Year: 1877




We desire to call especial attention
to the following extraordinary editO-
rial from one of the leading admins
tration papers of the country. 1t con-
firms the warning of THE ANT1-MO-
NOPOLIsT that there were tendencies
in our politics that would, if not ar
rested; speedily transform the indie
pendent yeomanry of America into a
condition as low as that of the most
approved peasantry of the old world.
We trust all our readers will careful
ly peruse this article. ED. ANTI. Mo-
NOPOLIST.


Editorial from the Weekly New York Times,


April %.


Complaints are rife in all quarters
that capital is idle and unprOductive.
The means Of investing money safely
profitably are now very much restrict
ed. Scarcely a railroad in the country
is beyond suspicion of financial weak
ness; no manufacturing business offers
inducements to investors, and mer-
chandising is equally unattractive. At
the same time agriculture, our most
safe, steady, and remunerative indus
try. languishes for want of means to
give it life and gftion. What are the
reasons that capitalists, on one hand,
entirely neglect agricultural invest
ments, and that farmers, on, the other
hand, suffer from want of sufficient
active capital to cultivate their land
in such way as to make it the most
productive! No capitalist will loan
money on mortgage of farm property,
for one reason, among others, that
should the property come into his
hands, in default of payment, it would
be completely useless to him, if not a
costly burden on his hands. At the
same time farmers plow undrained
fields, feed the poorest kinds Of stock,
cultivate unfertile soil, and work with
their hands instead of with machines
and steam engines, being-to use an
expressive, we'll understood term
..land-poor." 1t is very plain to one
who has money to invest. that If the
owner of farm, offered as security
fora loan. can scrape but poor living
from his farm, there is more than or
dinary risk that he cannot meet the
burdens of interest on borrowed mon
ey or be prepared to repay the loan
when it becomes due. This is a very
effective reason why such loans are diff
ficult or impossible to procure.


The trouble at the bottom of all this
springs from our system of ownership
of farms. Heretofore this has been a
matter of pride with our agricultural
class. To own the farm free from in
cumbrance has been matter for con-
graduation. and basis for comfort
able independence. But things are
not as they used to be. We have
changed all that. Years back the farm
er and his wife dressed in homespun.
and his children helped in the farm
work. There was sort of sturdy yeo-
manship, industrious. content and
thrifty; with no artificial wants. and
no needs for money except to pay the
light taxes and buy the few necessa-
ries that were not raised on the farm
There were no pressing bills TO meet
at the years end; no notes to pay: no
costly modern improvements about the
farm or homestead. and the farmer
neve- troubled himself about how the
capitalist felt about making loans.
Then. to own a piece of land was to
have farm. and the only floating or
active capital needed to cultivate it
was the muscles of the farmer and his
Industrious family Then TO ..go West
was synonymous with entering prom
ised land of plenty and wealth. Now.
the possession of a piece of land brings
man face to face with poverty. As
he views his possession he feels how
hopeless he is without few hundreds
or thousands of dollars. The ancient
axe and hoe. reaping hook and fail,
which sufficed our fDrefathers. are
now substituted by the steel plow- the