Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 234, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 October 1917 — FARMERS WONT BUY, SELL, FIGHT [ARTICLE]

FARMERS WONT BUY, SELL, FIGHT

CHICAGO BANKER CALLS FARMERS SLACKERS AND SELFISH. The following article was clipped from today’s Chicago Daily Tribune. What do you think about it Jasper County Farmer? E. D. Hulbert, president of the Merchants’ Loan ana Trust Company, finds the attitude of farmers in the present situation one calling for a change. . He said yesterday: “The one weak spot in the situation is the attitude of farmers. They will neither buy Liberty bonds, pay taxes, Sell their produce, or fight. I have asked many out of town bankers who have called h°re about farmers

paying taxes andl have learned of . but one instance in which a farmer has paid an income tax. They have profited throughout the entire period of the war, but are unwilling to help the government in any of the four ways mentioned. “The controller of the currency has estimated the gross income of the United States to beabout $40,000,000,000. Of this he estimates farm produce and animals to bring a gross return of about $17,000,000,000. The farmers, according to this estimate, are getting 42% per cent of the country’s income and giving nothing out of it. It is left for the government to raise taxes and sell its bonds to the remaining 57% per cent while the class which as a whole has profited most escapes any burden. “The farmer has been pampered by politicians until he seems to feel le is in a preferred class, and, as I said, he doesn’t want to buy Liberty bonds, he doesn’t want to fight, and he avoids his income tax. It is about time the farmer should appreciate lis position in the country and help do his part in a war as much for his benefit as for those who are putting up the money and doing the fighting for him.’.’