The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1899-07-12
AGRICULTURAL.
Sauce for the Gander.

For years past the farmers have been
in tight place. They have found it
very difficult to keep along and keep
out of debt. Now human nature is a
little curious in several ways, and it
has been the case that other people
who were prospecting all these years
have complacently told the farmers
that all this depression in farming was
simply owing in great measure to the
inevitable changes in business meth
DDS. New ways of doing all kinds of
business were coming in vogue, and
tina farmer must adapt himself to the
new ways, and much of the same ben
evolent sort of advice.
But the world does not stand still,
and it has come TO pass that the mod
ern methods of doing business have
come to bear down heavily upon other
people than the farmers. Take the
commercial travellers, for instance
While the farmers have been seeking
to get very poor living in many cases
from the soil under these "changed
conditions, the travelling men have
been living on the fat of the land.
They have had big salaries, have had
things their own way, have had more
than heart could wish. But now, alas
for them, the change in business meth
DDS has caught them in it's relentless
grasp, and they find themselves in the
same fix with the farmers.
And the same is true of good many
other people. Interest on investments
has gone down till an investment that
would bring in thousand dollars a few
years ago will now scarcely bring
more than four hundred. AL along
the line has this shrinkage taken place
until hundreds and thousands of people
have found their means of support cut
down one-half or more. Under such
circumstances it should not be surpris-
ing if the farmers thought of the adj
vice once so freely given to them, and
should apply the old adage to the stu
alton. If the people who have been
dealing out sauce to the goose for these
years have to take a good sup of it
themselves, they will realize how nau-
seating it is.
All the farmers have asked has been
justice. They have of course failed in
many thing, but when they see the
government permitting men to make
and sell fraudulent substitutes fol
many of their most important products
when they see other men permitted tC
raise and lower the wheat and Other
markets just for gambling purposes
when the transportation company are
allowed to trample on the rights Of
farmers and rob them right and left
when commission men are permitted
to plumber farmers, and the law ant
justice are silent, is it to be wondered
that farmers have lost faith in the gov
eminent in many cases? Is it any
wonder that they have fallen prey t
Populists and the like?
Now we will see what the gandel
will do under like circumstances. Th'
trusts have come to stay, the new
conditions are going 10 be permanent
business can never 60 back to where i
was in the good old days in which thu
small dealers and the drummers haC
their paradise. The department stores
are crowdiDg others out, the old-fash
Toned book stores are already thing o
the past in the cities, others will follow
until who can tell where it will all end
When all the big concerns swallow W
all the little ones, is the time to come
when one great big concern will swal
low up all the others? Who can tell!