The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1896-08-04
THE SUFFERING FARMER.
He Shares the Hard Times with 9th
err Classes of Citizens.


Philadelphia North American.
A great deal is being said nowadays
about the s%ufferings Of the farmer, and
because he hasn't been making much
his debts, the country Is urged to adopt a
policy which would mean not only COM
mercial ruin. but national dishonor. To
read the harangues Of the Popocratic DEM
classes of people which make up the Amer
lean Nation, the farming class was alone
astrous times. This is SO far from being
true that the very contrary of is the fact.
AS a nation is a living organism there can
be no true prosperity which is not shared
alike by all its members. any more than
there can be a healthy body any part OF
which is diseased or any function OF which
been feeling the pinch of hard times for
the past three years. and no section of the
community has been exempt from the gem
eral distress. The farmer has suffered
with the rest of us. He has suffered from
the competition of a cheap foreign labor,
against which it is impossible in the nature
ton. He is compelled to find a market
abroad for his surplus products, and That
market OF late has not been a prontabie
one.
The reason for this is not to be found
in the alleged appreciation Of the gold dol
lar. about which cheming and unserupu-
lous politicians have been making such
an outcry in the rural districts. To say
that the gold dollar has increased in value
is to tell a deliberate untruth, although II
il had increased in value, the farmer would
have no reason to complain, but the re-
verse. His false free silver friends as
sure him that the dollar is worth twice
what ii was twenty years ago. AT that
rate, the sixty or seventy cents a bushel
which he gets for his wheat nov is as
good as $1.20 or $1i0 a bushel before the
alleged appreciation of the gold dollar be-
gan. But there has been no such appre-
citation. The decline in the market price OF
farm and other products is due to an
other and very different cause. 1t is due
to an increased supply of those products
in the markets of the world at Il lower
cost. 1t is due to the opening up and cul-
tivation of enormous areas of wheat
growing territory which a few years back
was virgin soil.
1t is due to the cheapness with which
great crops are raised in Russia. in Egypt.
In India. in the Argentine Republic. 1t is
due to the wonderful reduction which has
taken place in the cost of transportation
from the farm to the market place. The
gold standard has had no more to do with
1t than the canals Of Mars or the mount
aims In the moon. and the debaSement of
shame she Ea Mhic6y il p WPoliId n Iram u inc sigma ss = n Of
ton OF r~epudiators would only make mat
ters worse, because by disorganizing the
commercial and industrial world it would
throw thousands out of employment, and
SO reduce the consuming capacity of the
home market. 1t is not denied. however.
that the farmer has suffered, but so far
from having been the chief sufferer from
the terrible stress of the times, if the
truth could be known, it would. we believe.
appear that the agricultural interest has
endured less distress and sustained Il
smaller measure of loss than any other.
What. for amp are his losses COM
pared with those of the capitalists. small
and great. who have seen their property
annihilated by the stringencies of the
INES. Wall street is held up by the ignor-
ant and malicious Popocrats as the en-
bodiment of arrogant and oppressive
wealth; but what a fearful tale of woe the
annals of Wall street since 1892 exhibit,
The loss through the depreciation i'm the
market value of securities during the past
four years amounts to thousands of mil
lions of dollars; but it has never occurred
to any one to attribute those losses to the
appreciation Of gold or 10 demand as a
recompense for them that the government
OF the United States should default on its
not bound by any special contract to do
the same by making payments at the rate
of IS cents on the dollar.
Then there is the manufacturing interest:
how about that? Isn't that as much en-
titled to help and sympathy as the interest
for whose benefit the Popocrats are rnder-
taking to enforce q policy of private spolia-
ton and national dishonor? Millions of
dollars are invested in manufacturing
plants. and millions Of men and women,
ment in its operation. A large proportion
of that plant is standing idle now, and
thousands of operatives are living on their
savings or on their credit. or on their
friends. But the manufacturers are not
demanding the admission Of silver to free
coinage at a ratio of 16 to l. The farmer
mustn't suppose that he is the only per-
SON who is hard up. or that he has special
claim to consideration superior to those of
the community 1T large. We are ali in the
same boat toi N.her, and the man who
wants to bore Il hole in the bottom of it
will nave to be restrained.