Omaha daily bee., 1902-04-23
prLL IN rae CHM SEop

Popocrats all over Nebraska are pray
ing fervently TO be saved from such fool
friends as ex-Attorney General Smyth
and the Omaha World Herald. The I'M
exampled prosperity Of the live stock
industry has already lone much toward
the disintegration OF the fusion reform
forces I'm central and western Nebraska.
where popullsm was rampant a few
years ago. The vicious wal waged by
the World Herald and the former attor-
ney general under pretext Of champion
ing the cause OF the meat consumers is
naturally calculated to drive every pros
Porous stock raiser who has up till now
affiliated with the ~fusionists into the re-
publican camp.
The business depression following the
crash OF 1893 and the distress among
producers on account Of the drouth in
1894 and 1895 attracted thousands and
thousands OF Nebraska farmers to the
Bryanite standard. With low prices for
farm products and empty corn bins it
was easy to persuade these people hi
the money power was trying to crush
them by making them pay off their mort
cages in 200-cent dollars, but now that
the nightmare Of 1895, 1896 and 1897 has
happily passed, a new light has dawned
upOn them.
In 1896 the average Chicago price of
corn was % cents a bushel. of oats 1S
cents a bushel and beef steers and hogs
$3.70 per hundred. Now corn sells at
Chicago for 60 cents a bushel, oats at
AZ cents o bushel, beef steers from $3.50
to 81 and hogs $500 to 81 per hun
dred. And these prices are paid in 200
cent dollars.
Does 1t stand to reason that the farm
ers would look with favor upon any
scheme that would bring down the price
Of their products by breaking up the
concerns that have established such a
profitable market for them? What Toes
the farmer care about the consumer so
long as he is literally reaping a golden
harvest2
In view of the fact that there are
$4,000 voters on the farms OF Nebraska
and less than 10000 workingmen en-
ployed in Nebraska mills and factories.
the attempt to drive the wedge between
the w~orkingman and the farmer would
strike any politician with a thimbleful
OF brains as %foolhardy and absolutely
ruinous, but Attorney General Smyth
and the local pOpocratic organ in their
zeal to do up the republican party seem
to forget hat they are playing bull in
the china shop.
They are moreover playing with a
two-edged sword. Close up the South
Omaha packing houses and 5000 work
men who are now employed at fair
wages would be turned into the streets,
and, having no employment in South
Omaha, they would either have to move
away altogether or crowd the labor
market in Omaha. Close the packing
houses in South Omaha for any consid-
cradle length OF time and owners of real
estate in Omaha would be unable to
give it away for the taxes.
Fortunately, however. there is no i'm
mediate or remote danger Of any such
contingency. People don't generally cut
off their noses to spite their faces. They
know that the high price of beef is
chiefly. If not wholly, due to the scarcity
of cattle and the high prices of corn,
hay and other feed. They know also
that as 500 as another big crop of corn
and hay has been raised the prices of
meat will go down and the Beef trust
will not be able to keep it up. even If
all the cattle dealers and cattle raisers
should combine with 1t.