The Saint Paul globe., 1899-12-13
FOLLY OF FARMERS.
Poor Roads Cost Producers Millions
of Dollars Every Year.

States Duty
The farmers shoHld be the most pros
porous and independent as a class Of any
people on earth. It Is an acknowledged
fact that the farmers are not as pros
porous as they should be, and that their
condition is not being improved as the
years go by. For this condition the
farmer can largely blame himself. 1t is
pertinent to inquire wherein lies his folly
and it will be found to emanate from two
causes. First, he does not know his pow
er; second, he does not improve his op-
portUnities
He is the producer of every dollar Of
the worlds primary wealth that is not
dug from the mine or is of spontaneous
growth. He feeds and clothes the world
while the non-producer absorbs his earn
ings and speculates on and grows rich
out of his labor Let him cease his toll
for a single year and every railroad will
suspend every factory close It's doors and
gaunt famine, stalking the earth, will
lay its whitening touch upon the heads Of
millions. Strong men will yield to hunger;
helpless women, stricken with starvation,
will fall by the Wayside, and famishing
babes tuggfng at Withered and empty
breasts will sink into the dreamless sleep.
He feeds the world and clothes the
world. He constitutes about one-ha1f the
worlds population, and yet he IS the play
thing of politicians, and the prey of
greedy shylocks, the slave of every pass
ing ism, who has not yet shown the cour-
age or the judgment to embrace the OPP
portunity for self-emancipation that is,
and has all along, at least in the United
States, been within his easy grasp. He
seems satisfied to be the hewer of wood
and drawer of Water-the bearer of the
worlds burdens for those who neither
toll nor spin.
Producing more than half of all the
worlds wealth and making possible the
production of the balance, does it not
seem to a fair mind that he should be
the owner of at least one-half of that
which he produces? And yet, In the Unit
ed States, under a republican form of
government, where his condition should
be best and his opportunities greatest, he
is the real owner of less than per cent
of the country's wealth.
There is a business cause for the
farmers lack of prosperity that is de-
serving of more of his attention and care
full scrutiny than all of the political bug
bears that have ever been invented to
frighten him into theesupport of the diff
ferent political parties and blind him to
his true condition. It is our purpose to
call his attention to one phase of this
cause Of his business depression
In 1890 the total value of all the farms
of the United States was estimated by
the census of that year to be Sc, ,232, ,186, 100,
and the total value of the farm products
by the same census was estimated to be
$2 AGO, ,107, ,454. If the farmer had been free
from debt and been the owner of the soil
he cultivated that year his total wealth
would have been $S692, ,293, ,644. The total
wealth of the whole country, including
railroads, telegraphs, factories, mines,
gold and silver coin and bullion and every
other species of wealth was $65, ,037, ,091, 1877,
Of which amount 1t can readily be seen
the farmer would have owned a little less
than One-eighth. But the same census
shows that the real estate mortgages of
the country aggregated then $6,019, ,679 1856.
If one-half of this amount was on the
farms the wealth of the farmer would
be reduced to $5,6S2, ,453, ,652 Now, further
reduce this by the vast sum covered by
chattel mortgages and take into further
consideration the fact that a large per
cent of the farms is owned by others
than the actual tillers of the SOIL and an
estimate can be made of the small per
cent of the wealth of the country that is
actually owned by the men who practical
ly produce it all.
What is the cause of this business de-
preston with one class of our citizens
while the other class the non-producers,
are absorbing all the wealth of the coun-
| try? 1t Is largely question of transpor-
| tation-a question of facilities for market
| ing the producers OF the country 1t costs
| the producer more on an average to get
products to the local market at a railway
| station seven to ten miles from his farm
than it costs the buyer to transport them
! to his market hundreds of miles distant,
| and the cost of both comes out of the
producer in the end. The only hope for
| him to increase his profit is to decrease
| the cost of reaching his, or the first
market. To do this farmers are annually
I wasting millions of dollars that should
be kept in their pockets. They are fgura-
| lively, If not literally, piling these mil