Courier Democrat. (Langdon, N.D.) 1891-1920, 1897-06-17

to those who hold that poverty is
always chargeable to individual
dereliction it does not by any
means reach the heart Of the
trouble.
West OF the Ohio and the Mis-
sissippi agriculture is the Chief in
dustry. It is the prosperity of this
section which determines the pros
perity Of the east. since it is the
place of consumption Of what the
looms and factories of the Atlantic
States create. The theory that
the manufacturer is the donor of
prosperity to the farmer will not
be sustained by investigation. The
genesis of prosperity starts nearer
to natures heart. It proceeds from
the wheat fields and the cotton
plantations, not from the factories.
Demand is always the father, never
the offspring, Of supply. A man
cannot lift himself by his boot
straps, machine may not be built
which will create the power to run
itself perpetually, neither can man
ufactures create the demand for
the supply, as the by-product of
the making of thesupply. Demand
must come first.
A careful study Of the cause of
the western depression leads to the
conclusion that the price of wheat
is the gauge of it. Wheat is the
one agricultural staple adapted to
almost every soil. Its price al
ways measures the lowest barome-
ter of farm prosperity or depres-
sion, depending whether or not
the selling price is above or below
the cost of production. This is
true because the farmer need never
raise q less profitable crop.
The law Of the equalization of
profits applies to farm products
more perfectly than to manufac-
tured articles, because there are nc
farmers trusts to stife competition.
When wheat is down it drags down
with it the profits of all agricul-
tu1al crops
The wheat growers are driven
to raising something apparently
more profitable, and the unusual
production Of these brings down
the usual profits Of all to the COM
mon depressed level. Wheat, then,
alone can reverse the order from
adversely to prosperity. When the
price of wheat rises the stress is
taken off of other crops and the
equalization of profits on the high
er level again obtains.
Another phase of the western
situation is that the low price of
wheat retards the development Of
arid region, whore vast and expen-
sive water system must be intro
duced to subject the soil to irriga-
ton. When wheat Is one dollar
per bushel, every acre Of arid land
offers an annual bonus Of fifteen
dollars profit to bring thunder cul-
tivation. When wheat is but fifty
cents per bushel, this inducement
disappears
The western farmer is for the
free coinage of silver because he
has traced the cause Of cheap wheat
to it's source. He knows that the
price of wheat is fixed in Liverpool
where our surplus is sold in COM
petition with the wheat Of India.
He knows that while the Indian
ryot still receives his two and one
half silver rupees per bushel, as he
has for years, the English gold
sovereign, which buys that wheat
as well as his own, will exchange
for twenty rupees now as against
ten when silver was at par. The
farmer sees that the price ofwheat
is inseparably welded to the COM
mercial ratio Of silver to gold;
that now he must deliver eight
bushels of wheat FOR a pound ster-
ling, to meet the competition Of