The herald., 1896-02-22
AMERICAN FARMERS
HON. JOHN W. BooKwALTER

| The Hon. John W. Bookwalter OF Ohio
the well-known traveller and man o.
| affairs, recently gave Farm News an inter
! view on the subject of 1.-The Condition o
| the American Farmer"
| Mr.. Bookwalter is himself an extensive
/, land owner, having in the western states al
! many as 800 farms under cultivation, and
| although he has been for many years a
manufacturer on large scale. he is broad
enough to see that there can be no perma-
nent prosperity for this country if the
farmer suffers under unjust and discrim.
mating legislation.
"What is the matter with the American
farmer?" repeated Mr.. Bookwalter after
the Farm News question, II will tell you.
All roads lead to Rome and so the con-
sideration of every phase of all questions
affecting the prosperity of the people,
leads us to the consideration Of the fiscal
system OF our government.
"Of course, as everyone knows, agricult-
ure in the old states was depressed and al
most ruined by the giving away by the
sissippi valley and the opening Of railroads
through these lands, practically bringing
the markets of the world to the western
farmers door. OF course the eastern farm
er, with his oftentimes worn out lands.
could not compete with his western BROTH
er, who TILED the richest soil in the world,
which he had obtained for almost nothing;
while the eastern lands, worn out as they
were, we're held at from $7o to 5000 per
acre.
"This condition of affairs would natural
ly tend to the depression of agriculture in
the eastern states: but by this time condi-
tions would have righted themselves. and
at least the western farmers would be
happy and prosperous, were it not for a
still more serious disadvantage under
which the farmer has been struggling
of the unjust bounty he has been COM
PEELED to pay for the last thirty years on
everything that he has purchased; in other
words, he has been compelled to sell his
products in the markets of the world in
competition with every other farmer on
the face of the earth, and at the same
time, he has been compelled to purchase
his supplies in restricted market at q
price fixed by legislation.
"The price of wheat is determined how?
Why, by the selling price in Liverpool and
Mark Lane. Let cablegram fash around
the world announcing that the Argentine
Republic wheat crop is greatly in excess of
former years. and what is the result?
Down goes the price in New York, in Chi
cago and in Duluth. Let telegram be re-
ceived from Russia announcing that that
country will export but little wheat, and up
goes the price all over tho United States.
1t is the grain we export that fixes the price
of our entire crop.
ut was foreign capital that developed
the railroads throughout the west; it is abb
solutely necessary that q country as young
as ours and developing as rapidly as we
have, should draw upon foreign countries
for capital. We could never have ad
vanced as rapidly as we have but for this.
But after building railro ads and investing
heavily in the United States, these foreign
capitalists, looking for new fields, turned
their eyes to South America, to India, and
to the fertile steppes of Russia, where the
same process of rapid development we
saw in the United States was repeated
again. What was the result? Millions
of acres were At once brought into di-
rect competition with the American
farmer, and these lands were for the most
part worked by pauper labor, besides
which the cheap labor of Eng and and Ger
many of which we hear so much, is prince
ly and royal. The effect was the complete
decentralization of the American export
trade. A single example will suffice to
show how effectually these new lands killed
the American farmers market. At one
time we exported millions OF barrels of
flour to the Argentine republic, and now,
not only have we lost all of that trade, but
on the other hand the Argentine farmer is
exporting millions of bushels OF wheat into
the same European markets upon which
we must depend with the effect of so de-
pressing prices that our Rranaries are full
of grain for which we can find no profitable
outlet.
''ln fact, the European markets are
practically closed to the American farmer.
They prefer to buy of any nation under the
sun, rather than the United States. Why?
Because what they buy of the United
States must be very largely paid for in
gold. They cannot send us commodities
in exchange for our products because we
have erected an artificial barrier. an iron
clad wall, that efec;ually shuts them from
our markets. Commerce must always be
an exchange of commodities; we use
money simply to facilitate this exchange,
given for commodity. Until the American
farmer is allowed to buy in the same mar.
ket that fixes the prices of what he sells,
he can never know that prosperity he
ought to have, and his condition will grow
radically worse every year until this eco.
nomic iriquity is righted.
Now there are two ways of righting
this: We can remove this barrier and
place the farmer on his natural footing. or
we can allow nature to do it for us. But
this latter process is slow and painful
one, and is only accomplished by the
most disastrous disturbances of economic
conditions. We are undergoing such
process at the present time, which is really
the secret of our hard times; an unnatural
condition of affairs has been created by
legislation, but as surely as water seeks its
level, so surely do economic questions
tend to adjust themselves once more on an
equitable basis.
Look here once: When bounty was
put on manufacturing-for it is bounty,
call it a tariff or what you wilt caused
a rush of populate from the rural dis
tricts to the nearest city to engage in man.
ufacture or some of the allied pursuits that
were supported by the government at the
expense of the farmer. The government
put premium on urban life, and it was
hat
possibly do SO should take advantage of