Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1896-01-08
WASTINGOUR WEALTH
BONE STARTLING FACTS AND
FIGURES.
D1ref1l Effects of tho Fall of Prices
Caused by False Legislation on the
Wealth Producing Classes-Read and
Reflect Upon Them.


l63O,O16,870 pounds Of cotton, estimated
~ the agricultural department to have
'een worth 81, ,491 ,467 900. For the five
iears, 1890-94, Is, ,372, ,026,Os5 bounds Of
cotton were produced in th United
States of an estimated value to the
planter of 81, sos, ,281,27 The planters
during the last period raised 27-100
bounds of cotton where they raised one
In the first, but they only received $40
Of l per cent more for the 2 27-100
pounds of cotton in the vars 1S90-94
than they did for l pound otton for
the years 1904. Cotton mad fallen
over 55 per cent. If the cotton growers
had realized prices current during the
years 1904 for the crops raised in the
years 1890-94, they would have received
t3,3S5, ,960,512 instead of $1,503, ,2S1 ,271.
During the five years, 1S7O-S4, the
farmers Of the United States raised
1,305, ,961 600 bushels of wheat, valued
at 81, ,461 ,159, $40, while for the crops of
wheat harvested in the five years 1890
S4 amounting to $2,393 ,39014 bushels,
The farmers received 81 sos, ,431 ,676 In
other words, 1 825-1000 bushels of wheat
were raised in the second period for
every one in the first, but the farmers
0nly received 10 per cent more in money
Tor crop 80 per cent greater in quanti-
ty. Wheat had fallen 1877 per cent, so
instead of realizing $2,667, 7,013,567 for
their crops of wheat in the second
period, which she would have done if
they had received prices current in tho
first period, they received only $780,
431,676.
AS with the planter and wheat farm
er, so with the sheep raiser. The clip
of wool in the United States for the
years 1870-74, amounting to 800, ,00O. 900
pounds. was valued at $3.50, 400, 900. For
the five years 1890-94, the production of
wool amounted to LASS ,210,384 pounds,
but it's value was only $45S, zoe, ,270. For
656,000,000 more pounds of wool the
sheep raiser only realized $4,000, 900
more. The production of wool had in
creased 80 per cent, but the value OF
the clip less than per cent.
In other words, owing to the fall in
the prices of these three staple COM
modities since 1870-74, the planter
received $1,ss3, ,000, 900 less for his cot
ton raised during the years 1890-94
than he otherwise would, the farmer
81 ,058, 900, 900 less for his wheat, and
the sheep raiser 1851 100000 less for his
wool. The planter, the farmer and the
sheep raiser had this much less cash to
pass through their hands than they
otherwise would have had.
| But the gold monometallists, the very
men who told us the fall in lices so
much spoken of was for the most part
imaginary, who insisted that goods
might have fallen, but that gold could
| that has occurred has been caused by
over production or perhaps the cheap
ening of production, these very same
| gold monometallists object to the pre-
| sentation of these figures as misleading.
They tell us cotton, wheat and wool are
exceptions, or that though the cash the
| farmer and planter receives for his
wheat or cotton or wool is much less,
the smaller amount of cash received
goes as far or even further, to-day
than the larger sum did twenty years
| ago, anu that, tneT0lOTc, the farmer
is better off, We will see.
We fancy that such arguments as
these, advanced by Prof. Laughlin or
Mr.. Atkinson, would not be we'll re-
ceived by an audience of farmers or
planters. The agricultural classes know
too we'll that wheat ant cotton and
wool are not the only products that
fa11 IT,, - 4. ell
the fall in prices too severely 80 be
talked into believing that which their
very senses tell them is not so, narnely,
that the fall in prices has not injured
them.
First as to the assertion that wheat.
cotton and wool are the only products
of agriculture that have fallen ma
terially in price. Taking the prices for
1870-84 as normal, wheat sold as an
average on the farm for SOL per cent
less in 1894, corn 81 per cent less, oats
Il per cent less, barley 48.1 per cent
less, rye 37.6 per cent less, cotton 59.5
per cent less, mules 1872 per cent, cows
S2.4 per cent, other cattle 299 per cent
sheep 41.5 per cent. 1t is no wonder the
gold monometallists point to corn and
extract what grains IF comfort from it
that they can. Taking these twelve
products of agriculture together we find
general fall in price of 41.2 per cent
The gold dollar, then, costs the far
mer at least 20 per cent more exertion
to-day than it did in 1S70-74 He re-
ceives for his wheat 56.1 per cent less
for his cotton 59.5 per cent less, for the
twelve products given above and. taken
together without regard to Importance
Az per cent less. The question then
is: Does the smaller amount he re-
ceives for the products of mis- labor go
as far as the larger amount he received
twenty years ago? Mr.. Atkinson and
Professor Laughlin present figures
showing that it does. The farmer does
not feel that his labor is better reward
ed to-day than before 1873, that the
same amount of products will buy for
him more Of the products of others to-
day than ever before, but Mr.. Atkinson
assures him it is the case. Is the suf-
fering of the practical farmer imagi.
harry or is theoretical Mr.. Atkinson at
fault?
Mr.. Atkinson reasons from assump-
tions. He assumes the farmer buys
ut wholesale. whereas he does not, and
he assumes the farmer goes direct to
the manufactures when he buys his
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