The citizen. (Frederick City, Md.) 1895-1923, 1902-08-29
ANOTHER REPUBLICAN, CAM
PAIGN CANARD

Just row a story is going the rounds
Of the Republican press of the country,
purporting to show that the farmer
makes more money for the amount of
capital he has invested than the Steel
Trust does. Itgoes on to state: while
unable to dispute the fact that the
United states has been enjoying most
remarkable prosperity, the opponents
of the Republican party Insist that
such prosperity is confined to consid-
enable extent, if not entirely, 10 the
manufacturing classes This is another
of the little fictions which the census
completely eXplodes. According to
census figures, the farmers of the coun-
try have reaped the largest returns of
any industrial class, and have conse-
quently shared more generally in the
prosperity than have even the manu-
facturers Here are some figures: There
are twenty billions Of capital invested
in farms and farm equipment, and dur
ing tn census year that invested capt.
tai earned on an average lS.3 per cent.
The billion-dollar steel trust during the
past year earned 10 Ier cent on its in
vested capital, and that fact has been
made the text of iunumerable Demo-
cratic editorials on the eXtortionate
profits which it has wiung out of the
people. Yet tie Steel Trust earned on
its invested capital but little over one
half as much proportionate interest as
did the average American farmer"
All of this is good campaign litera-
ture mayhaps, but the conclusions are
as false as were the intentions of the
man who wrote them. No farmer will
be buncoed by such cheap poppy
cock. The facts in the case are these:
The dividend of 10 per cent which the
Steel Trust has declared Is on the o.
tensible value Of thu Steel Trust prop
critics, which is 81 100000, 600, making
the dividend SlI0,OOO,0O0. Now the
fact is that experts testify that while
ostensibly the Steel Trust is worth
one billion four hundred million do
lars, yet in fact they have not got a
cent over five hundred million invest
ed. If that statement is true and
every bit of evidence goes to prove that
il is, then the trust is in reality making
IS per cent clear money on their invest.
ment, each year, or, in other words,
they Will double their money in con
siderably less than four years.
On the other hand, the Census Bul
letin shows the farmer makes 1873 pei
cent on his capital, but it expressly
states that "AS no rport ofctpendfrc
tor taxes, interest, insurance, feed 10,
stock and sin3iiur HCnlS hare been oh.
tdined by dny census, ne statement Of
H'fJaIH income can be gircn." There
fore the census figures show the gros.
income of the farmer. Out of this he
must deduct his feed bill his taxes, hi.
INSURANCE, the wages he has to pay
and all the rest, which lun his gross
income down to a mere pittance. The
TACT Is, and thousands If farmers will
tell you 50, that if the average farmer
can live aud make per cent interest
on his money, throwing in the labor OF
his whole family, he thinks he is doing
well The writer has heard hundreds
OF our best farmers make this state
ment Good crops help him up some
years, but taken year in and year out
you will find that by careful economy
he is enabled to make about per cent.
| Contrast this with the real dividend of
IS per cent of the Steel Trust and you
will see how palrably false are the
statements of the article referred to.