The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1896-05-01

hogs fell so per cent, and sheep SO per
cent.
The farmers have been eating their
farms. instead of living on their sur
plus products, for more than twenty
years. Between 1880 and 1890 in all
the states and territories the number
of owning farmers increased 159,951
and the number of tenant farmers in
creased 599. 337. In 1880 only 1852
per cent of the farms were cultivated
by tenants, while in 1890, 34.13 per
cent of the farming families hired
their farms.
According to the census of 1890 there
were 1850 52 families Of five MEM
bers each in the United States in that
year. Of this number, $3.50, 900 occu-
pied hired homes or farms as tenants,
and only 2,19O,152 occupied homes of
their own, free from incumbrance- In
other words 81 per cent of the total
number occupied homes that were hir-
ed or mortgaged- The percentage Of
actual tenants, exclusive of those Oc-
cupying mortgaged homes, was 60 per
cent. OF course the occupant OF a
mOrtgaged home is really only ten
ant of the MORTGAGE, and if that class
be included it is evident that 81 per
cent of the families of this country
were virtually tenants when the last
census was taken.
When these facts and figures are call
ed to the attention of the goldite organs
and orators Of the east, they say that
over production is the cause of the
enormous fall in the prices of farm
products which has occurred since 1873
but the actual statistics prove that
this is not true. In 1880 the wheat
crop of the country amounted to 49S,-
$40, S6S bushels. or 90 bushels per cap
tia, and the price that year, according
to the official reports of the depart
ment of agriculture, was 95.1 cents per
bushel In 1895 the crop amounted to
467, 10000 bushels, equal to only 81
bushels per capita, and the price had
fallen to 500 cents. In the same year
we produced LII, 434,543 bushels Of
corn, or 34.2 bushels per capita, and
the price was 1916 cents per buheL
Last year with crop of 2,151, 139, 900
bushels, or only 30.7 bushels per cap
tia, the price was only 26.4 cents per
bushel.
In every other line Of farm products
similar revelations are made by the
statistics. 1t is demonstratable fact
that the pricesNof all farm products in
this country have fallen from 40 to
90 per cent. since 1873, and the fall has
been greater since the complete demon
citation of silver through the repeal
of the purchasing clause of the Sher-
man law in 1898 than in any previous
period of the country's history.
No wonder factories, mills and mer-
camille establishments are going into
bankruptcy at an unprecedented rate
in all the older states at the present
time. The farmers are the great con-
sumers as well as the great producers
of the country, and when they must
sell their products at loss they have
no surplus with which to buy what
they need. The appreciation Of gold
since 1873 has virtually doubled the
burden of their debts, while it has cut
the prices of their products in two and
las steadily impoverished them so that
every year finds greater per centage
of them in the tenant class.
Mahifestly, they can hope for no i'm
prOvement in their condition until the
cause which has led to their impover-
ishment is removed and the right rem
edy applied. The cause is the demon
etizatiOn of silver, and the remedy is
its reconciliation. The farmer who
votes for single gold standard ticket
or platform in the coming presidential
election will vote directly against his
own best interests, and the same is Uue
of every wage-earner and other pro-
Queer.
The reopening Of our minis to the
free coinage of both metals at the ra-
ito of 1S to 1would do a great deal to
right the wrong of demonstration. 1t
would put an end to the existing mon
ey famine which is forcing lower pric-
es every day, and it would give a new
stimulus TO enterprise and industry
that would soon make ours the most
prosperous nation in the world.