Democratic Sentinel, Volume 15, Number 21, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 June 1891 — Who Gets Prote [?]tion’s Plums? [ARTICLE]

Who Gets Prote [?]tion’s Plums?

Robert P. Porter, our Superintendent of the Census, who ought to have some knowledgo of statistics, has assured tho farmers that they got more benefit from protection than any other class. How any man could make such a statement in view of tho enormous fortunes accumlatcd in protected industr es, cannot bo explained except upon tho the theory of willful and wanton purpose to deceive. Farmers themselves know very well that they have not been made prosperous by protection. National Lecturer Willitts, who was the Alliance candidate for Governor of Kansas last year, has recently shown that ho Is under no delusion as to the condition of the farming class. Ho cites the following figures to show hOw the farmers have faPen behind In tho struggle for existence: *Our last census shows that the farm

mortgaged Indebtedness of /Tansa9 Is 5199,0<W,000, and of Michigan 5130,000,000. To pay the interest on the mortgaged indebtedness In the wheat-grow-ing State of Michigan requires 450,534 bushels more wheat than tho State produces. lowa lias 5199,000,000 mortgaged indebtedness—a sum equal to 5101 for every man, woman and child in tho State. “In the last year tho farmers in Kansas havo lost their homes at tne rate of 5 0 per week, ami all tho dosirablo public land is now in tho hands of railroads or of aliens. “In 1850 tho farmers owned 70 per cent of tho wealth of this tonntrv; In 1860 they owned 50 per cent.; in 1880 they ownod 33 per cent: in 1890 they own less than 25 per cent."