Jasper County Democrat, Volume 12, Number 62, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 November 1909 — COMPARISONS ARE SOMETIMES ODIOUS. [ARTICLE]

COMPARISONS ARE SOMETIMES ODIOUS.

The Republican thinks the average man—which means the man who works for a living—is so prosperous under these piping times of Aldrich, Cannon and “Possum Bill 1 ’ that big fat turkeys and great mammoth plumb puddings will be found on every one of their tables Thanksgiving day. It speaks of the 15 cent corn under a democratic administration, when the laboring men were all hunting work and turkey was but 8 cents a pound! We remember corn being 52 cents under the last democratic administration, but think it hardly reached so low a figure as 15 cents. Of course the Republican has forgotten about the higher figure, and only remembers the lower. Be this as it may, however, it is not so very long ago that hundreds of thousands of workingmen were crying" for bread under the hightariff republican regime,’ and practically all the bankers in the country took to the woods, figuratively speaking, and a man who had money deposited in bank couldn’t get a dollar out to buy a sack of flour or pay a debt he owed. This never happened under a democratic administration, neighbor, and the lesssaid about the latter the better. But just a word about those “terrible times’’ under a democratic administration: There were many farmers making money right along in those times, the land boom started in this county, and Rensselaer enjoyed the only boom the town ever had. The number of sheriff’s sales in Jasper county were not much greater than now, although the country was new then and the people had many obstacles to overcome. The writer has lived right in this section of the state for the past twenty-five; years, and he has never seen the time here when a manreally wanted labor could not find work to do and at better wages than now taking the purchasing power of his wage into consideration. Along in 1888 to '92, turkeys sold as low as six cents a pound, and i utter and egg- could scarcely be given away. Corn, oats, cattle and everything else was low, but. $1 to $1.25 per day for a common laborer was the regular price then at Goodland where we were living, and that was under the benificient republican reign of Benjamin Hat risen, too. From '93 to '97. (a democratic administration) $1.25 to s’.sb wa the prevailing wage in town for a common' laborer, and his dollar would buy as much food or clothing then as two dollars' will to-day, when he is getting only a few cents more $1 50 to $2 being the high wage mark. With prevailing high prices lor foodstuffs and other necessaries, few mon who depend upon their daily wage for a living are able to more than keep body and soul together, and lew turkeys will grace their Thanksgiving board this year unless the Republican furnishes them, which in the light of recent developments it is hardly thought it will do on a very large scale?