1893 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
6o9 
THE PROSPECT. 
The writer attended several sessions of the recent 
Farmers’ Alliance and People’s Party Convention at 
Sylvan Beach, N. Y. As an outsider—one who wishes 
only good to all efforts at true reform—he desires to 
present a few thoughts suggested by what was seen 
and heard there. So far as numbers go, the meeting 
was a comparative failure. The crowds were mostly 
small and there was too small a proportion of active, 
younger men. Considering the prominence of the 
speakers and the thorough advertising given the meet¬ 
ing, one would naturally expect that thousands of 
farmers would have been led by curiosity if nothing 
more to attend and listen. Why did they not come ? 
Gen. Weaver, the Populist candidate for President, 
intimated in his speech that the farmers of New York 
State are cowed and discouraged, fallen into a state of 
indifference, permitting what is vaguely called “the 
money power” to defraud them by means of legisla¬ 
tion that favors the loaning class rather than the 
debtors. What do farmers say to that ? It is certainly 
quite evident that, however the farmers of the South 
and West may feel, those of New York State are still 
holding to their old political parties, though many of 
them cannot tell just why, and only need a little 
different presentation of certain public questions to 
get away from the old-time issues fcr good. 
X X X 
Now what do the Populists have to offer the New 
York farmer? This is a fair question to ask, and if 
there is any answer it certainly was found in Gen. 
Weaver’s speech at Sylvan Beach. Briefly stated, he 
said that farmers were suffering financial troubles 
because of a lack of ready money, a depreciation of 
values in real estate, a decline in prices and a lack of 
business opportunities as compared with citizens in 
towns and cities. Ignoring all questions of supply and 
demand for crops, or business and industrial changes, 
he went on to ascribe all our troubles to the financial 
legislation since the war. This he claimed had been 
constantly in the interests of the creditor or money- 
lending class. That is to say, the object has been to 
make cash hard to obtain by those who have no secur¬ 
ity to offer but the ordinary products of the soil. 
While the wealth of the country had gone on rapidly 
increasing, the actual money or purchasing medium 
had been contracted until now there is not enough of 
it to do the people’s business. As a result cash is at a 
premium. A comparatively few men, by controlling 
the largest part of this cash, are enabled to force and 
maintain prices for staple products. This is done the 
more easily because farmers are forced to obtain cash 
for the payment of taxes, interest and debts. Their 
property is as a rule such, aside from real estate, that 
banks will not accept it as good security. They are 
therefore forced to convert their property into cash 
and in doing this must pay a premium to the “ money 
power” in the shape of a reduced price. “For 
example,” said Gen. Weaver, “ here is a farmer who 
owes $500. Twenty years ago he could have paid it 
with 500 bushels of wheat; to-day it requires 1,000 
bushels to pay it. What I want to know is—who has 
those other 500 bushels of wheat?” That is a fair out¬ 
line of his reason for the depression in agriculture— 
really a corner in cash by banks and money lenders 
so that farmers are forced to pay too much in the form 
of farm products in order to raise the needed cash. 
X X X 
His remedy is simply to make cash more plentiful; 
in other words, to put more of the world’s wealth into 
the form of money, or a circulating medium. The 
country is rich enough, but lots of its wealth must de¬ 
preciate in value because the ability to exchange it 
readily is limited in consequence of a lack of cash. 
Now, says the Populist, change the form of some of 
this wealth into money. Make money plentiful and 
it will be easier to exchange our property for it, and 
we can pay our debts and cash expenses without 
being forced to sacrifice our goods at a low price. In 
other words, we will be saved the premium which we 
are now forced to pay the “money power” for the 
use of cash. Well, what form of wealth do you pro¬ 
pose to change into money in order to increase the 
supply of cash ? Silver—first of all. Free coinage 
of silver will soon bring about the change. How is 
an increase of silver coinage going to help the New 
York State farmer ? He has no silver mine on his 
farm, and his pocket is not big enough to hold the 
coin needed to pay his taxes ! Simply because it will 
make cash more plentiful. Silver will be brought to 
the mints in floods, and in exchange for it will be 
coin or paper money, which will at once go into cir¬ 
culation and increase the supply of cash, thus making 
it easier to turn our products into money with which 
to pay our debts. Instead of a monopoly of cash 
holders there will be competition, because the silver 
men will be anxious to put the cash obtained for their 
silver into circulation. The result will be all in favor 
of the debtor, or money-buying class, just as a big 
crop of wh at or potatoes is in favor of the buyers or 
consumers, because of competition among sellers. 
Let silver be the form of wealth to be turned into 
money, because outside of gold it is the most stable in 
price and offers the best security. There is not 
enough gold in the world, anyway, to act as the 
sole basis for money. 
X X X 
lx a general way that was about the remedy pro¬ 
posed for the “ hard times.” Of course, there was a 
good deal of detail and some talk that seemed absurd. 
For example, much sympathy was expressed for the 
starving workingmen in New York city. We who live 
here know that the sums spent for rum and beer would 
feed, clothe and start in business every one out of a 
job or suffering from poverty. We also know that 
not one in 100 of the idlers seen on the streets will go 
to the country to do needed work on the farm. But 
throwing that out as the froth that always comes to 
the top at such meetings, the chief hope promised by 
the Populists lies in an increase of the country’s cash 
through the free coinage of silver. We have no space 
here to argue for or against this matter, though there 
are plenty of chances for argument. This is the first 
party that has come here as the special political cham¬ 
pions of the farmer. We simply want to put their 
leading proposition fairly before the public. If they 
are only “ a lot of visionary cranks,” the farmers of 
New York State will soon find it out. If there is a 
grain of good in their chaff, let’s ha/e it. 
X X X 
So much for the political sole of the Farmers’ 
Alliance : there is also another side. While all the 
Alliaocemen favor free silver, many of them also 
know that there must be changes on the farm as well as 
in legislation. Great industrial revolutions have been 
at work changing the farmer’s market, while the 
changes in actual farm operations have not kept up 
with them. For example, there used to be a time 
when it was very profitable for the Eastern farmer to 
provide bread and meat for his nearby market. In 
other words, wheat-growing and cattle-feeding paid 
well. That has now largely gone away from him— 
through no fault of his, but obeying a natural law 
that proved that the land west of the Alleghanies 
could produce ordinarily bread and meat cheaper 
than he can on his Eastern farm. The world at large 
has been better for the change, and instead of cursing 
fate, and looking to the Government for his only 
hope, the Eastern farmer has to change his crops to 
suit his changed market. 
X X X 
Instead of growing meat and bread he must now 
grow water and blood. By “water” we mean crops like 
potatoes, fruit or milk that contain a large percentage 
of water. By “ blood” we mean animals or crops that 
have a pedigree that shows them to be above the aver¬ 
age quality. There is “blood” in Mr. Francisco’s 
“certified milk” just as there is in Mr. Wyckoff’s eggs 
and chickens. Milk at three cents is selling water ; 
milk at 12 cents is selling blood, and as in all cases 
“blood” is the condensed extract of long years of 
patient study and care, it should be a part of the 
farmer’s business, too, to save his blood after he has 
made it. Too much of it goes to the blood-suckers or 
middlemen and this blood-saving by cooperative sell¬ 
ing is one thing where the Eastern Farmers’ Alliance 
should be strong. As we have said, there are many of 
the Alliancemen who believe that the “ way out ” 
is paved with quality, that is, the production of better 
goods. Most of them, however, seem to think that 
silver is of more importance than “blood.” That is 
a matter for argument. 
X X t 
While our cities and towns are echoing with the 
complaints, threats and parades of unemployed multi¬ 
tudes demanding work, reports from various sections 
of the country—from Maine to North Dakota—show 
that farm help is scarce and high-priced in a vast num¬ 
ber of places. City papers are teeming with advice 
that the idle crowds should seek profitable employ¬ 
ment during the stress of harvest time in rural dis¬ 
tricts, and the following average offi?ial table of the 
monthly wages of farm hands in different parts of the 
country last year is seductively offered for their edifi¬ 
cation : 
Without board. 
With board. 
Eastern States. 
$17.50 
Middle States. 
. 23.83 
15.78 
Western States. 
. 22.61 
16.36 
Southern States. 
. 14.86 
10.02 
Mountain States. 
32.16 
21.28 
l J aclnc States. 
3r .15 
24.25 
Average. 
*26.01 
$17.36 
Just see how temptingly these wages for farmhands 
compare with those for a similar class of laborers in 
Europe. In Great Britain, in spite of the farm labor¬ 
ers’ unions, strikes and government encouragement 
for years, farm hands get only $150 a year, or $12.50 
per month, and they have to furnish their own board. 
For the same class the wages are in France $10.50 per 
month ; in Holland, $8.34 ; in Germany, $8 50 ; in Rus¬ 
sia, $5, and in Italy $4 per month, without board. From 
some points of view, especially the philanthropic, no 
doubt the plan suggested is a capital one, yet it pre¬ 
sents many difficulties. If the general stagnation in 
business should last for several years, no doubt many 
operatives in mills, factories and workshops would 
drift to the farms, where they might in time become 
valuable workers ; but efficient farm labor is imprac¬ 
ticable to those who have had no previous training. A 
shop or factory man suddenly transferred to a farm 
would be of little service except as a butt for the ridi¬ 
cule of old hands. It would be preposterous for such 
people to expect “going” wages. Farmers want assist¬ 
ants, not pupils, especially in the busy season. It 
would be too much to ask them to add to their other 
worries the task of taking care of unskilled and in¬ 
competent workmen. Meanwhile, however, those 
among the “ complaining multitudes of men ” who are 
able to do farm work can easily find employment at 
the harvest season through the regular agencies or in 
other ways. j. ^ ^ 
A committee of the British House of Lords, after a 
thorough investigation of the consumption of domestic 
and foreign meats in the United Kingdom, has just re¬ 
ported the results, which must be of interest to the meat 
producers and shippers of this country. As previously 
told in these columns, domestic beef and mutton com¬ 
mand higher prices than imported meats, hence 
butchers sell the best of the latter for the former. The 
farmers are clamoring for stricter legislation to pre¬ 
vent such a substitution. They insist that all foreign 
meats shall be marked, and experiments have shown 
that this can be safely done by electricity. They also 
urge the passage of a law like that formerly in force 
in Virginia, Minnesota and several other American 
States, prohibiting the sale of meat killed outside the 
State or more than 100 miles from the place of sale. 
As in this country, this law is sought on sanitary 
grounds, but while the United States •Supreme Court 
has declared such laws unconstitutional in this coun¬ 
try, there is little or no prospect of the passage of one 
in England, as the consumers would not tolerate such 
a restrictive measure. English consumers, however, 
are greatly aggrieved by the fraud practiced on them 
by palming off American beef and Australasian mutton 
as the home-raised products. With English mutton 
selling at 10d. per pound and Australasian at 7d., and 
with a corresponding difference in the prices of Eaglidh 
and American beef, they feel outraged on learning 
that they have been paying domestic prices for foreign 
products. j. j 
TnE extent to which this fraud is practiced is enor¬ 
mous, and a multitude of flagrant instances are spe¬ 
cifically mentioned. Indeed, many butchers who claim 
to deal exclusively in home-grown products never sell 
a pound of anything but Colonial or American. Be¬ 
sides the marking system, the Lords recommend that 
all dealers in imported meats should take out licenses 
to that effect and announce the fact on their signs. 
There is a widespread and growing belief, however, 
that the effect of such legislation would ultimately be 
disadvantageous to domestic meat. It is conceded by 
impartial judges that a large proportion of the im¬ 
ported products is quite as good as the home-grown 
or even better ; but a large part of the British public 
are profoundly convinced that the foreign meats are 
inferior. If they see American beef and Australasian 
mutton as good as the domestic articles sold consider¬ 
ably cheaper, they will gradually get into the habit of 
buying them, and only a small class will continue pay¬ 
ing fancy prices for domestic meats. Then the demand 
for foreign meats must grow, and English farmers 
will have to reduce the prices of their stock to meet 
this more dangerous form of competition Rents must 
then come down, and the landed gentry will be still 
more clamorous for a protective tariff. 
X X X 
It is less than a quarter of a century since electricity 
became a practical dispenser of light and motive 
power. Since then it has undergone a wonderful 
development in a multitude of ways, and scarcely a 
day passes without the announcement of some new 
discovery in the field of practice or experiment. Until 
187(5, the dawn of the era of practical electricity, so 
very few patents had been granted for electric inven¬ 
tions that claims for them were referred to the divis¬ 
ion whose principal business was the examination of 
instruments for use in the natural sciences. In 1884, 
however, 1,200 patents on electric devices were 
granted ; indeed three per cent of all the patent claims 
in that year related to electricity. Since then two elec 
trie divisions, divided into 12 sub-divisions, have been 
established in the Patent Office. From 187(5 to 1893, 
21,000 patents on electric devices have been issued 
and over 10 per cent of the patent applications relate 
to this subject. In spite of the marvels already accom¬ 
plished, however, sanguine men of science, as exem¬ 
plified by delegates to the world’s electrical conven¬ 
tion held the other day at the Chicago Exposition, 
believe that the world is yet only on the threshold of 
electrical experiment and discovery, and that with the 
help of this wondrous power results will yet be pro¬ 
duced now deemed impossible. In all civilized coun¬ 
tries hundreds of the best brains are hard at work in 
wresting from Nature the innermost secrets of this 
power and in utilizing them fo'-the benefit of man¬ 
kind. Before the present generation shall have passed 
away, is it not probable that the age of steam as a 
motive power will be superseded by the age of elec¬ 
tricity, and that wonders now undreampt of will 
astonish and benefit mankind ? 
