Jasper County Democrat, Volume 11, Number 33, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 August 1908 — A PROSPERITY “SPIEL.” [ARTICLE]

A PROSPERITY “SPIEL.”

The Hon. Richard Foulks of Milroy township was in town last week and relieved his system of an accumulation of knowledge that was simply astounding, when the fact is considered that he has to work every day and many times on Sunday. He did this through the Rensselaer Republican, according to that sheet, so that it would reach as many of the people as possible. He is quoted as saying he has “not observed the farmers falling over themselves to contribute” to Bryan’s campaign fund, “and don’t expect to see any of them either.” From the Hon. Dick’s throne on the dredge he has much better facilities of observing the frogs, mudturtles and catfish falling over themselves than he has to observe the farmers, and this fact accounts for his failure to have observed the condition of tire farmer's mind on this subject. But he ventures to suggest one reason why they are not falling over each other and that is because the price of corn has been boosted from 15 cents to 65 cents since 1895, and then, according to the Republican, he launches into a defense of the present high prices as follows:

“And now they are raising a frightful fuss because flour and beef and pork and other living expenses are high. But he can’t for the life of him figure out how wheat is going to be high and flour and bread low, nor how the farmer is going to feed his cattle 50 cent corn and the butcher sell beef for the price it sold for when corn was 15 cents.” The Hon. Dick wouldn’t have said that if he had not been shut up on that dredge so long that in a way he is out of touch with the civilized world. There are people in this world, many of whom vote the republican ticket all the time, that have gotten the fool notion into their heads that the price of beef should be based on the cost of the animal slaughtered, and not on the price of corn that was fed to them. They have memories elastic enough to recall that in 1895 butcher stuff was costing within SI.OO a hundred pounds as much as it does now, and meat was much cheaper—the Hon. Dick intimating that it only cost half as much. , And then the Hon. Dick spits on his hands, takes a flrm hold on the caudal appendage of his subject and delivers himself of this beautiful literary gem. “And he can’t see what kick the fellow has got who bought everything he ate and wore in 1895 for half what he pays now, if he didn’t have a job then.” Suppose the same fellow was out of a job now, with everything he eats and wears costing him as much again as they did in 1895, would he have any kick coming? If reports can be given and credence there are a few- hundred thousand “fellows” out of jobs now. Another thing we should like to remind “Dick” of, as well as the Republican and the citizens of Rensselaer and vicinity, is the fact that the greatest prosperity Rensselaer ever saw—the only thing like a boom that the town ever experienced, was during those same “hard times” of 1893-6. Then every mechanic in the city was employed, scores of new houses were going up all over town. And still there were not houses enough to accommodate the people ■ w-ho wanted to come here, and dozens of families were campedfojht on the commons, in tents, becffhse there was not an empty house in Rensselaer! Dick knows this, too, but he and the Republican editors like to talk just to hear their heads roar. Today our mechanics are seeking work everyplace, and the Republican says two carpenters went to Hammond Monday, having heard there was work there. A Hammond gentleman in a position to know, told us only a short time ago that there were more men out of employment there than had ever been .known before: that the conditions were simply fierce, to use a slang phrase, and that the • removal of the G. H. Hammond packing house from there was not a circumstance to the hard hit it was now experiencing. But we digress. Then this piece of information follows: “It was the Dingley tariff bill that put smoke in the chimneys and filled up the dinner pail, and it will be hard work to induce the farmer to believe that he should contribute to the democratic campaign fund when they can give him no promise save the closing of the factories and the,, withdrawal of the demand that has made corn and bats and wheat and potatoes and every article that is grown or fed on the farm bring the highest price in history.” ;

Whose “bill” took the smoke out of the chimneys? Whose “bill” emptied the dinner nail? Whose tariff ‘‘bill” closed the factories? Whose “bill” keeps them closed? Whose ‘ bill’ caused the soup houses last winter, and still keeps them in operation? Whose "bill” caused the banks to go "democratic” last fall? Whose "bill” caused the panic? Whose "bill” caused the banks in this and every other town in this vicinity to refuse to pay you your money that you had on deposit subject to check? Whose “bill” put more than a million men out of a job? Whose "bill” is keeping most of them out of a job now, and with an election not three months off too? These questions are submitted to the Hon. Richard Foulks and the the Republican for their consideration.