436 THE IMPENDING REVOLUTION. 



13,333,000 bales. The debt has since been reduced to 

 $1,700,000,000. At the prices now obtainable for cotton 

 it would require 30,900,000 bales to pay this balance. 



In other words, after paying over one thousand mil- 

 lion dollars of the principal of the debt, besides interest 

 during the whole time, it will now require more than 

 twice the amount of cotton to pay what is left than would 

 have been required to have paid the whole debt at first, or 

 in 1866. 



Take the period that it has pleased a partisan press 

 and the "bosses" to style as "Powell Clayton's infamous 

 Republican administration in Arkansas. Suppose a man' s 

 taxes were $50. Cotton was worth 20 to 25 cents per 

 pound; wheat $2, and corn $i per bushel. At that time 

 250 pounds of lint cotton, 25 bushels of wheat or 50 

 bushels of corn would have brought money enough to 

 have paid the $50. Suppose that under the present 

 administration these taxes are reduced one-half on the 

 same amount of property, and are now only $25. The 

 prices of cotton, wheat, and other products of the farm, 

 have experienced a greater reduction in value, and to 

 obtain the money at the present prices to pay the $25 

 taxes, the farmer is obliged to sell 300 pounds of lint 

 cotton, 33 bushels of wheat, or 75 bushels of corn, and is 

 actually worse off than he was before. In 1868, ,when 

 times were "flush," money plenty, prices good, and labor 

 remuneratively employed, a man came from one of the 

 New England States and bought a farm for $2,000. He 

 paid $1,000 down, the balance to be paid in yearly install- 

 ments. He was in the prime of life and the full vigor of 

 manhood. He had a right to expect that he would 

 obtain prices commensurate with those then existing for 

 such as he produced to sell. 



At such prices he could easily make his payments. 

 But, through unforeseen misfortunes and constantly falling 



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