The Florida agriculturist. [volume] (DeLand, Fla.) 1878-1911, 1896-10-21
The Conspiracy of 1896 VS.. the Crime of
1882 Of interest to Farmers,

farmer can again and again be bunCOed
into letting the benevolent looking cor
dial gntleman, who succeeded in reliev-
ing him of his pocketbook, escape by
means of the very simple method of lust
lily shouting stop theft" 1t is an old
dodge, and rather more frequently
adopted than the equally successful en-
terpriSe known as the Gold brick"
game.
Can anyone explain the readiness in
the farmer to believe that there are peo-
pie living who are anxious to part with
wealth without an adequate equivalent,
solely for the benefit of farmers whom
they may or may not have met before,
and for whose exclusive benefit they are
willing to sacrifice their time and
wealth? Why should the farmer consid-
er it reasonable that anyone would work
hard to obtain an opportunity to give
him something for nothing,-and do it
from purely disinterested, philanthropic
motives?
Has not the farmer had ample oppor-
tunities for discovering the fallacy of the
various hair Drained wild schemes that
have periodically been sprung upon him
by cranks, frauds or demagogues?
Can farmer expect to get credit in
the future if he-as a class allows 1t to
be believed generally that he stands
ready at any or all times to adopt or
encourage any wild scheme that may be
brought forward by the demagogues or
by selfish and interested parties, when
such a scheme seems to show the way
of repudiating a portion of an honest
debt by a legislative trick?
Would not, the other hand, the
mOneyed class or the merchant stand
reader to loan money or grant liberal
credit to the farmers if they could be
counted on to Indignantly reject every
proposition, trick or device aimed at the
curtailment or partial reputation of a
debt incurred in good faith?
How many farmers are there in this
vast and beautiful country, that can
ever raise crops without requiring good
4losx 10
live on until their crops mature?
How many farmers can hope to obtain
credit for necessaries of life clothing,
seed, agricultural implements, fertilizers,
cash for bringing the fertilizers from the
fertilizer factory to their farms? If the
silver agitators should perchance sue
coed in carrying the election next No
vember, what will become Of their farms,
their families, while they will have to
wait for matters to readjust themselves?
Will they be able to get any consolation
from the silver agitators, who will, in
such much to be dreaded contingency,
have no more use for them, and will not
help them in their distress.
Has the farmer ever received anything
from his so-called friends of the politi-
cal suasion? Will the farmers wheat
crop or his corn or potato crops ever be
really protected by legislation? Would the
farmer vote for a scheme-or rather for
party-that promised him to enact
laws to establish the compulsory price
fifty cents per bushel for potatoes, re-
CARELESS of the market price of these
crops in return for the farmers vote in
favor of a law that this country shall
and must coin into a silver dollar every
fiftY-fiVe or f1fty-eight cents worth of
silver, brought to the mint by anybody,
and that every loyal citizen (Which
means every farmer and every laborer)
must receive these silver dollars as full
legal tender and full payment of one
dollars worth Of grain, produce or la
Dor?
Does the farmer not know that no law
in the world can secure for him more
than the article can be bought at in the
other countries, plus carrying charges?
Have farmers any silver that can be
scheme intended to benefit only those
who have sflver,-or silver Mines or at
least gold enough to buy up both?
The farmer stands a good chance to
vote for a reckless scheme, intended to
enrich those selfish people who spend
hundreds of thousands of dollars trying
to make the farmers believe that they
want this silver legislation for the bene-
fit of the farmers and the people in gen
eral; but in case they should carry the
election-thrOugh the farmrs' vote (Which
God forbid, they not only would be una
BILE, even II willing, to procure higher
prices for the bulk of the farmers grain
and they would then have the means of
buying up all farm products In a degrad-
ed, deprecated currency, and get gold
for it afterWard from the foreigner to
whom they would sell it for export.
For every dollars worth sold by the
farmer in deprecated silver he would
have to buy at least fifty to seventy-five
cents worth of clothing, provisions, etc,
ETC., to keep him and his family alive I'M
til next crop, at enhanced prices, and on
been ruined by this most unheard of con-
a cash basis.