Democratic Sentinel, Volume 12, Number 3, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 February 1888 — WOES OF THE FARMERS. [ARTICLE]

WOES OF THE FARMERS.

As Related by Senator L. D. Whitney, of Bureau County, Illinois. How Corporate Greed, High Interest, and the Tariff Are Ruining Agriculture. [From the Chicago Herald.] The chief feature in the programme of the Henry County Farmers’ Institute was Senator Whiting’s speech on “The Decline of Agricultural Prosperity—lts Cause and Cure.” In regard to the" attraction which the subject had for the Henry County farmers, it may well be said that Mr. Wbiting’s speech was last, but not least, on the programme. The hall was crowded to its utmost capacity, and for once since the proceedings opened the staid old farmers preponderated in numbers over the ladies. Senator Whiting w as received with applause, but his appearance evidently excited as much surprise as approval. As has been stated, Henry County is strongly Republican, and the talk that “Senator Whiting is going to deliver a free trade speech” had been the topic of conversation for days. Mr. Whiting’s speech was anything but a free trade oration, though <he gave the farmers some useful hints in that direction. He spoke calmly and collectedly, without manuscript. Unquestionably his remarks, impressively and deliberately as they were delivered, were the result of deep meditation. He said in substance: I know of no pursuit, profession, or calling, that should tlx prices to suit themselves. If we farmers should fix the prices of our products as we see fit we would be as bad as others. Competition should rule, not the individual nor a corporation. Farmers are slow to move. They would not move at all if they did not see some impending peril. I shall endeavor to show you why the farmers should move, should organize. In speaking of the prosperity I want particularly to refer to village centers like Galva. I want these villages to feel that if the farmer does something to elevate himself in standing or in morals, the villagers have some interest in it. Their prosperity, not in a measure, but in general, depends upon it. National prosperity has poured over the length and breadth of the land a golden shower. It has blessed every branch of labor and exertion except the agricultural interest. Statisticians tell us that the wealth of the nation has increased from $16,000,1)00,000 in 1860 to $44,060,000,000 in 1880. Now we can well say that the rural workers form one-half of the population. Let me ask you, does not the farmer do as much work as any other man? Is he not as sturdy, as honest, as thrify, as anybody else? If so, should he not be entitled to one-half of the gain of $28,000,000,000 in the nation’s wealth? What did he get? He got $5,000,000,000 to the $21,000.000,0J0 somebody else got. Since 1880 his (the farmers’) interests, proprietary and otherwise, have declined. You have listened to many pleasant speeches from this platform. I cannot give you anything pleasant—nay, I have to pronounce an indie* ment. Still, I want it to be understoo that I am not speaking antagonistic to anything that surrounds us in the rural parts of Illinois. New England farming is in ruins, in Pennsylvania and New York there are signs of decay, and I understand that the case is the same in Ohio. I learn that within the last ten years farming lands in Bureau County have declined $lO an acre. That means $3,000,000 loss for one county in Illinois. In Henry County, your own home, the loss is more than that. In lowa and Kansas the farm is mortgaged to its utmost capacity and sometimes even more. I am afraid that the time is again at hand when the tiler of the soil has to leave his dear old home and set his face westward—west to that boundless region where the hope of the country rests. If it should come to it that our farmers' homes are abandoned, gobbled by some absentee landlord, and then tenanted by some poor renter —if it should come to that, I say, are we not confronted with the pernicious peasant system of Europe ?

The farmers should help themselves and not trust to somebody else to help them. We read in the papers daily of the formation of new trusts and corporations. The gentlemen who form them destroy every principle of sound political economy. I could name fifty great combinations that have come up of late, but I will confine myself to three. There is the lumber combination, which has caused the price of lumber to go up from to $4 a thousand. It has helped the combine some that there is a duty of $2 on Canadian lumber. Do you know of any reason why lumber should be dearer now than five or ten years ago? Then there is sugar. The grade I used tojpuy comes at thirteen pounds for sl. We used to get fifteen. Why this difference? Because there is a sugar trust, and the Government helps the combine by putting a duty of three cents on every pound of sugar. When you want to buy a plow next spring, you will find the price advanced. Why ? Because the plow men formed a combination which is equal to a trust. If you ask the combine why this raise, you will be told because the steel manufacturers advanced the price of steel. Take all these cases. Is it not a fact that the consumer has to pay it all. Another combine is the rubber combination. These men were not exactlj forcing prices, but they are furnishing an inferior particle. Many of these matters can only be remedied by legislation, and that cannot be secured until there is something like farmer politics, until you do for yourself what other classes have done for themselves long ago. The speaker then spoke of the adulteration of almost every article of food as one of the causes of the decline of agricultural prosperity, and subsequently touched upon the high rates of interest. The farmer had to pay as much as 12 per cent., certainly not less than 8. In cities the rate was about 2 per cent. less. Municipalities, the State and National Governments obtained the money they needed for about half of what the city borrowers had to pay. Mr. Whiting then passed on to the concluding subject among the causes which he mentioned for the decline of the farmers’ prosperity—the tariff. He said: In the war of 1812 manv manufacturing establishments sprang up in the New England States. When the war was ended it was natural that the infant industry should be protected. When the civil war came there were high taxes, direct taxes upon the manufacturers. That was natural. But it is unnatural that high taxes should remain after the warremain not for the manufacturer, but for the consumer. What is the result? The Treasury

of the United States is gorged, the Government does not know what to do with the mouev. There is a sort of statesman who advocates the abolishment of taxes on whisky and tobacco. I say, let us farmers stand together and have removed the taxes from the necessaries of life. Cheap whisky and tobacco do not relieve us farmers from ocr wants and troubles. Though part of the farmers may use tobacco and some of them may be addicted to strong drink, I claim that nearly •very one of them is willing to pay war pr.ces for his whisky and tobacco and have cheaper sugar, clothing and lumber. It is not necessary that one take to chewing tobacco in order to help the United States of America. I tell you there is a great effort being made, not a'one by those who eschew tobacco and by those who advocate prohibition to have reform in these matters. Several States have passed laws to teach the children in the schools the effects of tobacco and whisky. There is a tendency that the r sing generation shall be an improvement upon the present one. Here Senator Whiting drifted off into a philippic against the use of tobacco and whisky, and closed by saying the people did not want any back-sliding in legislation touching these matters. That was the sense of at least every farmers’ meeting recently held throughout the Northwest. In lowering the taxes the necessaries of life should be unburdened instead of whisky and tobacco. The speech was time and again interrupted by vociferous applause. It was a fitting and impressive close of the convention of the Henry County Farmers' Institute.