464 A GRICUL TURE. 



tury, laws have been made that bear unevenly upon their inter- 

 ests, in consequence of which they are the losers. They show, 

 by statistics, that, notwithstanding their production has in- 

 creased, the remuneration that should follow has been dimin- 

 ished. President L. L. Polk, of the National Farmers' Alliance 

 and Industrial Union, said, in his speech before the Committee 

 on Agriculture : 



" With kindly climatic conditions ; with varieties of soil admirably adapted 

 to the successful cultivation of all the staple products demanded by commerce ; 

 with transportation facilities equal to the productive power of the country ; 

 with the world as his customer ; with all the natural facilities and conditions 

 for making his home the happiest, the most prosperous, the proudest heritage 

 which the God of nature ever vouchsafed to man ; urgent and extraordinary 

 indeed must be the exigencies which thus impel the farmer to break his long 

 and wonted silence. 



"Never in our history have we witnessed such marvellous progress and 

 development as have marked the two past decades. The flourishing growth 

 of cities, towns, and villages ; the rapid expansion of our railway system ; the 

 unparalleled prosperity of manufacturing enterprise, in all its departments ; 

 the easy and ready accumulation of prodigious fortunes; all conspire to 

 impress the superficial observer with the happy belief that all departments of 

 effort, and all interests, share in common this apparently unparalleled condi- 

 tion of prosperity. We are, therefore, not wholly unprepared for the argument 

 presented by some, even in high official position, that our straitened financial 

 condition, as farmers, is largely, if not entirely, due to the munificent and 

 bounteous provisions of a merciful Providence. Nor, indeed, in the wild rush 

 of this almost bewildering progress, are we surprised to hear, in response to 

 our earnest protestations of suffering and distress, a proposition to send a 

 commission, at heavy expense, throughout the country, to visit money centres 

 and marts of trade, to investigate and report whether or not, after all, this 

 universal cry for relief, by the wealth producers all over the land, does not 

 proceed from their total misconception of the situation. 



" In justification, therefore, of this most unusual proceeding on the part of 

 the farmers, in applying to the law-making power for relief, we must appeal to 

 facts and truth facts as substantiated by statistics, and to the truth of his- 

 tory and I shall endeavor to present nothing which is not derived from, and 

 supported by, official records. Testimony carrying with it the argument, 

 rather than argument itself, is what is desired. 



" In 1850 the farmers of the United States owned 70 per cent of the total 

 wealth of the country. In 1860 they owned about one-half of the wealth of 

 the country. In 1880 they owned about one-third of the wealth of the coun- 

 try. In 1889 they owned a fraction less than one-fourth of the wealth of the 

 country. 



