The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1902-08-05
What Farmers Own.
Brooklyn Eagle

DiOohlyH Eagle.
we hear great deal about the enormous
prosperity of the trusts and we hear If
especially from orators who tell the farm
ers that the trusts are absorbing all the
money in the country The census renort
tells another story, however. 1t shows thar
there are twenty billions of capital invested
in farms and farm equipment, and that
the income upon this investment averages
l&5 per cent There is just one billion dol
lar trust in the country, the much dis
cussed steel trust, and it would take fifty
OF the biggest combination in existence
10 equal this capital of the farmers. while
the trusts whose dividends equal those
MADE from the farms, are denounced from
one END OF the country to the other a.
octopi and various other indigestfbIe md
noXlous contraptions. This prosperitv is
SHOWN 10 be steady and rapid growth on
a pea rock foundation which all but a
Few OF the trusts must envy There are
TOUR times as many farms in the countrv
as there were half century ago, and there
were a quarter more in 1900 than in 1890
"hlle Tor the last twenty years the aver
age size as well as the number of farms
mas steadily increased. The value of farm
products has grown even faster than the
number of farms. The value is five times
now what II was in 1850, while the increase
during the last dozen years has been con-
slderaDly more than a quarter The value
OF farm products for 1899 was almost S. 900 =
100000 and the increase over that reported
for 1889 was over $1,000 900. OO0 although a
good part OF that is accounted for by the
more careful enumeration required under
the latest census. A detail which shows
the extent to which the American peonle
are meat eaters is the statement that near
ly 2,OO.OO0O00 of this output was of ami
NAL products, while little over 100000 =
600 was of crops; the percentage being So
of animal products TO 81 of vegetable
These are mighty figures. This piling un
of capital and product in billions would
open the eyes of farmers in amazement if
II were mOuthed forth in sounding periods
by grange orator about the trusts The
design of the dema gogues TO convince the
farmers that the trusts crushing the
lives out of plain citizens ought 10 De made
indications, indeed, that the facts which
these figures tell have made agitation I'm
popular. Free silver is dead. the Populists
are no longer prosperous enough TO divide
into hostile camps, and agitation against
the rich is now more largely confined TO
large cities and TO regions where many
men are employed by corporations than il
was in either the campaigns of 1896 or 1900
That is because the farmers have felt this
prosperity which the census now records
When dollars were jingling in the farmers
pockets they do not want them of the
Mexican variety. That good crops killed
free silver has been apparent for some
time, but the extent of the prosperity of the
farmers has not been known in detail he
fore This census showing only comes
down 10 the year 1900. and includes the
dull years in the early part of the last de-
cade. Other reports indicate that the
growth since the census was taken was
even more rapid than I'm the years just pre-
cedlng. The country Is passing through