The record-union., 1897-07-09


again, with less prospect of owning a
home; when this farmer finds fault with
the financial system that has misused
him, the man from whom he bought his
farm, and to whom he surrenders it, the
man who has the farm back and thou
sand dollars in cash beside, instead of
listening to his cry instead of needing
his complaint, calls him a socialist and
an anarchist and tells him he is not fit
to live in a Government where people
govern themselves. (Applause)
My friends. l met some two years ago
a farmer in the San Joaquin Valley. l
Was riding through the State on the cars
in September of 1895. The man was
sitting in front of me. and we became
engaged in conversation. He told me
that he was farmer; that he farmed
large amount of land, and that he once
thought that he was worth a large
amount of money; but he told me that
land just across the road from his house
that he had been offered 500 an acre for
in years gone by, he could not sell for
SO an acre. He told me the land which
his neighbOr owned-when his neighbor
wanted to borrow money upon 1.-THE
man Will NHOIl L WAS ldlhlllS Wchl
down to San Francisco to get his neigh
Dor a loan, and the best that he could do
was SO an acre at 9 per cent. interest,
and that the man who borrowed the
money had to pay all the expenses of
making the mortgage, examining the
abstract and a commission.
1 find that in this very State men had
lost and were losing their farms. be-
cause the fall in value had taken away
the equity of redemption and left
scarcely enough to cover the face of the
mortgage.
Why, / notice in a paper published in
San Francisco something like this:
That when l came to the State | ought
not to be allowed to see the signs of re-
turning prosperity; and then I turned it
over and happened to look through the
advertisements and notices on the back
of the paper, and found there farms and
houses and lots offered for sale at less
than half of what it had cost to put the
improvements upon the farms and the
lets. (Applause)
Ny friends, you need not be careful to
conceal such signs of returning pros
perity You can find them all over
/ Cn1S country. but IDeTe are SOME NuO
say that it is not fair to take the
farmer and point out the injustice
which the gold standard has done to
him. There are some who imagine
that that which hurts the farmer does
not affect others. Why, my friends. if
| [ was disposed to rest my case upon
authority, l might quote to you the
highest possible authority in the Re-
i.
United States, and read a report which
accompanied the bill which bears his
name; and in that report it was stated
stated by the man who now occu-
pies the executive chair, that there was
depression in agriculture. Was it due
TO the Wilson bill? No, my friends, it
was before there was a Wilson bill In
1890 we had had a high tariff for thirty
years; and yet the high priest of pro-
lection, in a solemn report, declared
that there was a widespread depression
in agriculture, after thirty years of a
protective tariff.
More than that, he said that without
prosperity in agriculture there could be
no prosperity among other classes. And
he was right. When the American
farmer is not prosperous, there can be
itO general prosperity IuIOuSAouL Tie
country. I don't make it universal, be-
cause there can be a certain prosperity
limited to a few people. The men who
| hold the postoffices and draw fixed sal
aries may be prosperous, no matter how
hard times are for the rest. Those who
occupy official positions and draw fixed
salaries may be able to get along, even
if prices are falling Monopoles which
| Of h0 Of
necessary of life may be able to get
| along, no matter how hard the times
are for others. The trusts may be able
to live. though the people die; but
there can be no widespread and general
prosperity unless it commences at the
ground and makes farmers prosperous
first, so that their prosperity can be
shared with those who exchange the
products of the farm.
That, my friends, is a statement
which needs no verification. 1t proves
itself. The mere statement of it is
sufficient to demonstrate its truth. I'm
less the farmers are prosperous, there
will be hard times in this country, be-
cause unless the farmers have enough
left after they sell their products, to
pay taxes, interest and fixed charges,
and then enough to support their FAM
lilies, they cannot buy the products of
the factories
We often hear people talk about
opening the mills. Why, my friends
what is the use of opening the mills
unless the people can buy what the
mills produce? If your stores are full
and your mills are full, and the peo-
pie cannot buy, how can you open the
mills and produce moro until tba oo,,
suming capacity of the people is en-
larged.
In this town you have your laboring
p.en-men who are employed in the
shops. How are they interested in the
prosperity of the farmer? Why. nv
friends, scattered all over this country
are the little villages-villages which
live upon the farming communities
about. Those farmers send their pro-
ducts to market, and with the money
they receive they purchase goods at the
stores, and when the farmers can buy
/ and the storekeepers can sell, then the
railroads are called into use to carry
/ goods between producer and consumer.
But if you shut off the consumption of
goods and the purchase of goods. then
your railroads will have no use for the
cars; and they don't employ people Just
merely for the pleasure of paying wages.
Tney employ men to move freight. and
they only employ them when they have
freight to move. And thus. my friends.
you lind that unless this prosperity be-
guns with the farmer, it cannot be dis
tributed throughout the nation.
And how about your merchants?