The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1899-07-15
FARMERS HOME MARKET.
Why the Agricultural Obtains Sc
Liberal n Share OF tAe Gem
eraI Prosperity.

The associate editor of the London
Statist, writing to that paper from Chi
cago, said recently:
That the farming country is excep-
tionally prosperous, and Is likely to re-
main so for several years, is certain. It's
good fortune during the past three years
has been remarkable. All with whom
speak express astonishment at the great
change which has taken place. In 1896
money in the west could not be borrowed
at any price, and in the preceding years
loans to farmers for short periods fire.
quently were made at one per cent. per
month. while for fixed periods the rate was
usually from eight to ten per cent Now
anyone with security can borrow at less
than six per cent while loans for fixed
periods secured on real estate are adver-
tised at AZ per cent. AS an indication of
the change which has occurred / may
mention that for many years a certain
state lent its school funds to the author
tiles of the various counties at six per cent,
and the counties made considerable profits
by relending the money to individuals at
from eight to ten per cent. But the county
authorities cannot now use the money at
six per cent, and have decided to repay
their loans. - BY almost every
mail lenders receive notices of repayment
of maturing loans; sometimes even the
loans are repaid in advance with interest.
We recognize and are quite ready to
admit that the most remarkable pros
perity which is now being enjoyed by
the farmers of the country is due in
part to their large crops-thatist to say,
if they had not had large crops they
would not have had large sales and,
therefore, would not have taken in so
much money. At the same time we
wish to call attention to the fact that
large crops do not, per Sc, mean such re-
markable prosperity as that which is
pictured, and accurately pictured, by
this Englishman, who is studying finan-
cial and industrial conditions in this
country. Large crops do not of neces-
sity nor, as rule, mean good prices.
There have been years of large crops
when it has been more profitable to
burn corn for fuel than to sell it at pre-
vailing prices, and when the farmers of
he west have actually put their corn
to such use.
In seeking the reason for the remark
able prosperity of the present time we
must look further than the large crops.
The most remarkable feature of the
whole agricultural situation is that
with phenomenally large crops prices
have been good, high even, and have
yielded large returns to the farmers
both on capital invested and on labor
expended.
That this has been so is due to the
industrial prosperity which the whole
country is enjoying. The farmers must
have markets as well as crops. The
home market is to an incalculable de-
gree the farmers best market, as it is
that of every other American producer
With factories closed, with laborers
idle, with business dull, the demand for
agricultural products is at the lowest
ebb. 1t is true that people must eat
but there are innumerable ways in
which they can economize; and the
actual facts show that in times of in.
dustrial depression, such as are the in.
evitable result of free trade or of any
approach to it, the people do economic
greatly, even in regard to articles OF
food. Prosperity would have been an
impossibility to the farmer had there
not been phenomenal industrial re-
vival under the stimulating effects of q
restored protective tariff. The farm.
er's large crops would have been but a
source of annoyance and naturalization
to him had there not been an army Of
consumers among industrial workers
able and eager to buy those products
A protective tariff secures to American
farmers the great American market fol
the sale of their food products just as
surely as it secures it to American
manufacturers for the products OF
their factories. The methods by which
this is accomplished differ, but the re-
suit is the same. There is every reason
to believe that the farmers of the west
are fully alive to this fact and that
neither Mr.. Bryan nor any other elo
quent free trader can draw them from
the pathway of righteousness, which is
the pathway of protection to American
interests, industrial and agricultural.
Unworthy of TrE~fs.