Year: 1869




enough to pity, the people. Something, then'
has been gained. The idea of Human Free
dom has been perpetuated in France.


"


THE GROWLS OF d GENERAL GRUMBLER.
To the Editor Of Tie Tribune.


SIR: I was reading an extract to-day, copied
from your paper that this Summer would be the duest
ever known and that you rejoice that will be, as t VIII
drive many from the city seek homes IN the country
And what do you suppose person that can't make
living in the city is going to do in the country II he has
got nothing to commence with2 Because, interested
persons may cay what they have a mind to the con-
trary farming getting rapidly overdone in this part Q1
the country at least For examples s time last year.
wheat was here s2 per busel now better wheat is i
and dull at that and the growing crop turns out as
well as IL now looks, and is carefully saved 1t can be
bought here this Fall fer so cents The Of machinery
in seeding and harvesting crops more than reDles the
amount put In in former years. with proporonatey ess
force to do 1t with Then with the low price OF farm
products. farmers will hire less labor; consequently,
there Will be little chance of men finding employment
they come West Then If comes according to your
advice and commences for himself, how much captai
would you advise him to start with Any nd OF tes
wagon, with farming utensils mere wou @ gOS' Cos beIf r n
least four hundred dollars In CASH then ieea ZOE I
and team until he could raise for hmseii Two nunueu
mOre making six hundred before he could reanZe any
thing from his own labor IheD there gre otIgr S
he needs that would demolish tho best end OF
/
ia hard thing 70 do here Then goes further West,
and takes homestead of his own how without capital s
ne 70 o ars S q@S mem Sat will succeed after
hardship and suffering; but they ant olten you, Giy @
want them to come West and settle my plan would DC
let Congress stop giving the public land 10 Dig ra
titles TO actual Settlers then take their stealings from
the public crib with the twenty thousand a1nSr tPn
sand dollar houses presentation fund OF your city ana
build houses, and start all the honest, lndus.
NJ colonies; IL
they would not work. let them starye Then remove the
tecting wool until il is killing Off all the sheep protecting
iron until it will ruin the farmers In buying farm utensLs


with thousands Of other rim things 4 fhaS 20 are 6D GTy Ip
drive the people TO do what ought TO be done now-re
pudiate the whole Bonded Debt; restore white men 10
their rights in this whole Government; let the darey dig
for himself but never IN Slavery LOT Baek OF & nt1 o.


few years we will be prosperous people used to
dream about when battling for the great clay
i'm the days Of a. Put It down; for this thing will come
10 pass before many years. The corrupt party now IN
power will be swept from the government, ana honest nest
men mi their places Then will feel satisfied with the
losses and suerings of three aud half yeaIs spent in
fighting for the Union Most respectfully yours,


Fort Madison, Io,cd May 49, 1902 IOWA


Comments by The Tribune


1. "Iowa" says the prices of Grain, Sc, are
very low around him, and certain tC rule lower
after harvest, because that will be ST abund-
ant and he gives an excellent reason for this !:
that is: New machines for sowing, tilling, har-
vesting, threshing, &C., have greatly reduced
the cost and increased the product of grain
growing. Of course, if grain can be grown
cheaper than formerly, it very likely to be sold
cheaper, and no harm to any one; but we
match his prediction that wheat will sell at
Fort Madison after harvest for fifty cents per
bushel with our confident assertion that it will
not 20 below dollar, though the prospect for
crop is everywhere good, and very sluggish
demand from Europe. Now wait and see
which is nearest right


q "Iowa" considers the low price of produce
an obstacle to settling in new country. We
consider it, on the contrary, facility. The
pioneer has no grain to sell; he has to bug
his food to begin with, and the cheaper the
better BY the time he has any to sell, the
price may be good again.


3. "IOwa" argues that pioneer cannot make
n farm in a new country unless he has at least
5000 to start with, and that he should have
$1,000. We freely admit that it would be very
convenient to have $GOO 1000, or even $4,000.
But to his assumption we oppose the notorious
fact that not One-fourth of those who made
farms out of the wilderness throughout our
country were worth even $500 when they set
about it, or ever saw 5000 at once in the course
of their lives. Western New-York was practi-
cally further from civilization fifty years ago
than Iowa now is; yet men not worth 800 in
the world did not hesitate to buy wild lands
there at So to $40 per acre, take in wife and
one or two children, knock up log cabin, and
begin to chop and burn around it, working out
day now and then for a bushel of grain,
and then walking ten or fifteen miles to and
from a mill; getting little wild meat or string
of fish occasionally, and so digging
away till each had forty or fifty acres
of clearing about him, and few cattle;
and many paid for their land with wheat at
less than fifty cents per bushel and three year
old steers in fair condition at SIS per head.
We speak of what has been done, to our knowl-
edge. in nearly all the old States and we state
an undenable fact when we say that our
pioneers, as a general rule, went into the woods
with less than 800 in money each, and all they
had not worth 1900 in cash; yet, if one had o
good wife, stuck to work, and let whisky alone,
lie almost always dug out became an inde-
pendent farmer, and spent the evening of his
days in ease and comfort And it is not half
so hard to do this in twenty years now in the
West as 1t was to do ii in thirty years when
Western NewYork was settled.


A. AS to the region around Fort Madison,
it may not be a good one for men who want
to work up from nothing to something. Judg-
ing from "Iowa'sn account, we should say it was
not And yet, the soil is fertile, the climate
mild, and timber and prairie fairly inter-
spersed so that it ought to be an inviting re-
giOn. We do not say that it is, for we do not
know. If it is not, there are very good places
60 settle in Missouri, south of it, in Nebraska,
in the West, and in Kansas, not far south