Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 22, Number 3, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 September 1900 — PRIDES TO FARMERS. [ARTICLE]

PRIDES TO FARMERS.

They Can Buy More with Produce than Ever. A Republican farmer came to town with seventy bushels of oats. He got $10.50 for the load. We asked him if that was prosperity for him. He said it was sound money and that was all he wanted. The man wanted enough wire to put two wires on one side of his quarter. He went to Hutton’s and figured on wire. He got wire last year at 2% cents a pound and was mad when he had to pay 4% cents this, year for the same kind of wire. The wire cost sl4. The man gave the seventy bushels of oats and $4.30 for the wire. Lust year seventy bushels of oats bought the same amount of wire afid the farmer had $5.10 left. The money is very sound when it buys farm products. Splendid money then. Takes lots of oats and wheat to get little of it. The same money is not as good and sound when it buys manufactured goods. Takes lots of money to get a little wire and a few nails.—Hebron, Neb., Champion. Just such stuff as this is sent out by this class of journals with the sole object of deceiving their readers. Why don’t they take up the price list of 1896 and compare them with those of the past or present year. In 1896 the farmer took his load of corn of twenty-five bushels to the market and received the magnificent sum of $3.25 for It. He can take the same number of bushels of corn to the market and get enough money to buy a keg of nails with and have $3 left with which to buy a handsome new dress for his wife. In 1896 he took his seventy bushels of oats to the market and bought 300 pounds of wire. He can now take the same number of bushels to the market and buy the same amount of wire aid have some money left. In 1896 he took a hundred pounds of wool to the market and received his $9

and Invested it in four and a half kegs of nails. This year he takes the same amount bf wool to the market and isable to buy nine kegs of nails. This class of calamity howlers, who invariably leave their farming implements out to the weather, In some fence corner, always have a stock of old iron on hand; in 1896 there was no market for such stuff. ,Now they can ship say 400 pounds of this stuff and get enough money to buy their keg of nails with. Three years ago the farmer shipped his 3-year-old, 1,000-pound steer to the market and received $22.50 for it; this year he has done the same, but he has received SSO for it. Now in ’96 he took his $22, and by adding $2.50 to the pile, he was enabled to buy 1,000 pounds of ■wire. This year he buys the same amount of wire, but instead of going down into his pocket, and reducing his exchequer $2.50, why, he adds $5 to his wealth. In 1896 these same fellows said: “If we can get a good paying market for our products we can afford to pay good prices for what we buy.” How is it now with these same empty box statesmen? Now they are getting just the re-verse-7-kicking because prices have advanced. Verily, these fellows are hard to please. Don’t be fooled by such rubbish; use your brains.