State Convention—Farmers of Wisconsin. 151 
yields forty-six per cent. The Scientific American , in an article 
entitled, u the profits vve pay,” says that the sewing machinery that 
is annually sold for $65 to $125, cost from $7 to $15 to manufacture. 
In 1873 the net profits of three sewing-machine manufactories, was 
$6,000,000 each, and the agents receiving a greater profit, making 
a draft drawn from the farmers and mechanics of the country of 
$40,000,000 for this one article alone. Is it to be wondered at 
when we take into consideration the hundreds of thousands of other 
articles that we pay a similar profit on, that we, as a class, are poor? 
When on again referring to the census of the United States, we 
find that agriculture yields only three and one-lialf per cent, on 
capital invested, labor included. This could not be true with just 
and equal laws. Instead of a surplus accumulated in our hands who 
produce it, it is all, and more, found to be in the hands of a few 
rich men. We have cultivated fields of untold wealth. Factory 
and field has yielded rich reward; but to the farmer near by runs 
the murky stream of bankruptcy. 
A revision of the patent-laws of the United States is a subject to 
you of interest and importance. The currency or interest question, 
that is the all-absorbing question of the da} r , ranks as the most im¬ 
portant subject that can be brought to your attention. I ask the 
producers of this country, what are the causes of the unequal dis¬ 
tribution of wealth? We see a class of men who produce nothing 
rolling in wealth, with fortunes varying from hundreds to millions 
of dollars, in contrast with the average farmer of limited means, 
who is taxing all his energies to make ends meet; who in the race 
of life is distanced in spite of his efforts of industry, intelligence, 
and honesty; who is lucky if he can keep the farm clear of mort¬ 
gage and himself free from debt, and can educate his children and 
afford his family the comforts of our present civilization. How is 
it that the most useful class in the land, those who should be the 
most fortunate and independent, are the most oppressed, the hard¬ 
est worked, and poorest paid. It is true there are instances of 
wealth among farmers, but they are exceptions. As a whole the 
American farmer is a toiling, over-worked man, from the beginning 
to the close of life. The real and true causes are: high rates of in¬ 
terest, combined with high transportation and high-priced manu¬ 
factures. When farming, the productive industry of a country, 
that underlies the prosperity of all other kinds of business, only 
