Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1896-05-14
The Cause of It.

ten million dollars, and its expendi-
lures four hundred and ninety millions,
leavinga balance for that year of
twenty millions to the right side of the
account; whereas, in the fiscal year of
1895, the revenues of our government
amount to $500, 900, and our ex-
penditures to $433, 900. 900, leaving a
balance to the wrong side of the ac-
count of $43, 100000. That for the
| first ten months of the present fiscal
year we have paid out 1928, 10000
and received $275. 100000. leaving a
deficit of $23, 100000. He shows that
for many years the balance of trade
has been largely against England. and
argues that in the case of Great Brit
ain an increasing revenue is not neces-
sarily an indication of prosperity, for
the reason that large per cent. of it's
taxpayers incomes is derived from
| investments in other countries. He
argues that England has gained moth
ing by Free Trade; that while that
measure has given cheap food to the
English working man, thereby stimu-
lating English manufactures, it has
ruined the English farmer, who is un-
able to compete with Importation from
more fertile fields, and that millions of
acres in rural England that at one
time were as thoroughly cultivated as
the gardens of Messrs. Markham and
Newman, have reverted to the wilder
ness ondition-become pasture lands,
because they have ceased to be profita-
BILE as farming lands. The area of
permanent pasture in that country has
increased from 13,178,412 acres in
1874 to 1850, 563 acres in 1895. In
other words, of the SO, 100 square miles
of the island of Great Britain, 25, 954-
an area equal to one-half of England
has been denuded of population; and
that in the twenty-one years from 1874
to 1895 nearly 1862 square miles of
this territory-an area larger than
the State of Conuecticut--has been add
ed to these waste lands.
| He shows that of the 100000 in
habitants of England and Wales, 20,-
800, 900 live in cities and towns, and
100000 in the country; that in Scot
land the congestion of population in
| the cities and towns is rather worse.
All these facts and figures are adj
duced to show that while free trade
has stimulated England's commerce, it
has been at the expense of her agri-
cultural interests. But is this the les
son that the figures teach? If it is,
we ought to find the rural populations
of protected Germany enjoying an era
of unbounded prosperity, but we find
these people complaining quite as bit
terly as the English farmer. In this
country, the home of Mckinley; the
land of the Home Market; where the
trust flourishes and the cont ine thrives:
where anything can get protection
that has money to put up, from pig
iron to collars and cuffs-the agricul-
turist ought to be in the most affluent
circumstances. But alas! like his
brethren in Germany and England, he
| finds himself in a most unen viable con-
dition: his labor proftless; general
good crops, if not curse, surely not a
blessing, for they do not increase his
debt-paying capacity one particle, be-
cause bountiful crop is always &C.
companied by reduced prices, so that
half-crop. so far as his surplus is
concerned, does him about as much
good as full one.
The process of forcing our rural
population from their lands into the
cities and towns goes on as merrily
here as it does in England. Austin
Corbin has been enabled to gather up
enough of the abandoned farms in one
of the Eastern States TO create a forest
for the preservation of game almost as
large as Iron county. 1t is sad
thing that the farms, once the homes
of a thriving population, to which
they gave ample support, should re-
vert to the beasts of the field!
All over the country the acreage of
abandoned farms Is increasing. If we
| find the movement from the farm to
the city going on in protectionist as
we'll as free trade nations, we may
fairly conclude that the cause for it
| arises from some other source than
taxation. The English farmer thinks
it is the approaching gold standard,
by which the price of his products is
being continually lowered, that Is at
the bottom of his misfortunes. The
German and American farmer agree
with him.. The vast national and
municipal debts, the salaries and fees
of officials, taxes. and interest, have
gone on Increasing until the limit of
the producers capacity to bear these
burdens has been reached. As con-
sequence. he is compelled to Law down