People's Pilot, Volume 4, Number 47, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 May 1895 — The Farmer’s Object Lesson. [ARTICLE]

The Farmer’s Object Lesson.

A good, honest farmer was standing In front of the court house, yesterday, looking mournfully at his tax receipt. He said: “I brought a bale of cotton here "five years ago, sold it for $49.50. With this money I paid my taxes, $22; got a dress for my wife, $5; shoes for the children, $6; a barrel of flour, $6.50; fifty pounds of sugar, $4; ten pounds of coffee, $2, and went home happy with $3.75 in my pocket for the preacher. I brought in a bale today, sold it for $22.50; paid my taxes, $22.26, and have a quarter left. They tell me I can get flour and frock and sugar and shoes for half I paid then, but it 'pears to me I haint got the half. I’ve about made up my mind to invest this quarter in United States bonds and howl for the gold standard.” The rise in the price of oil has added many millions of dollars to the wealth of the Standard Oil Company. Did it earn this wealth? If not it must have stolen it.