The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1897-01-15
ONE CAUSE OF THE TROUBLE.

ONE CAUSE OF THE TROUBLE.
The Populistic agitators have de-
clared that the people Of Kansas es-
pecially the farmers are oppressed by
the capitalists of the east and they
howl about the men whom they say
are growing rich at the expense of
the western farmer, and are grinding
him into the ground. 1t seems that
there is another side to the story and
the Kansans themselves tell it. The
report of the state agricultural society
of Kansas, just published shows that
for the, past two years the agricultu-
raj productions of that state aggre-
gated in value S244, 793, S14.11. This
would indicate that the farmer OF
that state has plenty means OF SUBJ
sistence, and is not in any respect
bordering upon the condition of pau
perism which Populist agitators love
to harp about. In this connection
some remarks made by ex-Lieut. Gov.
Felt, before the agricultural society
of that state some time ago, and which
have not been objected to by the
farmers there, indicates where some
of the trouble of Kansas lies. He said
that the farmers there who were not
doing we'll were those who let more or
less of their produce go to waste, and
declared that there had enough gone
to waste upon the farms in the eight
counties of the first congressional
district "every five years during the
past three decades to have paid every
dollar of farm Indebtedness in that
district" Surely the east is not to
blame for this waste, Continuing Mr..
Felt said: "We have bought too much
and saved too little. Credit has come
to us in the garb of friend and has
proven our worst enemy. If we had
exercised half as much care to keep
out of debt as we have to get into it,
we should be in a much better condi-
tion today. We cannot live upon the
mortgages we have given nor fatten
upon the interest we pay. Had we
been content to live upon what we
earned and saved we should be the
most independent people on the earth.
Haste to get rich has made us bor-
rowers and the borrower has made
booms and booms made men wild, and
Kansas became a vast insane asylum,
covering so, 900 square miles. We had
too much credit and we abused it. We
borrowed too much money and wasted
it. We flew too high and fell on hard
spots. We have learned that wealth
is the creation of land when touched
by the wand of labor. No outsid
can force a Kansan to do anything;
but when a Kansas man saw lit to be-
come rich in ninety days he did so,
and when the boom broke he found
himself at the bottom of the WELL"
Mr.. Felt held that Kansas was not
poor but rich.
There is hardly question but that
Mr.. Felt has diagnosed the case cor
rectly. And not only does it apply to
much of the trouble there, but every
where else, where people have been
living under the same conditions.
When the booms which were created
broke, and the shoe pinched those
who were caught; when crops failed
or prices went down, the farmer who
had created an Indebtedness upon
basis of good crops and high average
of prices, found himself in a hard
path, and Immediately the Populistic
agitator, in the hope of personal sue
cess, declared that the eastern money
power was to blame for the trouble
that had overtaken them.
But the farmer who has conducted
his business upon business principles,
who has diversified his crops, who is
making dairying an important factor
of his farm industry, is not joining in
the cry of the agitator. He sees
light ahead, or has already reached
the point where he has comfortable
balance in the bank. And the trou-
BILE which Mr.. Felt points is applica-
BILE not only TO farm life, but to every
walk of life. There has been an over
boom, and a living beyond means, and
the people have been paying the pen