 955. 2O3; in 1892,
1854, ,4sO.s43
z. What do you conclude from all
these facts? A. That, in spite of occa-
sional setbacks, occasional poor harvests,
and occasional mistakes in farm land in
vestment, the farmer in the United States
has.prospered under the gold standard, and
will prosper under its continuance and
that all the ''racket" to the contrary is
made by the few who have failed and BY
| noisy demsgogues.
Don't suffer With corns, when To-