The Farmer And The Fall Of Prices

The ills of the farmer are a never ending souree of sympathetic ( ?) talk on the part of those politicians who hope to use the farmer vote to foist them selves into big salaried public positions. That the farmer has experienced hard times and the loss of some of his proflts along with his fellows in every line of business, no one questions ; but that be has been in any exclusive and peculiar fashion the victim of the industrial depression and and fall of prices is not true and does not appear from the evidence. All of the fall in prices has not been against him, indeed some of it has been in his favor. According to the Minneapolis Tribune it was shown by the sworn testimony of "witnesses in au important lawsuit in that city in 1882,that it then took 324 bushels of wheat to pay f or a selfbinder, while an improved and in every way a better reaper can be bought this year f or 187 bushels of wheat. There is uo evidence in this that the farmer in his particular line has been a great sufferer by reduced tariff rates or by the demonetization of silver. Like evidence is also at hand from another and widely separated section of the country. E. C. Klipstein author of a little pamphlet oaUed L'JFree Coinage and the Farmer," gives some facts and figures from the books of a country merchant in Virginia, covering the years from 18(i7 to 1895. statistica show the exohaugeable value of produce then and uow. The New York Evening Post places some of these niets, brought out by Mr. Klipstein, in a very coucise and lucid form as follows: "In 1807 the farmer conld get for 50 busbels of wheat, 100 bushels of corn, 500 pounds of pork, and 100 oross-ties, a money price of $289.50 ; in he conld get but $138. is tho free coiuage argument in a nutsheli : the farmer robbed of half his crops by the gold monopoly. But look fnrther, aud see what the farmer could do with his money in 1867 and what he can do with it uow. Mr. Klipstein givesilong list of prices of groceries, dry goods, hardware, tools, etc, of daily necessity to the farmer and shows that an average consmnption of these artioles would have cost, under 1867 prices, $341.08. In 1895 the same things could be bought for $112.05. Thns the Virginia farmer's loss by falling prices is really a considerable gain. On the transaction referred to he would be $77 to the good - that is, to snpply his needs in 1867 he would have had toadd $51.58 to his produce, while now he could purchase the same things with his produce and have $25.95 as credit. " Professor Langhlin and others have furnished proof aiso, from actual market reports, in Iowa and Illionois, that the farmer Ofwu get more goods for iess corn and wheat now than before the "great crime" of 1878. All of these things have served as eye openers to the farmers and they aro not shouting for free silver as loudly as they were. One often hears the reraark that men of first-class ability do not enter the teacher's profession. Those responsible for this libel are no doubt people who have but limited knowledge of the personnel of the profession ; for where, or in what profession or line of business, can be found a brainier lot of rnen and women than the 10,000 and more representative teachers who recently went up to Denver to attend the natioual teachers association? We believe it is no disparagement to any organization that meets, to say that this one in character, ability and high aims is second to none. Certainly this ought to be so when their duties and the interests committed to their keeping are considered. To thera is intrusted for training and guidance, the very flower of the nation, its hope for future security and advancement What they are, the 14,000,000 pupils in the schools are destined in large measure to beconie. The teachers constitute the standing army on which the destiny of the republic depends. They are representatives of its better aspirations and its exalted hopes. That they are not namindfnl of their responsibiliües, and that they intend to meet them with all the energy and ability they possess, is evidenced by their utterances in the recent national convention. They were not there as educational optimists, but with the conviction that educational systems and methods can and must be improved. The brainiest men and woruen in their ranks had been assigned to the preparation of papers on every phase of educational work from the kindergarten up, and these papers were compends of the most advanced thought on the subjects discussed. The unconventional part of the program, the conversational discussions were.likewise intensely earnest and valuable. In fact the whole proceedings of the great meet were marked with breadth and earnestness which augur well for the future of our educational interests. A study of thf doings of the convention furnishes convinoing evidence that our schools will not lag behind any other interests in the progress that is being made. After his outspoken utterance in congress for free silver coinage and his trenchant agmnents in support of his doctrine, Secretaiy Carlisle ought to be ashamed of himself for espousing the gold standard at the beek of Cleveland. The people are ashamed of him. It's a most humilating spectacle of selling principie for preferment, position and self. - Adrián Press. "Whatever John G. Carlisle said in favor of free silver was said seventeen years ago when the conditions surronnding the silver question were radially different from the conditions of today. Besides, seventeen years is sufficient time for a man to learn something uuless he be like the Adrián Press editor in which case, of course, it is not to be expected. Some people rnay be ashamed of him but that makes the case all the worse for those people. The people of Kentucky evidently are not ashamed of him. But they glory in the breadth and strengtb of a man who honestly acknowledges ;hat he knows more now than he did eventeen years ago and that this fact together with ehanged conditions ac couuts for his ditïerence of positiou on the silver questiou. It is never a hu miliating spectaole wheu a man sce the error of his ways and sets out fco correct those errors. Tho same is true of the uation and this nation is rapidh f olio win g in the footsteps of John G lisie on the silver issue. The people are begiuuiug to see more clearly ani the free Bilver mists have got to go. During th past three months there has been a veiy decided advance in prices, in fact the iucrease has been radical in many lines, yet silver, which acjording to the silverites, is the baro ineter by which flie prices of othei staples are guaged has advanced but a fraction. There has been a reinarkable advance in wheat,corn has also ad vane ed, iron has gone up and is still tend ing upward, along with the manufactur ed products of the same, beef and nrut ton have increased in price, still, silver which according to the theory should lead, has not even followed only in the slightest degree. There has been a significant lesson in all this to the peo pie who were at flrst inclined to believe that there was something in the bar oraeter theory. The object lesson ha been too potent for them and they now iiuderstand that silver has nothing to do with these advances in prices and no more to do with the fall of prices. The free silver mirage is receding. The deficit in the national treasury for the fiscal year just closed is twenty seven millions less than for the preced ing year. The present administration must be careful, or it will have another surplus on its hands for the fooi peo pie to turn over to a republican adrnin