Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1912-09-21


tint retire noiselessly to the starboar
a panied and expectant look. The mo
land are those generated in hammoc
lively work out in either Of these appl
ton of the real article and d1scourag
briny deep.
the view of the New York Press. He
tells the farmers to vote for him so
that they may get what comes out OF
the mills and factories at cheaper
prices than they now pay. This Is to
be achieved, Of course, the Press says,
by knocking the American tariff sys-
tenn in the head. "Mr Wilson is not
telling the agricultural class that
what comes off the farm Is too high"
the New York paper says, and adds:
"The wage earners of the mills and
factories think that breadstuffs, meats,
vegetables, poultry, eggs and butter
from the farm are high. II the work
men in American Industries had tnelr
present wages with the former prices
for food they would feel that they were
in clover. But, talking to the farmers,
Mr.. Wilson says nothing about that
side of the case. What he does say
is that If the farmers will vote against
the protection of our manufacturing
industries they can buy their 1mple-
ments for less than they cost now.
AS this must come about, II 1t does
come about, at the expense OF the
wage earners In their forfeited en-
ployment or reduced earnings, the pro-
posal could not look good to the work
ers in the mills and factories, even
though, 1t did seem to look so to the
farmers.
'But does it look any better to the
hard headed farmer who knows what
1t is that makes the market for his
products? It is to the industrial work
ers of the United States that the great
bulk of the farm products Is now 60
ing. If those workers are employed
at good wages they pay good prices
for the farm products II they are on
reduced wages or out of employment
the farm products go begging at poor
prices. No other consumers IN the
world could pay the American farmer
the prices he is now getting from
American wage earners for all the
products he can send to market. But
there have been times when the
farmer could not get enough Of price
from American consumers to pay the
interest on his mortgage. Those were
times when the farmer could buy
manufactured articles for less tnan
now. or could have bought them II he
had not been so poor.
"Under free trade the farmer might
be able to buy his implements for, say
half what they now cost him. But
what good would they do him II after
raising and harvesting his crops with
those implements he could not sci!
them at profitable prices because OF
the poverty Of American consumers?
II he could get his implements Tor
nothing, what good would 1t DO the
American farmer II he could not sell
his crops at all?
GAS the wage payments IN mills and
factories have been multiplied to De-
come vastly increased purchasing
power in the home market, the farm
products have sold for more and more.
It has not worried the farmer to spend
"a few dollars more year for his I'M
Elements when what those implements
turned out for him in products has
brought him hundreds and thousands
of dollars more for his crops. He has
not been making his fortune out OF
the price of hoe, low price or high
price for the hoe; he has been making
It out of the bushel price OF wheat;
not out of the buying prices of fence
wire, but out of the selling price OF
corn No. the farmer has not worried
about the price of hoe in times when
he could buy, out of the proceeds OF
his farming, a carload Of hoes. If he
wanted them, with less financial dis
comfort than he could have bought
single hoe in days when his selling
market was powerless because the
consumers behind that market were
wageless. No, the American farmer
has not worried: he has smiled to see
the wage earners in mills and fac
tories getting more and more money.
He has known that more and more
of that money was coming to him for
his products. He has known that out
Of that protection money-pirates'
prize money, Mr.. Wilson calls 1.-THE
farmer has been cancelling mortgages,
buving new equipment in adequate
quantity, making bank deposits
rolling up a great national surplus
OF cash lent out, at interest, to the
banks Of the east for the financing OF
railroads, mills. factories and all man
ner of industrial and commercial en-
terprise.
"Mr. Wilson says to the farmer,
shoot your customer dead. That's the
way for you to help yourself. You
don't need a rich market for your pro-
ducts; what you need is cheap hoe
But the farmer is fully alive to the
fact that he no more wants to slaugh-
ter the wage Garner who buys his
crops than the wage Garner himself
buying those crops, wants to be ex-
terminated. The farmer knows he
cant kill his customer without kill
ing himself. The farmer knows that
the knife which penetrates the heart
of the golden goose is fatal to him
self. He never had to go to school TO
this Professor Wilson to learn that
truth. He learned 1t in the school OF