Democratic Sentinel, Volume 13, Number 24, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 July 1889 — The Western Farmer. [ARTICLE]

The Western Farmer.

Mr. Isaac 11. Strouse, editor of the Rockville (Indiana) Tribune, writes concerning the condition of farmers in his section. He says: “I think it safe to say that about 40 per cent, of the* farmers in this county are under mortgage. We have not the figures from the record, as it would be impossible to get them without great labor in going through the records page by page for a number of years, but careful inquiry among farmers themselves, and others whose opinions are worth noting, place it at this figure. “Our county (Parke) is one of the most fertile and most favored by nature in the State. It is peculiarly an agricultural county—there are no mills or factories in it. In 1860 the population of Parke Countv w'as 15,538. In 1870 it was 18,166; in 1880, 19,452, the per cent, of increase from ’6O to ’7O being about 20, from ’7O to ’BO about 6! If the next census be considered on a basis of increase or decrease of those who live by agriculture, I am confident it will show a decrease. The enumeration of school-children shows a gradual falling off each year. The decline in land values Lands appraised for school mortgages at half their value ten years ago do not bring the amount of the loan when sold by the Auditor. Take, for example, a tract of land in Jackson township. It was appraised at $1,200 when a loan of S6OO was made; it was twice advertised and finally bought for S4OO. There are so many things showing the decline of land values and profits in farming, that I hardly know where to begin giving them. There are indisputable figures in our county records to show a decrease of over $900,000 in taxables in a total of $10,000,000 since 1880; that it costs $12,000 a year to keep our poor now against $1,700 in IB6o—an increase of 800 per cent, in pauperism, while the population gained 33 per cent.! that taxation, State and county, has doubled during the same period, and to use a handy expression —“the Lord onlykncws” to hat the increase in national taxation has been. Had I the time I could give hundreds of instances wherein the fanner is despoiled by the indirect system of taxation that bears harder on him than on any other citizen. Not one farm in ten is paying 2 per cent, on its cost in this county, when one considers the money invested in machinery, horses, fences, etc. This is leaving no w f ages at all for the owner, his wife, and one boy—their “living,” of course, must be counted at something, but at best it is a hard pull to make that, and keep out of debt. “The decay of rural New England is being repeated in the Wabash Valley,

yet we find many who dispute this fact, just as they wll dispute the fact that our wheat crop is short this year, because it is “croaking,” as they say. I ha\-fi noticed that Protectionists, as a class, denounce anybody who {joints out these conditions, aud appear as apologists; and in the last campaign we had the anomaly of a pa‘ tv out of poAver defending existing conditions.”