Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1910-04-27
INSURGENTS AND THE
FARMER

+
The other night a candidate for
Office on the insurgent ticket IN the
state declared loudly against the
tariff bill, and republican policies
as laid down and carried out by the
party for the past ten or fifteen
wears. The object of that declara-
ton against the party leaders and
MANAGEMENT was, of course, to create
prejudice in behalf of Insurgency"
and to make votes for himself.
And in the next breath the same
candidate declared that he was not
a politician or a speaker. but "far-
mer." But it seems to us that the
farmers of this state have done pref
ty we'll under republican rule, as
the development and prosperity of
this state for the past generation
amply indicates.
Apropos of this kind of campaign
ing addressed to the farmer we
quote the following from the Aber-
deem News, which republishes this
statement from the Sioux City Tri-
bune:
The farmers of the United States
are getting rich.
The output of the American farm
To- to- t1v
According to statistics given out by
the agricultural department at WASH
ington the value of the wealth pro-
duced on farms in the United States
in 1899 was $2,460, 100000.
Ten years later it was $4,717,0O0,-
900. Ten years later, or last year,
it was $3.50 100000.
In our fierce scourging of the
trusts and in the nationwide move
ment to enforce legal restriction Of
big business it is we'll enough to
keep in mind that the farmer is do
ing pretty we'll himself. These fig
ures from the agricultural depart
ment take no account of the ire
mendous increase in the value of
farm lands. With the country doub-
ling in population every 30 or 40
years, and the demand for food grow
ing more and more, there is no good
reason why the bread and meat pro-
ducing lands of Iowa, Nebraska and
South Dakota should not double in
value within the next twenty years
These cattle and hogs and corn
and wheat lands that are worth
500 an acre now will be worth 5000
an acre in few years. Why should
these lands not advance from that
to $500 or $500, as the home demand
for food advances?
The cutlery Of twenty years ago
for justice to the poor, down-trod-
den farmers is not heard any more
in the land. The farmer still has
something coming to him in the way
of lower and more equitable freight
rates, and the like. but taking it all
together, he is pretty comfortable
and is not asking for sympathy. He
has really become another class of
Americans with sufficient repose to
think, and thinking makes him a
governor and government is getting
better as he governs.
But, observes the News, 1.-The Sioux
City Tribune, while rejoicing over
the farmers prosperity, is quite &C
tive in advocating the passage of
measures which will make that pros
perity thing of the past. The Tri-
bune, nominally a republican paper.
rejoices over the defeat of a repub-
lican candidate for congress in a
district where the campaign issue
was the tariff-because the manu-
facturers want free wool. The Tri-
bune is made happy every time some
leather-lunged insurgent gets up in
the house or senate and bowls for
tariff revision and denounces the
tariff law which has helped so large
ly to make the farmer prosperous.
Not that the Tribune has it in for
the farmer. particularly. It makes
its living, largely. off the farmer.
But the other Industries of the coun-
try. as we'll as the farming indus
try, have prospered, too, under re-
publican policies, ana the Tribune,
actuated partly by envy, and largely
by belief that insurgency is popu-
lar, hits it's voice daily in an effort
to drive the republican party from
power. And the consequence will
be, if it's efforts are successful, that