The midland journal., 1899-11-24
Present Prosperity and the Farmer.

trade is traced back to its origin and care
fully analyzed it will be found that iron
is the chief industry that is directly sup
ported and advanced by the so called
boom, and steel rails the predominating
branch of that industry. All other lines
commenting on this phase of the industry
commercial paper remarks that $40
600 tons of steel rails was one Of the :fore-
runners of the present BOOM
After a severe depression i'll business
there always must come revival, and all
business revivals resemble one another
They may differ in degree but not in
kind. Neither will the same branch or
branches of industry always be the lead
ing or predominating one. In the present
one iron takes the lead and other lines
follow it up If the origin is sought for
i'll the present revival it is readily trace
able to the great wheat crop of three years
ago i'll America and the failure of the
crop in the rest of the world reaching a
famine in some countries. The moving
of that great crop to the seaboard set the
railroads on their feet. Before that great
wheat crop the railroads were looking in
all directions for relief The officers were
compelled to study and practice the most
rigid economy to prevent their roads from
going into receivers hands. The great
wheat crop saved many of them and lifted
all of them out of the Slough of Despond
The great wheat crop brought money to
the farmers who needed everything else.
They had been practicing economy as
stringently as the railroads and when their
wheat was converted into money, a de,
nand was made on the factories which
commenced to turn out goods and supply
the market. Soon every line of goods
dry goods, groceries, hardware, machin-
cry, ETC., commenced to swell the demand
and increase its volume The railroads
thus found employment and freights east
and west, north and south.
During the period of depression and
poverty in business the roads had worn
out their tracks and were in need of
repair and renewal all along their lines,
hence the immediate demand for new
rails. Prices of all kinds of iron and
steel had been driven down so low i'll this
country that foreigners found the United
States the cheapest market in all the
world to buy in and large orders for rails
and machinery were placed when prices
were at their lowest ebb. This started
the movement all along the line
| In the midst of this trade revival came
the war with Spain. Millions of money
were at once distributed among all
branches of industry; new war taxes were
levied and money borrowed by the gov
ernment and lavishly scattered amongst
corporations and contractors for the army.
Camps were formed in different paris
of the country, and at points apparently
remote as possible, which gave long lines
of railroad the opportunity TO gather in
millions from the government for hauling
the men and supplies back and forth.
Hence the railroad and iron business
became the leading INDUSTRIES of the
country and incidentally assisted all other
lines of business Almost every industry
influenced by this business prosperity
that has been dinged i'll the ears of the
people by the party newspapers, in the
hope of holding up the Republican party,
has been in trust except agriculture.
And as the demand came for products
they raised prices, till in many branches
prices are double what they were before
the boom started Iron and steel are
double and the foreign demand has ceased
and the jump in prices is bringing in
foreign goods, but those imports are
mostly of raw materials on which there is
s'nall or no duty. The high Dingley
tariff keeps out manufactured goods and
protects the trusts.
The banks have had rich harvest
pouring out their phantom money by the
thousand millions i'll order to keep the
big volume of business moving. All but
the farmers, whose products started the
boom, have been able to increase their
prices. The products of the farmer rise
but little if any, in price, especially for his
money crop-the wheat crop. This year
the wheat crop of the world is short and
the demand great, but wheat is pushed
down little or not allowed to rise.
All things the farmer has to buy rise
with the present business revival but
what he has to sell; they do not rise
unless scarcity forces up the price tenn,
porarily of some crop in which a partial
failure occurs. 1t is plain that the farmer
is the least among the bene6caries of the
present prosperity. The government has
favored by special legislation every in.
dustry, productive and speculative-espec.
tally the latter-except agriculture.
The present revival of prosperity is
largely artificial and not general in the
rise of the level of prices. Its financial
foundation also is mainly bank credit, the
most precarious base on which business
can be placed. All the business revivals
and spasmodic good times and sudden
business collapses and panics that checker
the history of this country have been
caused by bank credits which lacked a
stable basis of government money. The
present revival is of the same class and as