Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1912-10-24
! country and from that paralysis ii did

I country and from that paralysis it did
! not recover for four years.
Can Successful Farming give a guar.
antee that the history of 1892 would
not be repeated in 1912 if a Demo
| cratic victory should come? The Dem
| ocratic house in the present congress
passed tariff bills affecting the duties
on thirteen billion dollars worth OF
American products in the making OF
which are employed four million
/ American workingmen. Fortunately
for the country these bills were vetoed
by a ourageous Republican president
But if a president should be elected
who would not veto them and con
gress should again pass them, does
Successful Farming think the business
Of the country would go booming
right along just as if nothing were i'm.
pending? Would manufacturers go
ahead piling up goods for future sale
with the certainty that they would
have to meet competition from goods
made in other countries under wage
scale one-half or one-fourth that OF
our own?
Prosperity is gift of God" says
Successful Farming. If that is true.
why was Gods grace withdrawn from
| this country from 1898 to 1897? FL
Goint of fact it was not withdra ~.
The earlier and the later rains fell Is
usual, the soil was just as fertile, the
| people were just as Industrious and
| the crops were just as bountiful as in
the preceding four years, and yet the
| price Of farm products during these
four Cleveland years fell off in the
aggregate to four billion five hundred
million dollars compared with what
| the same crops would have brought
| if sold at the prices which prevailed
during the preceding Harrison admin.
istration. That is to say, the penalty
| which the farmers of America paid for
four years of Democratic administra-
ton was equal to one and one-halt
times the cost of the Civil war.
BountifuI crops are indeed in a
very large measure the gift of God.
! But God does not look after the mar
| kets. That is mans business. And it
/ is markets which really determine
| the prosperity of the farmer. It is not
what he pays for what he buys, but
| what he gets for what he sells that
! determines his success or failure, and
| the price the farmer gets for the
! things he has to sell depends in larg.
! est measure upon the purchasing pow
I er of his customer. Men who are
sleeping in city halls and eating at
public soup houses do not make
profitable customers for the farmer.
Nobody can say absolutely, OF
/ course, that Democratic victory in
/ 1912 would mean the same as Demo.
/ cratic victory in 1892; and nobody car
/ absolutely guarantee that Republican
/ success will mean a continuation of
the good times prevailing now. But
on which side do the chances lie?
: Is there any particular reason why
Democratic victory on a similar plat,
! form to that adopted in 1892 should
I not bring about conditions that pre-,
vailed then? And can any plausible
reason be given why a continuation OF
the Republican party should alarm
/ business or in any way affect the
i prosperous conditions that now pre-.
vail?
When Successful Farming positive.
i Iy declares mo matter which party is
victorious the good ship of state will
ride the seas in safety because OF
bountiful crops on farms" it is Civ.
ing its readers assurances for which
there is no more substantial backing
than one mans opinion and upon the
validity OF which the history of the
past casts grave doubt.