Democratic Sentinel, Volume 13, Number 10, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 March 1889 — Why Farming Don’t Pay. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Why Farming Don’t Pay.

2,434,230 bushels of apples were exported from this country to England last year. - The coal barons of Indiana say Ike miners’ wages must be further reduced. Ah, that 47 per cent, tariff is a blessing(?) The record of mercantile failures during the early part of this year ■hows an increase over that of J ast year of from 15 to 20 per cent. The manufacturers of agricultural implements recently held a meeting at tort Wayne and formed a trust. This means ar increase in price for farm machinery The Monongahela river coal operators, employing 6,000 men, hav * decided to close down every mine within the next ten days for an indefinite per od.

Ex-President Cleveland gave answer to the question, “What shall be done with our ex?presidents,” by going to work at 9 a. m. the day after he became a private citizen. Farmers bitterly denounce the organization of the binding-twina trust. The election of Mr. Cleveland and passage of the Mills bill would have killed such trusts. The Indianapolis News, republican, pays the following compliment to the Indiana Legislature: “With all its faults it was an able Legislature. I' did some good work. It was too hot-headed in partisan bitterness, but it had sand and sense.”

The appointment of R. T. Lincoln and Fred Grant to high places, and the probable appoitment of young Arthur, 1. ads us to suggest to the “grandson of his grandfather” that the sons of Garfield can furnish the same recommendation, viz: They are the sons of ■ heir fathers. Blue blood gusheth, in the selections for office under th.s administration. The Blaines, the Grants, die Arthuis, the Gasfields, pt. al., are pressed into positions for which they ai e t' tally unfitted, while brainy, experienced men are insolently bade to stand aside. - <tw- -< Our republican friends in this delivery district will hdd a convention Saturday of next week to determine upon the successor of Mr. Bates, postmaster m Rensselaer. It is given out there is no desire to cut short the term of the present incumbent. If j this be correct the convention should be postponed for nine months.— But markour prediction—the convention will select the man, and Billy Owen, with no factious to pacify, will see that the lucky one is immediately appointed and installed. Harrison is a spoilsman all over.

Th® following are the main previsions of the new bribery law: That whoever hires, buys or offers to h-re or buy, directly or indirectly, or handles any money or other means, knowing the same is to be used to induce, hire or buy any person to vote or refrain from voting any ticket or for any candidate for any offiee at any election held pursuantjto law, or at any primary election or convention of any political party; or whoever makes any threat, directlv or indirectly, expressed or implied, to deprive

any legal voter of employment, patronage or benefit f anv rind I whateve toind .ee such voter to vote or refrain from voting any I ticket or /or any candidate for anv j office at any sucn election or con- I ventiojjoi whoever, by such threat or otherwise, shall intimidate, or I attemp- to intimidate, any legal j voter from voting, or iroui vo r ing ' any ticket, or for any candidate for any office at sucn election he.d pursuant at la*; or whoever shall compel a hououholding legal voter to move cut of a y house with.n sixty days next bt tore any election held pursuait o law, with intent to deprive such voter of his vote; or whoever within sixty days rext previous to election held pursuant to law, shall discharge any employe, who is «legax voter, with intent to cause him io remove his residence so as to disqualify him f'ox voting at such election; or whoever being an employer of any laborer or laborers, or the agent of such employer, shall on the day previous to any election held pur suant to law order such laborer or laborers, who are legal voters, away on business of such emplove r , or any o her service whatever, so far from his or their voting place as to deprive him or them of the opportunity to vote at such election, then the person so offending in any of the foiegoing p rtieulars, and all oth r persons . betting, counseling, enccurag ng <r advising such acts, shall thereby become liable, jointly and severally, to the person hired, bought or induced to vote, or refrain from voting, by the means above enumerated, of to the person against whom any of the other acts, above enumerated or perpetrated, in the sum ot SSOO, and reasonab e attorney’s fees for collecting the same in an action to b- brought in the name of the State on his own relation, either in the circuit or superior courts, or before any justice of the peace, and ths d?fendant shall be arrested on the beginning of proceedings.

The above are the points in what is known as the Lacy bill. The Barrett bill provides: Any candidate before any political convention for nomination who shall hire, bribe or influence by offers or promises of reward any delegate or person to vote or work for his nomination, shall be fined in a sum net exceeding SSOO and disfranchised and rendered incapable of holding any office of trust for any determinate period, and if nominated shall bo ineligible to •hold such office. Secondly, whoever, being a cand date for any office, loans or offers or promises to loan or give any money or thing of value to aay elector for the purpose of influencing or retaining the vote of any elector or inducing such electox* lo vote for his.election or to lefrain from working fur the election of any other candidate, etc. shall be fined not less th _n S3OO nor more than SI,OOO, and tendered incapable of holding any office or place of trust for any determinate period, and his election, if elected, declared void.

3. Any person who shall be guilty of influencing any elector in the manner stated above shall be fined not less than $25 nor more than SIOO, imprisoned in the county jail not less than ten days nor more than six months, and disfranchised for any determinate period. 4. Any perso i who, directly or indiiectly influences any elector to remain a way from the"polls or refrain from voting shall be fined not less than $25 nor more than SSOO an disfranchised for not less than ten years, to which may be added imprisonment in the county jail for a peiiod not to excee.l six months.

Sec. 5 of this bill prescribes that at any election it shall be a ground for challenge, that any person ottering to vote has used or attempted to use money or like means to influence any elector and when so challenged he shall not be permitted to vote until > takes an oath that he has not been gui - ty of the charges. Should he make false affidavit he «hdl be punished accordingly. Also, any person not duly authorized who shall, before the ballots are counted and the result ascertained, or six months tl ereafter, break open or violate the seals of the ballot box, 'etc., shall be fined not more than SIOOO nor less then SSOO, and imprisoned in the state prison not more than ten nor less than two years, and disfranchised! for any determinate period.

The Valparaiso Mess n g 41 giv | a number of correct reasons why farming has i eeome unprofitable: “Of course the farmer who has a big pri' e for his land can’t make a profit on the money invested at the present price of the commodities he produces. In competition with the west there would be no money in grain for an eastern farmer even if bis land had cost him nothing. His calling is made additionally unprofitable by circumstances that he gets the lowest prices for what he sells and i« compelled to pay the highest prices for what he buys. H s expanses for necessities is regulated by the tariff. They are kept up by artificial means. He is •ompelled to pay high prices so that interests in which be is not interested, and in whose profit he does net share, mav be maintained. But when he sebs he finds that he has not only the west but the whole world to compete w th. The home market fails to give him better prices th?n are offered for his products in Liverpool. Under the circumstances is ’t any wonder that the farmers, with all their economy am toil, find their expenses le«ve no margin for profit, and that many of them are going to the wall? Isn’t it more wonderful that so large a number of then were persuaded into supporting a tariff policy which enlarges the expenses without increasing the price of the products they have to sell?”

Fighting Monopoly Taxes.— The formation of a tariff reform league for the state of Indiana on the day of President Harrison’s inauguration is a significant proof that those who are opposed to the protectionist policy of the present administration intend, as the saying is, “to carry the war into Africa.” The recent tariff reform convention which was held at Chicago is said to have furnished a striking demonstration ©f the intense zeal of the anti-protection-ists 3f t|}e West. These latter assert that the qualifications made by e&stern tariff reformers daring the last political campaign were decidedly damaging to the progress of the C7use in the western states; that the j eople there believe in complete five trade, that is, as near free trade as it is possible to get while raising a part of the revenue by a tax imposed upon impoits.— Tie qualifications made in the East of placing raw materials upon the free list and protecting finished commodities is not at all t their liking. They assert that this is a sacrifice of principle; that, once admit the right of the government to n ..ke its laws for the benefit of classes, and, ethically considered, the whole question is given away. AV ho sha'l be protected and who shall not be protected becomes then simply a question of congressional expediency, and, naturally, those who have the strongest pull at Washington are likely to be the ones who will reap the great-' est benefit. The western ideal of an anti-protection campaign is to come out boldly and vigorouslT in Savor of free trade, denouncing protection as morally and economically wrong. It is on this basis that the reform league has been started in the state of Indiana, an ri has already received the enthusiastic support of an unexpectedly large number of prominent citizens. This, ibis said, is but the first move in an effort toward organization that is to be made in all ov the western states for the purpose of carrying on the anti-pro-tection missionary work in the same spirit and with the same zeal that the anti-slavery propaganda was preached thirty years ago.— Boston Herald. The best Sewing Machine in the market is the Eldredge. the residence of Mrs. J. W. McEwen. Agent, .Rensselaer, Ind