"The Man with the Hoe" Conditions of American Farmers Contrasted under Democratic and Republican Administrations. VISITED BY GENERAL PROSPERITY. Good Demand for Farm Products Followed the Opening of the Mills to American Labor — A Full Dinner Pail Causes Good Prices — Free Silver a Panic Maker. *§? It is a matter of history that rural prosperity and Republican rule are coincident. , It is equally a matter of record that agricultural depression, mortgage foreclosures and low prices for farm products accompany Democratic administration of national affairs. The prosperity of the farmer depends! upon the prosperity of all other industrial elements of our population. When the industrial classes are employed at American wages their consumption of farm products is on a liberal scale and they are able and willing to pay good prices for the necessities and luxuries of life. Under such conditions there is a good market for all the farmer has for sale. When the reverse is true and workmen are idle or working scant time at cut wages, they are forced to practise pinching econ omy and the farmer necessarily loses part of his market. The American farmer is prosperous when well-paid workmen are carrying well-filled dinner pails, a condition which has accom panied Republican supremacy since the birth of the party. Idle men, tramps, and soup houses, familiar sights under Demo-. cratic rule, furnish but poor markets for farm produce. Farm Prices Under Cleveland and McKinley. If any one is disposed to doubt the accuracy of this grouping of agricultural prosperity with Republican rule, and rural poverty with Democratic ascendency, let him examine the following show ing of farm prices of wheat. The figures are from the annual report of the Secretary of Agriculture and show the farm price of wheat on December I of each year averaged into periods of four years, begin ning with the election of Cleveland in 1892: Years. Administration. 1892-95 Cleveland 1806-99 McKinley Price of Wheat. 54. 1 cents 67-5 " Note that under McKinley the price has averaged 25 per cent higher than under the preceding Democratic administration. Wheat, however, is but the smallest part of the story. The year 1895 also marked the lowest depths of the agricultural depression that followed the assault of the Wilson tariff law upon American industries. A comparison of the total value and the value per unit, on the farms, of the crops of that year, with a similar showing for 1899, when the beneficent effect of Republican rule and protection and fair treatment for American industries was apparent, furnish con vincing proof that Republican policy and rural prosperity go hand in hand. The figures in each case are from the official reports of the Department of Agriculture, except in the case of flax, where the best commercial estimates are used. 1895. ' 1899. Crop. Total value. Value per unit. Total value. Value per unit. $544,985,534 237,938,998 163,655,068 11,964,826 29,312,413 78,984,901 260,338,096 393,185,615 35,574,22012,000,000 25.350.9 19.9 44.0 33.726.6 7.6 8.356.9 75.0 S629.210.11O 319,545,259 198,167,975 12,214,118 29,594,254 89,328,832 332,000,000411,926,187 45,000,000 24,000,000 30.3 Wheat 58.4 Oats 24.9 Rye 51.0 40.3 39.0 7.0 Hay 7.27 9.0 Flax 1.25 $1, 767 ,939,671 $2,090,986,735 ^ * Result of Opening the Mills. Plenty of work and good wages following the "opening of the mills to the labor of America" so increased the home market for the produce of the farm as to make the ten staple crops above noted worth $323,047,064 more to the American farmer than in the last year of the Democratic era of free trade disguised as tariff reform, and repression of home industries. Not only was the aggregate larger, but the value per unit of every product except hay was higher, and the volume of production generally greater. The Value of Farm Animals. After lands and improvements the greatest item of wealth of the American farmer is his live stock, and the value of such farm stock is a perfect barometer of his financial condition. Practically the highest point ever reached was at the close of 1892, the last year of the Harrison Administration, when the valu ation was $2,483,506,681, the country being prosperous, labor fully employed and wages good. The lowest point reached in the past twenty years was at the close of 1896, when mills were closed, fires drawn,' labor idle, capital in hiding and business confidence destroyed by four years of Dem ocratic administration. IN FOUR YEARS THE. SHRINKAGE OF THIS FORM OF FARM WEALTH HAD AMOUNTED TO 33 PER CENT, MAKING $828,091,000, THE PRICE WHICH THE OWNERS OF LIVE STOCK PAID FOR THE DEMOCRATIC EX PERIMENT OF 1892. In the three years of industrial activity which followed the elec tion of McKinley the value of live stock has kept pace upward with the increased earning and spending capacity of American labor, and on January 1, 1900, it had advanced to $2,288,375,413, or a rise of $632,960,000, or 38 per cent, from the depths of the depres sion. The figures in detail, as shown in the official reports of the Department of Agriculture, are as follows: Value of Live Stock. Jan. 1, 1897. Jan. 1, 1900. Total. $452,649,396 32,302,090 369,239,993507,929,421 67,020,942 166,272,770. Total. $603,969,042 111,717,092 514,812,106 689,486,260 122,665,913 245,725,000 $1,655,414,612 $2,288,375,413 To appreciate what this means to each individual stock owner note the change in the average price per head of each class of animals. Jan. 1, 1897. Jan. 1, 1900. Increase. $31.51 41.6623.16 16.65 1.82 4.10 $44.61 53.5631.60 24.97 2.93 4.99 42 per ct. Mules 29 " " 36 " Cattle 50, " 61 " Hogs 22 " Free Silver and the Farmer. In the campaign of 1896 the Democratic party came forward with an assault upon our financial integrity that laid a heavy hand upon the already sorely stricken farmer. The threat of a depre-- ciated currency completed the business paralysis, the domestic mar ket for farm crops was given a final blow through the cessation of all business enterprise, and prices of all farm products fell to a point where production was not only unprofitable but was conducted at a loss. _ ' Never in American history was the situation of the American farmer as distressing as when the Republican party met in conven tion in June, 1896. Business confidence was gone, labor was idle, capital retired, farm values shrunken and the sheriff with his foreclosed mortgage sales the only active man in rural communities. That Republican convention, planting itself squarely upon the side of national honor and business integrity, nominated a man whose whole life work was summed up in his trenchant declaration, "Open American mills to American workmen." _ • That man was William McKinley. With Mr. Bryan's nomina tion the issue was squarely joined and presented to the American farmer for settlement, one candidate offering a debased currency, a cheap dollar; the other standing for sound money, protection to American industries, full employment for labor at American wages, and good prices for American farm products. _ The vote of the great farming States of the West elected Mc Kinley, and the statistics already presented prove that rural pros perity followed. Prices of Farm Products in 1896 and 1900. The best showing of the change in the condition of the Ameri can farmer, between the first nomination of Mr. McKinley and his renomination, is a simple statement of the prices ruling for farm staples at each date. It is an argument against the abandonment ©f Republican policies which cannot be met. The following table 4 shows the current market price of different staple crops on June I, 1896, and June 1, 1900: Farm Products. Grade Quoted. June 1, 1896. June 1, 1900. Advance per cent. Corn No. 2 Wheat No. 3 . . Oats Rye Barley Potatoes Hay Flaxseed Butter Cheese Live Hogs . . . Live Cattle. . . Sheep Clover seed . . Cotton Wool Broom Corn. . Hops Millet seed. .. Eggs No. 2 in store No. 3 spring No. 2 in store No. 2 in store Fair to good malting. . . Choice Burbank No. 1 Timothy No.lN. W Creamery firsts Full cream, choice Heavy packing. Butcher steers Westerns Prime contract Middling uplands Tub washed Self-working,fairto good N. Y. State choice German Firsts, strictly fresh. . . Bush. $0. Bush. , Bush. . Bush. Bush. Bush. Ton 9 Bush. Lb.Lb.1001b. 3 1001b. 3 1001b. 3 1001b. 7 Lbs.Lbs.Ton 32 Lb. 100 lb. D02. 27K .57 .11 H .33 .28.28.25.82•14*.06* .25.55 .25 .40 .07^.16^ .50 .07 .80.09* $0.37^ .64^.21*.53 .40 .40 11.50 1.80 .18 M/z 5.12#3.32J^4.97^ 7.50 .99.29 180.00 .12 1.20 .10% 37 13 23 61 434324 119 2620 5822 53 1 20 76 454 7250 Note.— The above are Chicago market quotations except in the cases of cotton and hops, which are New York quotations. Why the Farmer Smiles. (By B. W. Snow, of the Orange Judd Farmer.) The "man with the hoe" is this year also the man with the ''dbugh." This may be slightly slangy, but it is eminently truthful. The farmer is enjoying a big, juicy piece of the prosperity pie, and if his slice is a trifle larger than seems entirely equitable no one will begrudge it to him. He has well earned it, and besides, when he is comfortably fixed he is a generous fellow, ready to share his surplus with his brothers in the counting house, the factory, the shop and all the by-ways of modern business. Last year he tickled the earth with that "hoe," and nature in generous mood responded to his advances. She proved no niggard in her favors, but "wantoned as in her prime." Good crops arid good prices are a combination that has solved all the bitter, grinding problems of hard times. _ Figures are proverbially dry, but sometimes they are more elo quent than silver tongues or gold pens. Just now they tell an amazing tale of rural prosperity. The financial result to the Amer- 5 ican farmer of his three principal cereal crops in 1898 and 1899 is thus compared: 1899. Bushels. FarmPrice. Value. 2,207,473,000 565,350,000 869,140,000 30.3 58.424.9 $668,864,000 Wheat 330,164,000 Oats 216,416,000 $1,215,444,000 1898. Bushels. Farm Price. Value. 1,868,120,000 702,961,000 798,958,000 28.7 58.2 25.5 $536,140,000 409,123,000 203,734,000 Wheat Oats.. $1,148,997,000 For three crops alone he has a neat little extra surplus just now of $66,447,000, but this is only part of the tale. In fact, it is a continued story with as many chapters as he has crops. He has about 40,000,000 bushels more potatoes than he raised in 1898 and his whole crop is bringing him 10 to 15 cents per bushel' more. A few of him way up where the red line on the map separates him from British tyranny, raise more flax than was ever dreamed of before, 20,000,000 bushels or more, and the soulless seed crushers are burdening his life and his bank account by insisting upon sepa rating themselves from a dollar and a quarter in exchange for every bushel he raised, while last year he got but 80 cents for a 16,000,000 bushel crop. Down in Illinois and out in Kansas, where broom corn comes from, the honest grower swaps his bale of brush for an almost equally large bale of greenbacks, a mere matter of $150 a ton for a crop that a few years ago he sold for $40, and this, too, for a crop the largest for some years. So it runs, chapter after chapter; butter, cheese, poultry, small grain, all up in price with increasing production. Value of Crops in 1896 and 1900. To fully appreciate why the farmer smiles, it is necessary to recall a little history. His prosperity is no little single year affair, based upon bad- 6 crops at home or abroad. The present is simply the crest of a wave that has been rising for four years. The cup of depression was passed to the farmer first, and in 1896 he got down to the dregs at the bottom of his draught. The price of his products started upward before the movement was apparent in other lines of industry, and if prices of other prod ucts have seemingly outstripped farm products during the last twelve months, it is, simply a case of a late start trying to catch up. If we would know why the farmers' bank account is fat just now let us look into his books for 1896 and in 1899. Here are a few comparisons, the figures for 1896 being from Government reports: 1896. 1899. Crop Value. Crop Value. $491,007,000 310,603,000132,485,000 $668,864,000 330,164,000216,416,000 Wheat Oats $934,095,000 $1,215,444,000 These are only three eggs. There are others in the same basket. Value of Stocks in 1896 and 1900. Now for a last chapter with the hair-raising climax. Not only has the awful shrinkage in this form of farm wealth between 1892 and 1896 been entirely recovered, but the aggregate nqw passes any previous record. To show the previous high water mark the low water mark and the present advanced shore line the accompanying table presents in detail the aggregate valuation re ported for each class of stock on January 1, 1889, 1896 and 1900: 1889. 1896. 1900. $982,195,000 179,445,000 366,226,000597,237,000 90,640,000 291,307,000 $550,532,000 94,222,000 394,087,000564,304,000 52,880,000 204,402,000 $678,941,000 109,016,000 600,891,000 Cattle 796,457,900' 127,081,000 245,425,000 $2,507,050,000 $1,860,420,000 $2,558,111,000 One more little tabular flare of trumpets' is needed to fully illus trate the present position of the stock owner. It shows the average 7 YALE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY 3 9002 08937 3683 price per head at the lowest point of the depression, the present price and the percentage of the advance: Low Point. Jan., 1900. Advance. Horses, January 1, 1897 Mules, "• 1898 Cows, " 1892 Cattle, " 1895 Sheep, " 1896 Hogs, " 1897 $33.65 39.6621.40 14.15 1.60 4.13 $45.60 48.67 31.1224.83 2.974.99 36 per ct. 23 50 76 86 21 Words will not paint the lily, neither will they add to the material evidence of rural prosperity presented above. The American farmer knows that he was poverty-stricken under the last Democratic administration. ¦He also knows that, under the Republican administration of President McKinley he has been continuously visited by general prosperity.