People's Pilot, Volume 5, Number 36, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 March 1896 — The Farmer’s Position. [ARTICLE]

The Farmer’s Position.

What does the farmer give to the world and what does he get in return? The products of his toil nourish and sustain his fellow citizens of the United States, and are sent abroad to feed the inhabitants of Europe; and for all this bounty he is being shabbily paid in dollars so few that he is cramped and hampered, and advised to economize, to work harder, to keep quiet and to be contented. Within tlie last few months several hundred million dollars have been borrowed, most of which must be added to the *5,000,000 that this country already owes abroad. The farmer is expected to foot the bill, at least 75 per cent of it, for he furnishes that proportion of foreign exports. When the civil war closed our national debt was about $3,000,000,000, and probably hot one third of it was owed abroad; now, while the debt has been .reduced to nearly $1,000,000,000. our municipal, railroad mortgages and other obligations have been piled up until it is believed that they now amount to over *4,000000,000, all due to foreign capitalists, and on which interest has to be paid in gold, of w T hich the farmer must pay threefourths of the whole, both prin cipal and interest, Under the gold standard this debt is being doubled and if the foreign effort to force their monetary system still further upon us is fully carried out, it will be doubled again, and perhaps trebled. The farmer has to foot the bill with wheat at 50c a bushel: coni and oats in the same ratio. Not be ing able to keep the balance of trade in favor of this country, with our former gold and silver obligations amounting to *I,OOO 000,000, and wheat, corn and oats at prices fully double to what they now are, how are we to proceed with a debt five times as great to be paid in gold alone, when the men we owe are in possession of nearly all the gold? There is no gold in this country worth speaking of; a little in the treasury, a few millions in banks and saving funds, the rest has been Shylocked.. The last'bond issue was to have been a popular loan, which they well knew could not be, because the bonds are purchased in gold and the people do not possess the gold. The people apply to the banks for it and are told that they cannot have it, Why, if all kinds of money are to be parity,, are these bonds purchasable only with one kind? The people have silver and paper only; somebody else has the gold. it was foreseen that the bonds would finally be taken by a syndicate, and a little later on a syndicate will get the gold that was paid for the bonds; then it will depart to foreign shores. And the farmer has to foot the bill, at least 75 per cent of it. Of the hundreds of millions of dollars worth of imports—diamonds, wines, silks, etc., —mone is imported for him. Of the *75.000.000 annually spent by Americans trading in Europe, none is spent by the farmer. Of the hundreds of millions of dollars that are borrowed from Europe, none goes into his shrunken pocket; nothing is squandered by him in luxurious! or riotous living, yet all eyes are turned to him to come up and settle with foreign creditors and he is ridiculed, slandered and condemned if he dares evpn /to open his lips in protest, and. whether he protests ©r not, hei

must work on, keep still, economize, and let the rule of Mammon go on. The gold power, which is but another name for British greed, has taken the place of the old slave power in this country, and it is just as unreasonable, just as tyrannical, and just as inhuman as ever the slave power was. It names pliable candidates to be voted for, supplies the cash to both parties, writes party platforms one year and breaks them the next; forces its measures through legislative bodies, threatens juries and actually creates them; breathes the breath of life into vast monopohes which control the necessaries of life; despises the plain people, (especially the farmers) slanders all who dare to oppose it by speech or act; breeds discord and strife between different sections of the Republic; floods the country with pamphlets written by Wall street Tories; furnishes printed matter free to needy (?) newspapers; bribes government officials with railroad passes; endeavors to stay the rising tide of genuine Americauism. and smothers the fire of patriotism in the hearts of the people, Fellow Farmer.