Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1900-06-08
HOW THEY PROSPER!
HOW REPUBLICAN, PROSPERITY
AFFECTS FARMERS7

AFFECTS FARMERS7
SpasmOdic Increase OF Prices of Farm Products
Delusive Gauge of ProsperItv-lt is More
Than Offset by the Permanent Increased
Cost of Everything the Farmer has to Buy.
Under Trust Prces-Very Few Mortgages
Have Been Reduced Under the Imperial Pol
icy Of Benevolent Assimilation The
Ever Grinding Tax Mills. Under Expansive
Control, are Now Grinding Swiftly. as Well
as Exceedingly Fine"
There is not single occupation,
business or profession to which is not
attached by the Republican organs
the label Prosperity" Every indi-
vidual man knows better than the sta
tisticians whether he is prosperous or
not, and it is useless to expect an ag-
gregation of individuals TO loudly ex-
pres thanks for prosperity when they
do not come up to the label. The no.
ton has been going about that the
farmers are afflicted with astounding
prosperity" simply because prices of
farm produce have, in the last two or
three years, partly recovered from the
low level they reached in some previ.
ons years. Now the farmer ought to
know, and the records OF mortgages in
the various county clerks and record
ers' offices demonstrate the fact, that
all these increased receipts, if anybody
can show bank account demonstrate
ing any increase, are more than alb
sorbcd by the increased price he must
pay for everything for which the
farmer exchanges produce. He must
pay tribute to the trusts, and no bet
ter illustration of the truth of this
can be made than in the case of the
American Steel Company. Six thous-
and men were thrown out of employ
ment because of the lack of demand
for implements which the farmers
could not purchase because of the
high price. If there was so much
prosperity, why could not the farmer
afford to purchase the necessary i'm
plements? The fact is that heavy
impost is laid upon nearly everything
the farmer needs in his household and
in his business, while the prices of his
own products are at the mercy of
spectators, combines, corners, ETC..
etc. The farmer has to meet the
worlds price in disposing of his pro-
duct, but he encounters a different
state Of things when he comes TO pur-
chase for himself. The range of
prices set up by the speculators is arti-
fetal, and what they gain in the spec.
ulative market they pocket-what
they loose they mercilessly force the
farmer to pay by increasing the prices
in manufactures. This seeming pros
perity will be discovered the more you
look behind it to be q myth, and al
though the misfortunes of the rest OF
the earth have enabled the farmer to
dispose OF more of his products than
formerly, still there are combinations
to he broken down. trusts to be abol-
ished and the financial system elimi.
mated before the farmer can really say
that period of prosperity has been
inaugurated.
How much of the enormous balance
of trade in our favor has reached the
farmer? Has he been enabled to re-
duce his mortgage by payment of the
principal, or even to pay the interest
in full without securing an extension
OF time? Are his wife and children
better dressed, is his farm in a more
hourishing condition. has he pur-
chased any new carpets, curtains, fur
niture for his household? Is he ell
abled to employ more help to relieve
his aching bones and those of his wife
and children from the arduous labor
the continually undergo to save their
homes from the NAV OF the mortga-
gee?
We trow not, and the proof OF it is
that beyond the mere means of exist
ence, whatever he makes or earns
must 60 into the ever expanding tax
mill which is grinding him into pow
erty when he is not paying into the
trusts and combines.