LAND MONOPOLY. 655 



fact stares them in the face that they are not only not 

 living as well as they should, but their farms are gradually 

 but surely slipping from their grasp. The decree of 

 Shylock is being fulfilled: "capital control of labor, by 

 controlling wages. This can be done by controlling the 

 money. ' ' 



A national debt was created as a basis of national 

 banks. The currency was contracted so as to make money 

 scarce. Money being scarce, it was consequently hard to 

 get, and therefore dear. Free loans were made by the gov- 

 ernment to the national banks. Loan agencies were estab- 

 lished throughout the country. The price of farm products 

 had gone down until it was impossible for the farmer to 

 make both ends meet. He produced almost everything at 

 an actual loss. He fell behind with the merchant, with 

 the dealer in farm implements, and with the doctor. He 

 is compelled to have money. No one else has got it, and 

 he goes to the loan agency and mortgages his farm. The 

 result is obvious. If he could not keep even before, it is 

 hardly to be expected that he can catch up now, and pay 

 off the mortgage. And why? On account of constantly 

 falling prices. In 1878, an official report, sent out from 

 the agricultural department at Washington, said: "The 

 average price obtained by the farmer has fallen off two- 

 thirds within the last fifteen years. n 



Says a correspondent in the Toiler: u The agricul- 

 tural products of this nation were valued at $320,000,000 

 less in 1880 than they were in 1860, notwithstanding in 

 1880 we employed a million more hands, and cultivated 

 a hundred million more acres than we did in 1860; any 

 man who questions the correctness of this statement ques- 

 tions the correctness of the census reports of the United 

 States for the two periods. Bringing it down to more 

 recent dates the results are more appalling. In 1884 the 

 farmers of the United States sowed 39,000,000 acres in 



