The Dalles times-mountaineer. [volume] (The Dalles, Or.) 1882-1904, 1899-10-21
PURE DEMIGOGY

PURE UEMIGOGY
The following appeared in a recen
issue OF the San Francisco Chronicle:
while Mr.. Bryan is doing his bes
to convince the farmers that theil
prosperity is more apparent than real
the farmers themselves are finding nc
fault with its substantial character
We lately printed a dispatch from
Chicago about the increased prices
their beef cattle are bringing, which
in part accounts for their satisfaction
in the way economic things are NOV
ing. 1t appears that the selling price
of beef on the hoof has only been eX-
ceeded once since 1880, when it was
five cents higher. That price is Sc f.,
as against $50 in 1892, S5.33 in 1893
and $5.S5 in 1894. Pork and mutton
have also moved up, the difference be-
ing hundreds of thousands of dollars
to the growers. wonder the freight
lines are over loaded with pianos, par
lor organs and other items of luxury
consigned to the farming communities
of the Middle West
''[t is noticeable in connection with
the prices men TONED that the value of
all live stock is greater than it was last
year, without regard to the edible
worth of the animals. Thus farm
horses increased in aggregate value
/ during the year ending December 81,
| 1898, in no less sum than $25, 5,7i3, oil,
and this notwi standing decline in
their number Mules increased in
value S6,729.972 AS for animals used
in one way or another for food, the
value of miich cows increased S65, 3d.
S33; oxen and other cattle, S104, ,367,-
213; sheep, s25, 700, ,19l, and swine, $s,-
O7S, ,639.
"When to these values are added the
enormous profits from whsa in 1897
9S, from the increase of the home mar
ket for all kinds of farm products and
from exports, the phrase poor farmers
becomes a mispomer."
When such effusions as this are
analyzed they show up in their true
light as being demigogical and devoid
of sense, for there is not single item
mentioned in it. except perhaps NUT
ton, the price OF which is affected by
the change of national policies 1t is
not the home markets that have
brought up the price of meats, but the
heavy shipments that have been made
abroad in an endeavor of certain
packers to control the markets of
Liverpool and London, and also be-
cause OF the famines in other meat
producing countries which have caused
a shortage in the worlds supply.
AS to the advance in the price of
horses and mules, it was not brought
about by protection tariff being
placed upon the animals, but because
of decrease in the supply. During
the past ten years horses have been at
low price, consequently fewer have
been raised. while hundreds of thous-
ands of them have been butchered and
canned, hence an appreciation in their
value was only the natural result of
shortage in the supply. or rather a re-
duction of the supply to nearer equal
ity with the demand. Possibly the
price of mutton has been advanced by
he change of national policy, for
duty put on wool has caused sheep
raisers to keep more of their flocks for
shearing purposes and put fewer On
the market for meat. But of all the
farm products sheep and wool are the |
only ones advanced by change of ad-
Wheat was OF advanc. |
ed in price because of change in the
tariff laws, but on account of the
shortage abroad caused by drought in i
the; other great wheat producing
countries.
And what has the farmer received
10 return for this seeming advance in
MS products which was due only to
accident. If he buys pound of nails,
| bail of wire, an ak, OF anything made
If iron he pays ordinarily utwice as
much as he did two years ago. fla
'uit of clothes, a carpet, dresss for
lis wife or daughter is needed, he pays
rom 25 to 334 per cent more than he
lid before the "wave of prosperity
oiled over the country. And so it
.oes through the entire list of what he |
s compelled to buy. While what he
PRODUCES has advanced in price
through the misfortunes of other
ountries and other peoples, what he
equires to purchase has advanced
orrespondingly. But what would I
ave been the condition of the farmer :
ad there been no famines abroad? t
he Dingley law would have been en- i
cted just the same, trusts wonld have ?
cen formed, prices would have gone t
p on everything except his wheat and d
heats. Would he then have been t
atisfed with the 'way in which
things are moving?" Ii