Montana news. [volume] (Lewistown, Mont.) 1904-191?, 1904-06-29


boy left Wednesday morning to
visit the Fair.
THE THEORY
The farmers are a prosperous and
ever growing class. Always Wrong
Bulletin (rep.) Prosser, Wash.
(And remember, please, the Bull
letin boasts that the republicans do
not indulge in 'theories. s.")
THE FACT
The farmer knows he has been a
favored child of fortune these last
few years. lie knows il because
politicians have told him so. His
pocketbook and bank account may
not tell him so, but if the money is
not in one or the other of these
places, it is surely his own fault.
For do not the census reports for
1900 tell him that the 5,737,372
farms in the United States increased
in value from 1880 to 1900 from sIo,
r97, oo6,776 to $40, r4647,4 or
81 per cent? And did not the value
of his live stock products increase
during the same time from SI,s76.-
SS4, 7o7 to s3,o75,44I7oS or o5
per cent? OF course they did, be-
cause the census bureau says so,
and the census bureau not only
knows the facts. but tells them
perhaps too freely at times.
Therefore, it might reasonably be
expected that the census reports
would show that the farmer owns
the land he tills, OF is paying for it
very rapidly. But in that respect
the census reports are again disap-
pointing. They do not show any
thing of the kind. On the con-
trsry, they show that the American
farmer is slowly sinking from hope
less debt to absolute non ownership
of the land, as surely as the quick
sands victim is engulfed in the
mire into which he goes more deep
Iy with every struggle to get loose.
The American farmer shares with
the American wagewoTkeT the dis
tinction of belonging to the most
pitifully deceived class of human
being on the face of the earth. The
farmers of most other nations are
not taught to expect anything but a
bare living, and are therefore sell
dom disappointed. But not SO with
the American farmer. The political
orators tell him-during campaigns
that he is a most prosperous as
well as a most independent person,
and the capitalist newspapers that
supply him with information" re-
peat the tale the rest of the year
The simple fact seems to be that
the farmer is participant in game
in which every other member, ex-
cept himself and the wage worker,
may fleece some one else to reim-
burse himself for the loss of that
which another has taken from him.
II the manufacturer charges the
wholesaler too much for his pro-
duct, the wholesaler can take il out
of the retailer, the retailer can pass
it on to the consumer, and the CON
sumer, if he be other than a wage
worker or farmer, can look around
for someone to do" with a fair
prospect of making a successful
search.
But not so with the farmer. IL
he has been charged an excessive
price for his food clothing or farm
machinery, he cannot reimburse
himself by demanding more for his
grain, his wool, or his livestock,
for the simple reason that he must
sell, If he sell at all, for whatever
he can get Like the wageworker,
the farmer cannot fix the price of a
thing he sells, or thing he buys
all this is done for him 10y eager
gentlemen, who, perhaps, may fear
that these tasks, in addition to their
others, might break down the health
of those who till the soil and manu-
facture its products.