VOL. XXIX.
INDIANAPOLIS. IND , NOV. 3, 1894
NO. 44
Cause of  Low Price of Wheat, and of
the Depletion of the United States
Treasury.
! Address of Hon. Daniel Xeedham of Massachusetts,
at the National Farmers' Congres., Oct. 4th,   ikii.
Mr. President and Gentlemen:
I have been requested to give reasons
for the depreciation in the price of American wheat, and also to state what in my
judgment, has been the cause of the poverty of the United States Treasury. I
shall treat theee two questions with the
hope that I shall aid in solviDg that
which for the moment has seemed to present new features and embarrassments in
oondltiona surrounding the American
farmer and the general prosperity of the
nation.
SUEZ CANAL.
In the older countries there has been si
lently yet rapidly working conditions
which have imperceptibly brought about
this result. Our western farmer, when
his wheat was marketed at 80 cents a
bnshel, was satisfied that his price was*
scarcely above the cost of production; for
a year he has seen the prioe steadily fall,
until to-day the money value of a bushel
of wheat and a bushel of corn Is practi
<<ally the same. He has looked with
amazement and anxiety at the constantly
falling price, and is more and more satis
tied that unless a ohange is in the
immediate future, the poor re
suits of Eagllah farming will be better
than his own. In looking for a cause we
find that in 1860, nnder the direction of an
eminent French engineer, work was com
menced to shorten by 4,000 miles the distance between British India and Europe
This was by connecting the Mediterranean and the Red seas by what is now
known as the Suez Canal. This canal is 88
geographical miles in length, has a minimum depth of 26 feet, and an average
channel width of of 72 feet. It was com
pleted in the year 1870, at a cost of a hundred millions of dollars, and has proved
one of the grandest ventures of modern
art. Contrary to the early anticipations,
this canal was built and is operated without locks or any artificial appliances for
raising or lowering the waters supplied to
the canal—the level of both seas having
proved to be the same. This canal has
greatly cheapened the coBt as well as
lessened the time of transportation
of all East India products to European markets.
The rich lands of India, worked by
naked and half-clothed savages, whose cost
of living is scarcely m jre than that of ordinary domestic animals, have been
turned by the tens of thousands of acres to
the production of wheat,and cargo succeeds
car go through the great canal annually,
landing upon European soil millions of
bushels of wheat to compete in the mar
kete of England, France and Germany,
not only with the surplus products of the
American farmers in the countries which
have heretofore largely controlled European markets. That from such a soil as
that of India, worked by a class of laborers not yet emerged from barbarism, with
existing facilities for transportation, the
great East can successfully compete with
the farmers in civilized countries is by no
means a marvel.
TRADE HAS NO RESPECT FOR I 1VIL7ZATION.
Commerce never enquires whether
churches are established, schoolhouses are
built or Christianity extends its benign
influence over the land which furnishes
cargoes for its ships, business for its merchants and wealth for its capitalists. The
cargo of rum in the hold, and the missionary passengers in the cabin, destined for
the same heathen, move over the waters
of the oceans in the same ships, influenced
by the same motives ln their transportation. No longer may it be said, "Westward the Star of Empire takes its way,"
when British India, with ite hundred mil-
I
lions of untutored savages, opens a more
productive field for capital and gives
promise of greater agricultural profits than
civilized men can yield.
Look, then, farmers ol the great West,
to one of tne solutions of the great mystery which has reduced the value of your
wheat to 50 cents a bushel, and prepare
yourselves for the discovery of some
means by which the labor of your hands
shall be turned to a larger profit, or else so
change the cost of yonr living by the oondltiona which now surround you that the
comforts of a Christain home shall be secured at a smaller outlay.
Be sure of one thing, this contest of
labor of the United States and western
Europe with the barbaric East in competl
tlon for the grain markets of the world
will continue with the generations of men
who shall compute time in centuries to
oome.
Unlike the diversified industries of New
England farming, as practiced by the
fathers and continued to this day, the
western farmer has largely hazarded
everything upon a single crop. The example of New England in this direction
may be studied with profit at the present
time.
Not alone is England threatening to reduce the value of wheat by increased production, the Russian government is making preparation upon the most liberal ssale
to throw upon the markets of Europe surplus wheat by the tens of millions of
bushels. The great Siberean railway is
being constructed with an energy worthy
of the highest type of modern enterprise.
By the end of the j> resent century, the
completion of the road to the sea of Japan
is fully assured. Tbis road, with ite
branches, will cover a rich agricultural
district of thousands of miles in extent,
which will yield wheat at an almost nom
Inal cost, labor being ;» factor of so infinl-
Itesimal a character that lt hardly needs
consideration.
UNJUST BURDENS UPON THE FARMER.
Does this pushing of agricultural enterprises by the governments of the old world
mean a radical change in the earning ca
pacity of American farmers? Without
compensating markets to dispose of our
surplus Is of little avail. Is it not a fi
time to consider the lessening of that
great public burden known as Government and State taxation? Is it not a fit
time to consider if agricultural labor, in
the ownership and working of farming
lands to produce the necessaries of life, is
not paying more than its just share of
taxation, and that capital is paying less?
Who can deny that capital has a hundred
hands where labor has but two? Who can
gainsay tbat capital can grasp in its clutch
the land from ocean to ocean, while the
hands of labor are paraljzsd by a mortgage on the threshold of Its own little
home? Can there be anything more just
than a tax on incomes when those incomes
exceed the average earnings of skillful,
intelligent labor? Is there anything un
necessarily Inquisitorial In asking for a
statement of income more than in asking
for a schedule of property? S3 far as I
can see, the light ot the new day will
dawn for agriculture when taxation will
cease to be a bnrden to tbe laborer and be
accepted as a sacred privilege and duty by
the individual capitalist who no longer
feels the necessity of dally manual toll.
That our American civilization, which Is
the glory of the age and an example to all
humanity, has fulfilled ite mission while
it fails to protect the weak against the
strong, and legislates for the few rather
than the many, I am unable to believe.
That such protection must come in tbe
near future Is an absolute necessity in the
maintenance of personal freedom, Christian homes, and universal education.
I now oome to the consideration of the
other question upon which I have been requested to speak,
THE DEPLETION (IF THE UNITED STATES
TREASURY.
Looking back to the time of the redemption of specie payment, we find that the
means by which resumption was made
possible vt ere furnished by the farmers of
the great West. The grain-bearing dls
trlcte of Europe for five years previous to
resumption had been subject to abnormal
conditions of alternate drouth and Hood.
By these coincidences the great demand
was made by Eogland, Germany and
France for American wheat, the large surplus of which, finding no market at homo
realized highly compensating prices In tbe
markets of Europe.
It was not the edict by statute which enabled the Government of the United
States to maintain the promise of the law,
that a paper promise and a gold dollar
should be the equivalent of value. The
industry, preservance and economy of the
farmers of the United States had produoed
the golden grain which, meeting a ready
market abroad, brought back in retnrn to
our own country the gold by which the
pledge of the statute was promptly filled.
At that time there had long been upon
the statute book of the oountry a provision by which the duty on all foreign
Imports should be paid in gold. A similar provision existed then, and exists to
day, in all civilized countries for the recuperation of National treasuries with
gold coin. Bat In the flush of hope and
ambition, so well had we succeeded in
maintaining the Act of Resumption, that
we repealed this only means to replenish
the treasury of the nation with gold. So
bold a defiance of well established precedents oonld find justification only in the
exuberation of patriotism, which believed
that America and Americans commanded
the mystic key by which the treasuries of
the world were unlocked. This was the
first fatal blunder and should have been
acknowledged and corrected.
Aa business revived unprecedented
prosperity filled to over flowing the Government treasury, and the hundreds of
millions of accumulated surplus Influenced the officials of the Government to
enter Into competlon with the capitalists
of New York and London in the purchase
at a premium of Government bonds.
Had the Government advertised proposals for the redemption of the unma
tured loan at par the surplus wonld have
been legitimately and gradually absorbed,
but entering Into the markets of finance
In New York, London and other great
money centers, the premium on the Gov
ernment bond was rapidly stimulated and
Increased, until the treasury of the United
States authorized the payment of a hun
dred and twenty-five and a hundred and
thirty dollars for a loan not yet mature,
which had realized to the treasury of the
United States only one hundred dollars In
money. By this process of premium buying the debt not yet due, from 40 to 50
millions of dollars of the treasui y money
was actually paid out to speculators In the
Government credit. Having thus depleted the treasury, and waking up to a
realizing sense that the administration had
been too sanguine in its ambition to pay
off the Government debt before maturity,
a scheme was entertained to extend the
payment of bonds which might become
due in the near future. Bankers in New
York and elsewhere proposed to extend to
such loans, payable at the convenience of
His Government at the rate of two and a
half per centum, interest. When it is considered that a large portion of the Government bonds represent in savings banks
and other beneficiary institutions the saving of the laboring classes, this minimum
rate of interest could not be considered
excessive.   But President Harrison deter
mining to drive a sharp bargain, persistently, If not doggedly, adhered to an extension at a rate not to exoeed two per
oent. So tbe extension of the loan was
not affected, and the payment of the maturing loan exhausted the treasury of ite
surplus and threatened bankruptcy to the
Government.
This action of the President was simply
a blunder due to the fraility of human
judgment, based on the loftiest patriotism
and the most absolute confidence in the
recuperative power of the people of the
United States Had this mistake been corrected It would not have been necessary
to enter th« gold market by the sale of
50 millions of new Government bonds.
Or had the loan been extended at the pleasure of the Government at the rate of two
and a half percent, no such exigency as
now exists in the treasury of the United
States would have been possible.
As certain as tbe laws of cause and effect,
no legitimate and suilicent gold supply
can be secured for the treasury of the
Government until tbe re enactment of the
law providing that imports shall pay their
duties in gold, is again put upon the statute book of the Nation.
I am glad that in this Farmers' Congress we can dttcass great national questions, independent of party trammels and
the edict of party leaders. To claim for
any political party immunity from error
or mistake is evidence of ignorance of the
history of all political organizations.
Standing upon the platform of the Farmers' Congress, we occupy an eminence
which gives a clear outlook upon the political economy of the country, and taking
the tried and the good, and the change
that comes with every passing day in the
new conditions over which we have no
control and cannot forecast, we may weld
into maxims and principles, theories
demonstrated by experience, which will
secure greater freedom, larger independence, broader and deeper knowledge and
laws based upon the rights of humanity,
the outgrowth not of sinister, selfish and
ignorant politicians, but of honest, trne
and noble patriots.
State and County Parks.
Editors Indiana Farmer:
In a recent visit to Martin county I was
struck with the natural beauty of the
oountry and with the abundance of native
forest which is fast being wantonly destroyed on the pretext of "clearin' "—although nearly every man has more cleared
land than he can well attend. It Is a sad
reflection that in less than 50 years, at the
present rate ot destruction, there will
scarcely be an acre of the "forest primeval" in the State and that the original
Flora and Fauna will be eradicated.
The United States, with wise forethought, have preserved certain great
tracts in their natural state for Government parka, such as the Yellowstone park,
Hot Springs, Ark., eto. Our cities are
reaching out for parks. Why not the
State of Indiana purchase parks, thereby
preserving forever many of the great natural beauties of our country. A slight
change In our statutes might permit
boards of agriculture and county commissioners to make county park*, which
would in time become a source of great
educational bsnefit as well as health giving resorts to the citizens who now go to
other States and other countries to get a
glimpse of nature and breathe a little pure
air. No place in Indiana presents such an
array of natural attractions for a State or
eounty park as are found within a radius
of 12 miles of Shoals In Martin county.
W. B. Fletcher.
William Lefevre, nine years old, of
Marion,was impaled by accidentally falling on a sharp pointed stick, which penetrated his;abdomen for several inches.