Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1896-09-08
THE WISE KANSA&.
How They Sought to Increase Their
Wealth by Legislative
Enactment.

T.. A. Stillwell has prepared a leafet
purporting to give history of certaiu
events occurring near the close of the'
Nineteenth century. 1t was declared TO
be period of depression, duIfng -wmun
it occurred to the wise men OF Kansas
that they could legislate thems elves into
affiuence. The governor assem- bled the
wise men and said:
A Kansas policy for Kansas is the
need of the hour. Wheat is hard to
raise, and the yield is light and uncer-
tain: but we are great on corn. Make
We, therefore, law in accordance with
which sovereign and august statue corn
shall be put upon par with wheat.
They shall be interchangeable, and the
price of corn shall be the same as the
price of wheat.
The wise men passed the law as the,
governor had advised and all the people
of the state rejoiced, for their cribs were
full of corn. They could hardly contain
themselves till the governor had signed
the bill which raised the price of Kansas;
corn from 10 cents to 45 cents bushel
All the people now felt rich. They
bought many luxuries and the most of
them went in debt. Then the farmers
from other states began hauling their
corn to Kansas. 1t seemed as if the coun-
try was all corn and it was all headed
for Kansas. The people of Kansas took
corn and gave up their wheat.
The farmers from the other states
thought Kansas people Were queer, but
they kept bringing them their corn. Corn
came i'll and wheat went out.
When the other states saw this vast
accumulation, the price of corn began to
decline till it could be purcha Sed any,
where except in Kansas for 10 cents u
bushel. In Kansas the price was still
40 cents, which was the price of wheat,
but there We're no buyers. When the
autumn came the Kansas people did not
have any wheat for seed Then they
sent to the neighboring states and i'm
plored farmers to exchange wheat at q
parity with corn. But the farmeFxs said:
"We will exchange one bushel Of wheat
for four and one-half bushels of corn"
"Our law" replied the Kansas people.
puts corn and wheat ut parity. They
are equal, for our wise men said they
should be-" And the farmers replied:
''Your wise men are asses; let them eat
your corn" So the Kansans went back
home and all their people were i'll de-
spair.
Then the governor again assembled
the wise men and said to them. Most
consummate, picturesque and glittering
COLL darned fools. There is but one
bigger fool than yourselves. 1t is he
who addresses you.
1--WE thought we could bluff the ever
lasting law of supply and demand with
our statute. We thought we could leg
islate value into thing and make our
people rich by law. We thought
we were patriotic. We were diotic.
Let us honestly acknowledge our as
sininity, repeal our fool law, get back
into line with the other states and mag
inc no more that we are wiser than the
whole world. Do this, and may we live
long enough to know that the other
states have ceased laughing at our folly
and that our own state has ceased ours
ing US for it,"
Then the wise men repealed the law,
but it was many years before the peo-
pie recovered from the effects of the corn
scare