Valentine Democrat. (Valentine, Neb.) 1900-1930, 1904-10-13
THE FARMERS DOLLAR.
What Providence Gave and What
Congress is Taking Away.

The people cannot be fooled all the
time
Facts are stubborn. Whip them
around as you will, mask them, dis
guise them; they will, nevertheless,
come out to bear witness to the truth.
The Republican party seeks to fool
the people. It has sought to mask
facts, TO disguise them.
The Democratic party seeks to re
place the facts before the people that
they may bear witness to the truth.
The people want the truth.
The Republican party claims that
the so-called ERA Of prosperity is due
to the wisdom of party policy in Ell
acting tariff and other legislation.
President Roosevelt has underworld
to portray prosperity by stating in
his letter OF acceptance that wages
have been increased during the last
few years in greater proportion than
the cost Of living.
Now, the facts refute the Presidents
statement. These facts are derived
from statistics-frOm records. They
show that the increase in wages is
| twelve per cent, the increase in the
| cost OF living is thirtySeyen per cent.
Therefore, before the EZRA of prosper
ity' the man who earned S1.J0 Il day
could buy goods as then valued to the
amount of $3.50; during the EZRA of
prosperity the same man received for
the same labor $1.GS, but the same
goods would cost him $3.50; or, putting
N mr. hnr Toll ~.
worth of labor was worth one dollars
worth of merchandise before the era.
during the last few years." President
ROoseveit's years of prosperity, one
dollars worth of labor was worth
seventy-one and half cents worth Of
merchandise.
The farmer. the hired man, the
miner, the day labCrer. the mechanic in
every department of industry. The
bookkeeper, clerk and shop girl to-day
finds that Everything is dearer" The
rule admits of no exceptions. Labor
receives its wages in money. At the
counter the value of the dollar when it
is to be exchanged for merchandise has
shrunk i'll its purchasing power to sew
enty-One and One-half cents.
1t is fact that conditions favorable
to this Nation became apparent in
1897; conditions which to-day should
have blessed farmer, manufacturer
and merchant labOrer. clerk and me-
chanic. Even Il Republican Congress
and Republican Executive could not
wholly mar the bounty of Providence
1t is 4 fact that in 1897, by reason
of the failures of tire wheat crop in
the Argentines and Southern Russia
the harbors of New York and Boston
We're filled with vessels seeking wheat
for Great Britain and Europe. Wheat
leaped to 81 per bushel. Millions in
gold, the purchase money, flowed in tc
the country. The farmers bought mer-
chandise Of all kinds. This started
the BOOM Factories and mills be-
came busy, railroads were chOked with
freight. and the labor markets were
emptied Of the unemployed. This was
due to Providence that gave the cOun-
try abundant crops when all the earth.
elsewhere, failed to supply breadstuffs.
to produce this wealth little thought
that if Providence had come to his
assistance by providing him high prices
for his wheat that his fellow man
would exact higher prices from him for
the merchandise he required. Yet this
is what Il Republican Congress did.
BY its protective tariff it shut the
gates of the Nation to foreign cOmDe-
tition, by its patronage of manufac-
turers it enabled them to combine. and
so prices for manufactured goods were
advanced and imposed on the farmer
Thus by the tariff and trusts was trib- |
ute Wrung from the farmer.
Every farmers wife knows what she |
paid eight years ago and she knows |
what she is forced to pay to-day. Ev- |
cry farmer knows what he then paid |
and what he now pays. If to-day the |
farmer sells his wheat, corn and rye. |
his steer, sheep and hogs at Il good |
price, it is no reason for his being |
compelled to pay higher prices for his |
merchandise. There is no reason. save |
that of the tariff and the trusts. that he |
should find his dollar is only exchange
able for seventy-one and a half cents
of the protected manufactured goods.
OF course, high tariff fills the Treas
ury.
OF course, it takes much money to
rebuild and refurnish the White House
and to rebuild and refurnish the Presi-
dents yacht MayfioWer-but it comes
pretty hard on the American farmer
to reduce his dollar TO SeVenty-One