The Jasper weekly courier. [volume] (Jasper, Ind.) 1858-1922, 1900-09-28

ETUWTH
ing toward the Offices OF the Dig corpora
| ton attorneys. while less fortunate prac-
titioners are becoming law clerks.
The actors suffer from the theatrical
| trust.
The small, manufacturer is constantly
menaced by the trusts.
| He does not know at what moment some
| large corporation will attempt 10 mon
opolize the business In which he Is en-
gagged. and give him his choice between
bankruptcy and particuation In An In
dustrial conspiracy against the rest OF
| the country. Many have been driven into
| the trust organizati ton by the larger cor
| porations engaged in the same business,
| or by trusts formed 10 control iron. steel.
| tin plate or some ether product used as
n basis for further manufacture. In what
business can yosr son safely invest a
| small amount of capital today III ne
| starts into any independent business he
| will md Il difficult. II not impossible, to
| compete with large organization II II
attempts 10 underaell him in his ter
rtory. because II can sustain itself. ry
collecting high prices I'm other parts OF
the country. III he s-ppresses his moral
! objections and takes stock in mon
(, opoly. he does not know how soon those
ia charge may attempt TO freeze out
the smaller stockholders.
The merchant is losing his independ-
ence. The trust fixes the terms upon
which he shall sell. and often binds him
I lY contract not TO sell Il competing dftl-
Gle. When the monopoly is complete
credit will he shortened. and the mer-
chant WIFI be compelled TO bear all the
risks of trade. When the trust raises
prices the merchant usually has 10 divide
the advance with his customers. so far
stock on hand is concerned. but when
\ the trust overstocks the market and then
! lets the price fall. the merchant must
\ bear the loss on accumulated stock.
I When, for instance. the American Steel
/ & Wire Company closed several OF its
factories few months ago and threw
\ some six thousand employees out Of work
\ II dropped the price OF nails and barbed
wire in orscr to work on a surplus stock
which had accumulated because the
high prices had lcssened the demand.
4 Every merchant lost money on the nails
and wire on hand.
There Is already overproduction In many
lines. The supply of common chairs Is
now considerably I'm excess OF the de-
n:and. but lest the Republicans may try
! 10 explain this upon the theory that the
people are TOO busy TO sit down, l may
add that there Is also dizziness in the
shoe trade. The Iron Age in a recent
issue pointed out that the production of
iron was falling of. the decrease then
amounting 10 more than $4,000 tons per
month. Dun's report of July 2lst stated
that the wooden mills were running at
! less than half their capacity, and even
recently the cotton manufacturers have
been threatening to either reduce wages
or shut down temporarily. According to
Dun's report. the business failures have
been greater during each month OF 1900
than they were during the same months
! OF last year. and this occurs in the midst
1 Of good crops. and when two wars are
In progress.
Trusts and Arbitrary Fluctuations.
The contractor can figure with some ac-
curacy so long as natural laws control.
but he cannot protect himself against the
| arbitrary fluctuations. which are not only
possible but probable when monopoly
| controls the market.
The farmer Is one OF the most import
ant factors in our national life. Some
| one has said to him. The hand that
guides the plowshars feeds the world"
He Is not a stakeholder I'm any of the
trusts. but he feels the extortion prac-
| ticed by them all. i am not farming on
a large scale. but the misleading reports
which have been circulated concerning
| my oat crop justify me In making ref
erence to my own experience. The New
York Tribune recently printed dispatch
| from Nebraska to the effect that l had
just sold forty-eight hundred bushels OF
oats at so cents per bushel supposed TO
be the yield OF l20 acres) and that the
| amount received for the oats was more
than double the price paid for the land.
| The Tribune article then proceeded to ci-
| late upon the prosperity of the farmer.
using my experience as an illustration,
and asserted that the farmers of Nebras-
| ka were becoming so opulent that they
we're joining The Republican party. The
facts are first That | had five acres
Of oats instead of one hundred and
twenty acres: second. That the oats
have not yet been threshed. SC that the
yield is not known: third. That oats are
selling fer less than p cents in Chicago.
instead OF 30 cents In Nebraska. and
fourth. That the land upon which the
oats were raised cost me over 500 an
acre instead Of Sc. II. when threshed.
my oats yield 40 bushels TO the acre.
| and l sell them IN Nebraska for 20 cents
per bushel the total income from the FIVE
acres will be $40 or less than eight per
cent on the investment. After taking out
the cost of blowing. sowing. harvesting
and threshing. the net income from that
| five acre tract will not exceed four per
cent on the money invested. ] do not
mean 10 Judge others by my own expert
| ence. but | mention the facts I'm this case
TO show how the Republican papers ex-
aggerate the farmers prosperity. and
credit a Republican administration with
good crops. making no allowance for the
crop failures which occur from time to
time.
Decline OF Farm Products
But while on the oat question let me
call attention to the statistics given in
the Investment guide already referred to.
According TO Henry Clews AZ Co., the
average prices received by farmers for
oats, during the seven years beginning
with 1898, and ending with 1899. were as
follows: 1898. 2s.4 1894. 32.4: 1895. 1876:
1896 1871 1897. 2i.2; 1895. ass: 1899. 24.9 Ac-
cordng to these figures oats averaged
Is cents a bushel during the four years of
Mr. Clevelands administration. and only
| "A cents per bushel during the three years
Of Mr.. McKinley's administration-the
present year Is not yet complete but
oats are at the present time below the
average.
According to the same authority the
average prices received by the farmers
for corn were as follows: 1sa3 3s.5; 1894.
49, 1896 26i 1896. 2i5: 1897. 263 1885.
2s7: 1899. 800. making an average OF about
s05 during the four years OF Mr.. Cleve-
lands administration, and ISL during the
three years of Mr.. McKinley's admins
tration-the fourth year Is not yet COM
plete. but corn Is at this time above the
| average.
Wheat. according 10 the same author
ity brought TO the farmers the following
prices: 1893, 53s: 1894. 49.1: 1895. 500: 1896.
ils; 1897. sos; 1898. 5s.2; 1899. 5s.l. showing