The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1896-11-13
LIVE ISSUES.
Condition of the Farmers.

is the condition of the farmers as
compared to that of other classes g"
The difficulty of answering the
question lies in what classes are
meant. There is but one means by
which the question can be intelli-
gently answered, which is by divid
ing the people into two classes, a
producing and consuming class.
The question can under these two
heads be considered by the laws
which govern political economy.
The producing class is composed
of all who create anything for use
by the people, and which is offered
in exchange for money. This class
is made up of farmers who exchange
the products of their farms; of man
ufacturers who exchange the pro
ducts of their machinery and their
hands for money; of miners who
exchange the output of the mines
for money; of laborers of all classes
whose labor is expended in any and
all of thes lines of employment, as
assistants, embracing mechanics,
artisans and ordinary laborers.
These must be catalogued with
the farmer in order to consider the
question intelligently, because they
are all producers, and the cause
which affects one affects all alike,
other conditions being equal. They
are producers of things to be eX-
changed for money before the ben
efits of their labor can be enjoyed
by them.
The other class is composed Of
the non-producers and comprises
the people who receive interest on
money, rents, salaries, annuities,
dividends from various kinds of
investments, etc. These persons,
however useful they may be as a
part of society, and whose services
in many cases are indispensable,
yet produce nothing that is placed
on the general market to be pur
chased and sold for personal use.
The same person may, and often
does belong to both classes, but the
line of demarcatiOn does not divide
ON persons but ON economic cOndi-
tons. The producing class-of
which the farmer stands first in
Order-all use the products of their
labor and thought to buy money
from the annuitants, the receivers
of interest, rents, salaries, fees, etc.,
which are mostly fixed sums of
money that are subject to very
little change in the main. If the
price of goods falls it requires more
of the products of the labor of the
class which compose the producers,
to buy the necessary money en-
ployed in promoting their business,
and becomes an increasing hardship
upon all producers, except those
who are favored by special laws and
are thereby enabled to form mo-
nOpOly. Such organizations prey
upon all classes indiscriminately,
and every effort of the community
should be directed to the abolition
of all monopolies.
The cause which Expresses the
purchasers of money by exchanging
an unequal amount of the products
of their labor for money, becomes
an advantage to the non producing
classes, enabling them to purchase
for their personal use more of the
producers goods for the same
amount of money. For instance if
a person is receiving a 81 900 salary
when wheat is $l.OO bushel and
all other products are priced on the
same plane, and the price of wheat
falls, and all other goods in the
same ratio, to so cents a bushel,
the receiver of the salary is advan-
tagged one hundred per cent. His
salary is now equal to salary of
$4,000 under former conditions,
while the farmer and all other pro
ducers are placed at disadvantage
of one hundred per cent.
Theoretically this is true but
practically it is not so as regards
the producing class, for that class
participates in the advantage caused
by the decline in price, as a pur-
chaser, for all producers are also
consumers of the products of others,
so his disadvantage in the fall of
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