Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 52, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 January 1893 — Why Farmers Are Dissatisfied. [ARTICLE]

Why Farmers Are Dissatisfied.

Editor Nevr York World: As you call for opinions in the World, I will write a few lines. First, an extra session of Congress is demanded by the vote recorded last November. The Democratic party should take no step backward. To replace the duty on sugar is a step backward. Sugar stands third in value of the food products consumed by the laboring people. They consume more in the average family than the wealthy, and consequently pay more of the tax. Far better remove all the duty; then the best sugar would he used without refining. The proposed plan to tax incomes is perhaps the best and most just that has been proposed. As to farmers and mechanics not favoring it, not one in ten thousand of them has an income of $5,000 after paying work-* ing expenses. Farming lands have been decreasing in value for the past twenty years. The best hop-growing lands in this county (Otsego) will not sell for more than one-half what they were worth from 1855 to 1860. The situation is the same through all the Eastern States. Furthermore, we should give away no more public lands. Make price of fl to $5 per per acre, which would produce in income and make the immigrant pay something for the privilege of a home in this land of liberty. Restrict immigration. Competition is too great in agriculture. I hare mentioned Otsego County because I own land* there on which I have worked and lived over fifty years, and I know whereof I write. 1 would probably be at work on It now were 1 able to work from twelve to eighteen hours a day, as most of the farmers now have to do who make farming a success. I cannot see how a farmer can he a Republican. All tariff taxes and business laws favor the manufacturer and dealer.—G. O. S.