Reporter and farmer. [volume] (Webster, Day County, Dakota [S.D.]) 188?-1946, 1898-01-20
BACK WARD
WHAT A VAST CHANGE HAS
TAKEN PLACE:
The Country Does Not Recognize Itseif
i'm Viewing Its Condition of q Year
Ago Farmer the Ones Who Have
Z Received the Greatest Benefit.
washington letter.


This ought to be a Merry Christmas
and a Happy New Year for a large pro-
portion of the people of the United
States.
There are several reasons and it may
not be improper from this national
standpoint, where they are easily look
ed at, TO enumerate some of them.
Glance over the files of your papers
OF the corresponding date four years
ago and even three years ago, and, if
you have not them at hand, recall to
your recollection the circumstances of
that time. Want and suffering in ey-
cry city hundreds of thousands of peo-
pie out Of employment; business sus-
pended and business men called upon
to give of their funds to keep the UNI
employed of their own communities
from starvation; soup houses estab-
lished everywhere: idle men in search
of employment or in search of susie
nance; thousands sleeping in station
houses and public buildings in the
great cities. Everybody who recalls
the experiences OF the first anu second
winters which followed the election of
a free trade President and Congress
and contrasts them with those OF to-
day. must feel that there is occasion
Tor gratitude in the present condition
OF his WI community and the com
munities of his country.
Take the farmer and his condition as
pnnthpp a v q ~ MIN @ Whit he x-yac MT
actually starving and requiring his
friends 70 contribute food at this time
four years ago, the contrast between
the prices which he Is now getting and
those during the free trade period will
certainly make this a Merry Christmas
and Happy New Year to him. The far
mer supplies the bulk of that great
mass OF productions which go to other
parts of the wcrld and bring millions
OF money into the United States. The
expectations of the country in the year
now about to end are the heaviest in
its entire history. They will reach for
the calendar year nearly 81, 100. 900, 900.
In but once in the history of the coun-
try did they reach as much as a bill
lion, and that under the administration
OF the last Republican President, Cen
eral Harrison. This year they will ex-
coed those OF 1892, when they were ST.
015. 000, 900. And the farmer is getting
his share of this prosperity.
Take the manufacturers and tne mill
lions of men employed in the various
industries which they control or which
are tributary to them. Four years ago
the shutters were upon the windows.
the wheels were silent, the employees
were without work. To-day in every
community the factories are working
or full time. many of them overtime,
in some cases running day and night,
while thousands upon thousands OF
w~orkingmen and women have received
as holiday gifts an increase of from 10
to 20 per cent In their wages. This Is
the result of the protective system: the
conditions OF tour years ago were the
result of the free trade system.
Take the currency of the country. the
| money in circulation as another exam
pie. Two years ago the leaders of the
Democratic party began the vigorous
agitation in favor of an unsound sys-
| tenn OF finance in the affairs of the ma
ton. The result was Immediately felt
in a rapid reduction OF the money in
circulation. Eighteen months ago its
leaders met in Chicago and did what it
had been for some time appaprent they
would do, declared for the free and un-
limited coinage of silver at a ratio far
different from that which actually ex-
lists in the commercial value OF silver
and gold. And during that campaign
it was insisted that only by this false
and delusiye method could there be
, produced a sufficient increase in the
currency OF the country 10 keep pace
result of that agitation was suspension
OF business, the disappearance of cur
rency. business alarm. still further loss
OF employment. The rejection of the
proposition by the people was felt by
an immediate increase in the country,
and on this holiday occasion, only a
year after the rejection by the people
or the United States of this proposed
system OF finance, the currency ia cir
culation is more than 5000, o50. O0e In
excess of that on the day that Mr.. Bry-
an was nominated upos the free silver
platform. And this is another of the
numerous causes for congratulation to
the people OF the United States ON this
holiday occasion.
What is the cause of all these
changes? The cause is found simply
in the difference of policy and admin
istration between the Cleveland free
trade period and the Mckinley protec-
tive tariff period. Under the former
policy the country had reached the low-
est ebb in finance and trade within the