Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1896-08-13
FREE COINAGE CATECHlSM.
New York Evening Post.

New York Evening Post
Q, What d1 the free-coinage advocates
commonly answer when they are con-
fronted with the facts already stated IN
this Catechism? A. They reply that
whether the gold standard of currency
has helped the wage-earner or not, it has
seriously hurt the farmer.
Q. What do they allege to be the aver
age farmers condition? A. They declare
that as a result of the gold standard,
the farmers of this country have fallen in
to u desperate state of poverty.
q. Is this true? A. 1t is not.
Q. How can you prove that II 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-a-dozen
years ago. Finally, by personal testi-
| mony of experts.
Q. How do you know that the farmers
are buying more land? A. by the in
crease in acreage planted.
| Q. Give the figures. A. In 1872 the
combined acreage of wheat, corn, oats,
barley and buckwheat in the United
States was 65.i2S, 10: in 1894 it was
12S, 42S, OBJ; increase nearly 100 per cent.
This years acreage is not greatly changed
from 1894.
q. Would this increase have been pos
sible il farming had been losing enter
prise? A. Certainly not. When people
find that they are losing money in a
business, they are apt to stop that bust
ness altogether The last thing they do is
to extend the same business to double its
former magnitude.
q. How do you know that farmers are
paying off their mortgagesi 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 its security-holders. the fact
that S10S.944. in farm mortgages were
paid off during last March alone. OF
this amount S92,Gfi was paid before the
principal was due.
q. How do You know that farm lands
have risen in value? A. In Iowa parti-
cularly, we base our information oil
numerous deeds of sale made within the
last year or two. showing advances of IL
10 20 per cent, within four to ten years,
in the value of land sold
Q. Have all farm lands risen in value
A. Not ALL
/ Q. Where are the chief exceptions
A. In parts of Kansas, where the uncer
, tain climate has made the original pur
chase bad investment; in parts Of
Nebraska, where the rainfall is uncer
tain and where the opening of Okla
homa lowered the price of all neighbor
ing farm country. These We're the un
lucky experiments, such as are found u
, every trade.
@. What personal testimony have yor
, as to farming conditions generally IA. Mr.
Prime, the well-known crop expert, ant
a thoroughly unbiased authority. latel,
: said in published interview: eth,
/. farmers in the West were never so wei
3 off as they are to-day. They never hat
/. SO much TO eat and drink, or bette
q clothes to wear, or owed so little"
. q. But is it not true that almost al
: the farmers are heavily in debt? A.
r is not.
: q. How do you know they are not? A
0 BY the statistics of the United State
census.
a Q. What do these statistics show "a
5 BY the census of 1890, there were in tn
I six states of Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska
). Minnesota, North Dakota and Soutl
e Dakota, T20,4T9 families cultivatin
/. farms. OF this number, 2iS,750 familic
n had mortgages on their farms, 230,72
n owned their farms free. while 241 90
IS rented their farms, and therefore ha
s nothing to do with mortgages.
q O. What does this signify? A. 1t sig
| nifnu In in, s;x ia
l. ern grain States hardly one-thrd of tn
q cultivators Of farms have on their Ian
k any mortgages whatever.
l. @. But are not the farmers in tn
). South more heavily in debt than this
# A. The proportion of Southern farmer
under mortgage is wholly insignificant
n q. Give some figures. A. BY the 1870
l. census, families owning farms free i
s Kentucky numbered 11S,0S0; famile
Is owning mortgaged farms numbered 4,99l
N In Tennessee farms owned outright wer
Is 103,34G; mortgaged farms, 3,431. In ALI
IS hama the proportion was 6S,7QS to {, 13l
in Georgia it was T1,116 to 2,491; i
North Carolina, 101 ,32l to 5000.
Q. Would not free silver coinage hel
the farmers to n larger export trade2
:. Not unless they sold their grain abroa
70 for lower price than they sell it nov
: because they must sell in competitio
=, with all the world.
- q. But if gold was Mt n premium
" would il not be profit to the farmer I
=. sell his grain abroad for gold, and the
N sell his gold here for deprecated silver
Ne A. Everything he wished to buy wit
III the deprecated silver-clothing, carpet
:, furniture, farm inplements-would ris
ie exactly as much.
" q. Would not the country's expo
trade be helped by free silver coinage
~ A. Our export trade has increased sine
~ the demonstration of silver, and sin,
our adoption of the gold standard, mol
NJ rapidly than ever before.
it q. How large was this increase? 4
Since 1872, the annual exports of Il
a United States have increased 134 .,
1t cent.
q. In what products was this export |,
Mt creased the largest? A. In products
in the farm.
Q. Comprising what? A. Grain, co
ly ton. tobacco, meat, live cattle, sheep al
~ hogs.
to q. What was the increase In these pr
ii ducts? \. In 1872 we exported S35i
m663T worth; in 1873, $515, 1855, BOB;
is 1892. s754 .4SO,S43.
he q. What do yOu conclude from all the
of facts? a. That in spite Of occasional SC
or backs, occasional poor harvests and occa
be ional mistakes in farmland investmer
the farmer in the United States has pro