THE FARMER'S WAR AGAINST MONOPOLIES. 337 



must look to his land for the means of discharging his 

 debts, and he should shun as a pestilence anything that 

 tends to increase the burdens upon that land. To keep 

 the farm clear of mortgages should be the farmer's chief 

 effort, and nothing but the direst necessity should ever 

 tempt him to peril the safety of his home. 



Of late years it has become a habit with the farming 

 class to depend upon the labor-saving machines to do 

 the work of the farm. No one will deny that improved 

 machinery is a great advantage to the farmer, or that a 

 good planter, cultivator, or reaper is worth making a 

 sacrifice to obtain ; but the labor is saved by the machine 

 at a high cost when the farmer goes in debt to purchase it. 

 If a machine is wanted, wait until the money is in hand 

 to pay for it. 



In the first place, the farmer pays a price for the 

 machine that is too high when he purchases it for cash. 

 When only a partial payment is made, and the remain- 

 der is paid in instalments, the cost of the machine is 

 enormously increased. Under the most favorable circum- 

 stances, the machine costs more money than it is 

 actually worth. 



"The immense profits of general agents and sub- 

 agents have been added to the manufacturers' prices ; 

 then, when cash has not been paid, the prices have been 

 still further increased to cover interest at twenty per 

 cent. Finally, as Mr. McCormick testified in Washing- 

 ton that from one-fourth to one-third of his sales were 

 bad debts, an average of 33 per cent, must be added to 

 cover these. The grand result is, that the farmers pay 

 from 50 to 100 per cent, more for their machinery than 

 they ought." 



But farm machinery is not the only thing that the 



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