Meade County news. [volume] (Meade, Kan.) 1900-1918, 1900-09-27

The figures in the following article
apply to Indiana as far as acreage and
area is concerned. The moral of the
article, however, will be readily seen
by the farmer, wherever he may be
found.
In the onward march of events it
so happens that farmers prefer wire
to wood for fencing their land In
the state of Indiana there are in round
numbers say 100000 farms, and it is
estimated that the average farm con-
tains so acres and that about one
sixth of these farms, say $4,000, are
fenced with wire. There are numerous
reasons urged by farmers for prefer
ring wire to wood for fencing The
forests of Indiana in a large measure
have disappeared, and timber suitable
for rails has become scarce and costly
and is too valuable for fencing; it is
worth more to the farmers for lumber
than it is for fencing material; be-
sides wire, even if wood were plenti-
full, is more durable than wood. AS
result wire has become universally
popular for fencing. This fact ac-
counts for the existence of the wire
trust, an aggregation of capital Of
about 100000 900, which has control
of about 20 corporations engaged in
the manufacture of wire suitable for
fencing, exclusive of barbed wire,
numbered as to size 9, II, Is and 16.
For the purpose of easy calculation
10 show to what extent the wire trust
is a beneficiary of the Dingley pro-
tective tariff, it is worth while to ap-
proximate the amount of wire re-
J quired to fence farm of so acres. and
the cost prior and subject to the OPP
erations of the trust The outside
fencing of an 80 acre farm would re-
quire $40 rods of fence, and it is es-
timated by those who know that the
inside fencing equal to four lines
across the farm would require as much
more-total 1880 rods.
Wire fence of a superior quality,
four feet high, is manufactured, con-
tanning 10 pounds of wire to the rod;
hence, 1880 rods of fence would re-
quire 1880 pounds of wire. Before
the trust advanced prices this wire
was sold to manufacturers of fencing
at $1.65 per 100 pounds, costing S211.20
to properly fence an eighty acre farm.
The trust, taking advantage of the
necessities of farmers, advanced the
price of wire to 1895 per 100 pounds
an advance Of $3.50 per 100 pounds.
AS a result, manufacturers of wire
fence, instead of being able to supply
the required wire for an so acre farm
for $211.20, are required to advance
the price to $504.60-a difference of
$293.40, which the farmer has to pay
or go without wire fencing.
| Going back to the estimate that one
sixth of the farms of Indiana-33, 900,
the average being 80 acres-are under
wire fence, each requiring 1880
pounds of wire fencing-it is seen that
up to date 424 100000 pounds of wire
have been required to meet the de-
mands of the Indiana farmers. If
| this wire had been sold at $1.65 per
| 100 pounds, it would have cost the In
diana farmers s7,O02,S00. If, however,
| the wire had cost $685. per 100 pounds,
the place to which the trust has forced
prices, then, in that case, the Indiana
farmers would have paid $16,663 800
"a difference of 1861, 900.
What ic in cfore for Indiana farmers
provided the wire trust continues its
plundering policy? There are, accord
ing to the estimate made. 10000 80.
acre farms in Indiana, which under
favorable conditions would have wire
| fences
| 1t has been shown that to fully fence
| an 80 acre farm 1880 pounds of wire
are required; hence to fence 166,00
such farms would require 2,125, 800, 900
pounds Of wire. If this wire could be
| furnished at $165 per 100 pounds,
which was the price prior to the ad-
vance made by the trust, it would
cost the farmers of Indiana the sum
of $35,O75,7 200, but under the advance
made by the trust to $685. per- 100
pounds, the cost would be sS9,969, 100
an increase of $5S, S93, 400.
The basis of the calculations is ap-
| proXimately correct and demonstrates
the purpose of the trust to rob the
| farmers of Indiana, who choose to
substitute wire for wood in fencing
their farms. The result has been, as
has been stated, to paralyze the wire
fencing industry. Farmers of Indiana
have decided that they will not pay
the trust its robber prices, and are dis
| cussing the enormous inuity of the
Republican tariff which fosters such
plundering corporations as the wire
trust. They say that a law which en-
ables a combination of capital to per-
petrate such colossal robberies of the
farmers as the wire trust has in
flicted upon them ought to be abol-
ished. and since this cannot be ac-
complished while the Republican par
ty is in power, a change in party con-
troll of the government has become an
absolute necessity.
| The Burden We Bought.
| Now York Herald. We certainly did