The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1900-06-13
FARMERS PROSPERITY.
They Hear n Lot About 1t. but II Has
Not Reached Them.

rhey Hear n Lot About IL, but II Has
Not Reached Them.
There is not single occupation, busi-
ness or profession to which is not at
tached by the Republican organs the
label prosperity" Every individual
man knows better than the statisti-
clans whether he is prosperous or not,
and il is useless to expect an aggrega-
ton of individuals to loudly express
thanks for prosperity when they do not
come UP TO the label
The notion has been going about that
the farmers are afflicted with las
founding prosperity" simply because
prices OF farm products have in the
last two or three years partly recover
ed from the low level they reached in
some previous years. Now, the farmer
ought TO know, and the records Of
mortgages in the various county clerks
and recorders offices demonstrate the
fact that all these increased receipts, IL
anybody can show q bank account
demonstrating any increase, are more
than absorbed by the increased price
he must pay for everything for which
the farmer exchanges his produce. He
must pay tribute to the trust, and no
better Illustration of the truth of this
can be made than in the case OF the
American Steel company. Six thousand
men were thrown out of employment
because OF the lack OF demand for im-
plements which the farmers could not
purchase because OF their high price.
II there was so much prosperity. why
could not the farmer afford TO purchase
the necessary implements:
| The fact is that heavy impost is
laid upon nearly everything the farmer
needs in his household and in his busi-
ness, while the prices of his own prod
ucts are at the mercy of spectators,
combines, corners, etc. The farmer has
to meet the worlds price in disposing
of his product, but he encounters n diff
| ferent state of things when he comes
to purchase for himself. The range Of
| price set up by the spectators is artiti-
cial, and what they gain in the specula-
tive market they pocket What they
lose they mercilessly force the farmer
to pay by an increase of prices in man
| ufactures.
This seeming prosperity will be dis
covered the more you look behind it to
be a myth, and although the misfor-
tunes of the rest of the earth have ena-
bled the farmer TO dispose of more of
| his products than formerly still there
are combinations to be broken down,
trusts to be abolished and the financial
system eliminated before the farmer
can really say that period OF prosper
| ity 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 mortgages 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 flourish
ing condition, has he purchased any
new carpets, curtains. furniture, for his
| household? Is he enabled to employ
more help to relieve his aching bones
and those of his wife and children from
the arduous labor they continually un-
dergo to save their homes from the
NAV of the mOrtgagee?
We trow not, and the proof of 1t is
that beyond the mere means of exist
ence whatever he makes or earns must
| go into the ever expanding tax mill
which is grinding him into poverty
when he is not paying into the trusts
| and combines.