Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 40, Number 18, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 November 1907 — CURRENT COMMENT [ARTICLE]

CURRENT COMMENT

All over the country farmers are finishing up their season’s work and taking account of profits. Most of them are satisfied with the year’s labors, for, while crops are not so great in volume as they have been for the past two or three years, prices are such that the farmers of the United States will receive almost $1,000,000,000 more for their products than they got last year. What this means to the country may be guessed when it is reflected that the farmer is the basis of prosperity. When he is well off, all men in other occupations are comfortable.' When hard times seize him, all other lines of business are at once.affected. He is the foundation of the national weal. If the farmer has no money to deposit in the rural banks, banks have no money to lend manufacturers and merchants, If he has no crops, railroads can not earn dividends. Shortage of money at once reduces industry and lowers the rate of wages. If it continues, thousands of men are thrown out of employment and misery becomes general. On the other hand, when the farmer is prosperous, money and credit can be obtained for merchandizing and manufacturing, railroads thrive, labor's reward increases, affluence spreads over the country. The earth is the mother of all wealth. Everything man uses comes out of It originally, and the men who devbte themselves to cultivating th-L Soil, are the medium between earth’s riches and the rest of mankind. Farmers should be happy as this winter draws in. With abundant profits, in peace and plenty, they can reflect that their money is clean. They have not grown rieh through robbing other men. They have created wealth. Every dollar they possess represents so much more to feed and clothe humanity, so much more of comfort and happiness. The American farmer ought to be comfortable iu mind as well as in body. The soil has given him n competence. He has paid off liis mortgage long ago. He has a good home and owns his broad acres. He has a balance in the bank, and as he looks forward he can see plenty in the future. He is much better off than mqst men, although he may not realize it.—Chicago Journal.