Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 35, Number 13, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 October 1902 — The Prosperous Farmers. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

The Prosperous Farmers.

To vote a straight Republican ticket makea X within the circle which surrounds the eagle, as ths ons above is marked. Make no other mark on your ticket. Any other mark than the X will spoil your ballot and will lose your vote. Use nothing to mark the X but the blue pencil that will be given you by the poll clerk. Should you by accident-make any other mark on your ballot, return It to poll clerk ano get a new one. Before leaving booth fold your ballot so that the face cannot be eden, and eo that the Initial of the poll Clerk on the back can be seen. DON’T BE A STAY-AT-HOME. BE - SURE AND GET OUT TO VOTte. x

The Chicago American, owned and directed by the many times millionaire, Wm. Hearst, led al) other papers two years ago in its depreciation and slander of McKinley, and in its predictions of disaster and hardship, especially to the farmers, if Bryan was not elected. Last Sunday this same Chicago American had a long news article showing bow its predictions have proven false, and how wonderfully prosperous the farmers are now, under Republican rule, The following are extracts from the American’s article.

* I'be report on agriculture just made public by the census bureau contains interesting facts relating to the progress of that industry daring the past decade. These facts demonstrate that the farmers are as prosperous as others engaged in manufacturing pursuits, and that they have completely recovered from the hard time of 1893 to 1897. .<

“The census reports $5,046,393,517 invested in manufactures and $10,514,001,938 invested in agriculture, a ratio of more than four to one in favor of agriculture. With the balance of trade on the aggressive, the agricultural exports amounting to $950,000,000 annually, there is abundant evidence ot the prosperous condition of agriculture. “The census figures deny that the number of farms operated by owners has decreased, to the detriment of the financial aad ao< ial independence of the American farmer, as has been contended While the percentage of farms, owned by their operator has decreased during the decade from 71 per cent to 64 per cent, the total number of such farms increased from 3,269,728 in 1890 to 3.713,371 in 1900. The number of cash tenants increased 22 per cent. Yet it is pointed out by the census that this increase was not at the ex-J pease of ownership, but occured from the vast number of immigrants who bad become farm laborers during the previous decades.”