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Questions of the Da y Series. — No. LXII.
AMERICAN FARMS
THEIR CONDITION AND FUTURE
J. R. ELLIOTT
" 111 fares the land, to hast'ning ills a prey,
Where wealth accumulates, and men decay ;
Princes and lords may flourish, or may fade ;
A breath can make them, as a breath hath made ;
But a bold peasantry, their country's pride,
When once destroyed, can never be supplied."
Oliver Goldsmith
NEW YORK & LONDON
G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS
Sl^c ^nitkerbochtr %m%
1890
COPYRIGHT BY
J. R. ELLIOTT
Ube TJjnickcrlioc^icr Dress, V.cw )j?orb
Cie tr : ■ .;; ; ::.;c.l i.y
E^L
5 THE AUTHOR
H
J GRATEFULLY DEDICATES THIS
VOLUME TO
^ HIS WIFE
b
(VI WHOSE SYMPATHIES, SENTIMENTS, AND COUNSELS HAVE BEEN
g AN INVALUABLE AID AND INCENTIVE IN THE
WORK OF ITS PREPARATION
LU
UJ
1—
V3
I
CO
42^«n^^
CONTENTS.
Introductory
PAGE
I
BOOK I.
Importance and Possibilities of Agriculture.
Chapter I. What is the Real Importance of Agriculture ?
" II. The Possibilities of Agriculture
9
22
BOOK II.
A Far-Reaching Disorder upon the Interest ok Husbandry.
Chapter I.
" II.
" III.
" IV.
V.
" VI.
" VII.
Troubles of the Agriculturists of Ancient Times
The Difficulty Far-Reaching To-Day
The American Farmer's Waning Economic
Power ....
Farm Mortgages .....
The Capitalists Gaining the Land — the Typical
American Farm ....
Rented Farms .....
Abandoned Farms
31
34
36
45
53
58
60
BOOK III.
Agriculture's Struggle.
Chapter I. The Farmer's Cotemporaries ....
" II. Competition .......
" III. Between the Upper and Nether Mill-stones .
" IV. Protection a Deadly Enemy to the Farmers of
America ....•••
" V. Trusts, Combines, etc
V
67
78
90
94
no
VI
CONTENTS.
BOOK IV.
Impotence of the Remedies Proposed, and the Erroneous
Reasons Ascribed for the Difficulties now overtaking
the farmers of america.
PAGE
lig
122
Chapter I.
" II.
" III.
" IV.
V.
" VI.
Chapter I.
" II.
" III.
" IV.
V.
Does Protection Protect the Farmer ?
The Home Markets Further Considered
Trusts for the Farmer .....
Protection as it Refers to Agriculture in
England .......
As to Frugality ......
Henry George's Remedy ....
BOOK V.
Taxation.
Taxation in General .....
The Single Tax . . . " .
Indirect Taxation ......
Direct Taxation ......
The Real Strength of an Evil System of
Taxation ......
Chapter I.
" II.
" HI.
125
128
132
134
141
145
156
163
170
BOOK VI.
Politics.
The Farmer Losing his Political Power .
The Farmer's Interest in Free Trade in Natural
Products only ......
Free Trade may be Selfish as well as Protection;
or, the Inefficiency of Free-Trade Move-
ments .......
BOOK VII.
The Physical, Mental, Social, and Moral Considerations
Involved.
175
187
206
Chapter I.
II.
III.
The Divergence of Intellectual Development
from a Basis of Physical Stamina, and its
Consequences ......
The Farmers' Interest in the Social Outlook .
Danger to Morals ......
The Conclusion, in Which the Remedy is Found
211
221
235
251
Feel for the wrongs to universal ken
Daily exposed, woe that unshrouded lies ;
And seek the sufferer in his darkest den,
Whether conducted to the spot by sighs
And moanings, or he dwells (as if the wren
Taught him concealment) hidden from all eyes
In silence and in the awful modesties
Of sorrow ; — feel for all, as, brother Men ;
Rest not in hope want's icy chain to thaw
By casual boons and formal charities ;
Learn to be just, just through impartial law ;
Far as ye may, erect and equalize ;
And, what ye cannot reach by statute, draw
Each from his fountain of self-sacrifice ! "
— Wordsworth.
ERRATUM.
Read 50 per cent, instead of 100 per cent, on page 95,
line 25, and page 96, line 2.
AMERICAN FARMS.
INTRODUCTORY.
It is not necessary to recount the many experiences,
the various mental evolutions, which have carried me on
to a resistless desire to solve one of the most, if not the
most important problem of the day — to wit : " What is
the trouble on the old farms ? Why is a disease taking
hold of agriculture in America ?
I do not here allude to any technical question of
agriculture, but to a burning economic and social diffi-
culty which, it would appear, has been gradually creep-
ing upon this new world for many years.
As I attempt to note my thoughts on this matter, I
find myself among the best of farms, in . I have
been familiar with their history for many years. Their
changes, on the one hand, and their lack of changes, on
the other, have impressed me most seriously.
The grandsires of the present occupiers were the real
pioneers in the settlement of this district. They pros-
pered ; settled their sons round them in comfortable
homes. The fathers of the present generation also
prospered in a high degree ; though from this point
2 AMERICAN FARMS.
of observation, it can be plainly seen that a change had
set in. The building of highways among their lands
had ceased, the farms had not been subdivided for
the purpose of increasing their number, though the
majority of these lands are forest, or but half culti-
vated.
The majority of the sons — brothers to the present
occupiers — have drifted away into other occupations ;
many, it is true, to make complete failures in the race
for wealth ; while others have gained high positions in
the professions, or have become rich and influential.
On this strip of fine agricultural land, the farm pop-
ulation has actually decreased in the last forty years.'
During the twenty years, 1849-69, the number of
new dwellings erected was greater by 40 per cent, than
during the twenty years which followed. Moreover,
much finer buildings were erected during the first-named
period than in the latter, while they were paid for quite
as fully.
Recently (June, 1889), I had occasion to travel by
highway through some sixty miles of the best agricultural
districts of this fine country. In this journey I passed
not less than six hundred farms, and throughout the
whole of it I observed not a single farm-house in course
of construction. But I did notice on the route one very
fine new residence being finished for the occupancy of a
government official, and another under extensive repairs
for the purpose of lodging summer boarders from the
cities, and also the foundation being laid for a custom-
house, the cost of which is to be six times the re-
quirements of the port in which it is to be located.
' In this comparison are included young men and young women
furthering the interests of agriculture, and farm laborers.
IN TROD C7C TOR Y. 3
A large number of abandoned houses, however, were
observed ; the farms connected being, probably, in some
way passed over to the care of a neighboring husband-
man.
With the assistance of a gentleman well informed as
to the financial standing of the farmers of this section
of the county, we gather data ; and arrive at the conclu-
sion that not less than 25 per cent, of the farms are in
the grip of the usurer. This, it would seem, is a grow-
ing evil. During the twelve months, ending 31st July,
1889, there were 30 per cent, more mortgages given, in
this county, than releases granted. At this rate of in-
crease, in less than fifteen years, 50 per cent, of the
farms will be under mortgage.
Dairying, once a leading industry, has decreased fully
50 per cent, in the last score of years. And it would
require an outlay of large proportions to dot these old
hill-side pastures over again with the milk herds of
twenty-five years ago.
The value of farm lands has seldom been lower dur-
ing the last thirty years than now ; notwithstanding the
fact that this is an important part of the much-famed
apple region of , which has lately come into
prominence.
The average $5,000 invested in farming (not including
the dwellings), at the present estimated value of farms,
will give to the farm proprietor about $750 per year
gross income, including value of amount consumed by
his family. Out of this, at least $250 must be paid by
the average farmer for labor (including board), and at
least another $150 for direct taxes, insurance, fertilizers,
and renewal of machinery, wagons, and harness, etc. :
leaving $350 for the farmer. A good farm laborer will
4 AMERICAN FARMS.
get for the year about $250, including board at 20 cents
per day. This estimate would throw the farmer $200
behind the laborer in the way of income ; if he charges
his business with the $300 interest, which his capital is
entitled to. If he charges his time and that of his family
at the rate received by the laborer ; he will have nothing
for his capital. In any case, the laborer, without a cent
invested in the business, will be able to save as much,
perhaps more, at the end of each year, than the farmer,
with all his capital. What is the matter ? Is the laborer
getting too much ? Perhaps not ; not in proportion to
the share of the national income received by many others
about him. But why this anomalous condition in refer-
ence to agriculture ?
The average farm proprietor of this community is as
fine a type of man as the average in any city or country
in North America, — frugal, industrious, intelligent, quick
of wit, and ambitious beyond the average man.
The conclusion from a large number of schedules of
farmers' incomes, furnished by farmers themselves,
strengthens our suspicion that something is wrong ; that
in this community of fine farms, and intelligent farmers,
the majority of them are supporting families, paying
taxes, and forming the fund for the rainy day, out of an
average annual income of less than $350. We have for
some time entertained the opinion that thousands of
our land proprietors, on less fruitful lands, are, in this
fair country, forced to meet the necessities of life for
their families, and pay the demands made upon them by
society, out of less than $250 per year. We wonder if
to such it is not necessary that Providence deal kindly ;
that illness be infrequent, and of short duration ; and
that frugality of the strictest character, be practised !
INTRODUCTORY. 5
But on extending the scope of our inquiries, we find
this is a matter for serious consideration ; not only for
this district, but for others, and for other parts of
America. We want to know if it is world-wide in its
character ; if it is an old problem, with a new face ; if
it is a normal condition ; if agriculture is not first in
importance to national welfare ; if it should not in this
era of extended division of labor give to its votaries the
maximum of wealth and comforts in return for faithful
toil : for when was there a period in which the produc-
tive forces were doing more toward increasing national
wealth ? When was there a time of greater boasting of
material progress, and its attendant results in the grand-
eur of civilization ?
If the condition is abnormal, where is the remedy ?
If there is no remedy, what of the future ?
To this end I humbly contribute the result of energies
of pen and brain, of head and heart, discarding all party
feeling, selfish prejudice, or unworthy motives.
One of America's gifted sons asks :
" For what avail the plough or sail,
Or land or life, if freedom fail ? "
We ask : What avail to bridge our oceans with float-
ing palaces, to span our continents with the most
magnificent rail trains, to stud our land with smoking
chimneys — the product of the industries they represent
reaching the grandest proportions, — to pile up national
wealth away beyond all precedent, if for all this, or with
all this, the sons of the pioneers who hewed down the
primeval forests, and brought the lands under subjection
to the influence and service of civilization, are to be-
6 AMERICAN FARMS.
come paupers in the midst of an abundance, or to see
their lands pass over to the control of avaricious
capital ? No ! we feel impelled to search out the dan-
gers and the causes, and, if possible, to do something
to arrest them.
BOOK I.
IMPORTANCE AND POSSIBILITIES OF AGRICULTURE.
" Give fools their gold, and knaves their power,
Let fortune's bubbles rise or fall.
Who sows, a field, or trains a flower.
Or plants a tree, is more than all.
" For he who blesses most is blest.
And God and man shall own his worth.
Who toils to leave, as his bequest,
An added beauty to the earth."
— Whittier.
CHAPTER I.
WHAT IS THE REAL IMPORTANCE OF AGRICULTURE?
That the progress of America during the century
which now draws to a close has been of unprecedented
greatness, as compared with the past or present progress
of the other nations of the world, is a generally accepted
belief. The idea prevails that America is " built up."
This feeling finds expression every day in the utterances
of its people, and in most quarters.
That this development on our continent has been
marvellous, is not to be questioned. However, to ap-
proximate a correct estimate of the real worth of this
expansion and greatness, and of the principal factors in
its accomplishment, various considerations are involved.
Account has to be made, not only of its political stand-
ing among the nations, but of the power and vigor of its
institutions, and its conditions for the existence and
promotion of peace, contentment, morality, and stability
among its people. A country's '' strength is in its men,
and in their unity and virtue." ' In these are the essen-
tials of a development which may be true and enduring,
a progress which may be verifiable.
To the question, to what great industry are we most
indebted for what may be true and abiding for good in
our development ? I have no hesitancy in answering :
' John Ruskin
I* 9
lO AMERICAN FARMS.
it is husbandry. If this be correct, this country cannot
afford to estimate agriculture at a low value.
And now, as men's minds are turned to a greater con-
sideration of the position of the rural classes than at
any former period in the history of America, the ques-
tions arise : has Ceres lost her power ? does nature
decide that agriculture shall not be the first of indus-
tries ? Not by any means.
The real impprtance of agriculture in framing the
groundwork of a true national prosperity is very great ;
and should not be undervalued, especially by farmers
themselves. Such undervaluation on the part of those
immediately interested has worked mischief, and must
continue to do so.
A review of history will remind the peruser of the
fact that, with the nations of antiquity, and even until a
very recent period, agriculture was generally considered
first as a medium in the creation of wealth, first in re-
spectability, and first in securing peace and happiness
to society.
Though the literature of Greece gave too little space
to the praise of this most worthy occupation, the glimpse
that may be had of the position of these matters among
the Grecians of the Heroic Age, tends to the conclusion,
that agriculture, with them, occupied a prominent place
in their attention and estimation. It points to the
probability that the tiller of the soil was, in political
affairs of the time, inferior to none. However little
there may be on which to base an absolute decision as
regards this, the occupation was evidently highly re-
spected and esteemed by those who have borne to us the
little knowledge to be had of the sentiments and condi-
tions of the time.
THE REAL IMPORTANCE OF AGRICULTURE. 1 1
When Homer draws his picture on the shield which
he causes Vulcan to forge for Achilles, he mingles feasts,
dancing, and luxury, with contentions and bloodshed
in his city scenes ; while rural life is represented by
" soft fallowfields, rich glebes," " industrious plough-
men," " fields of deep corn," " diligent reapers and
delighted masters," banquets in preparation for the
toilers, observances of religious rites, scenes repre-
senting the union of industry, comfort, sanctity, peace,
and pleasure ; a mingling of what is truest in nature
and in life ; rites portraying a confiding faith in Nature's
God, the All Father.
That great man, Aristotle, the economist as well as
philosopher and logician, reckoned agriculture as the
chief source of national wealth. Modern political econ-
omy, as taught by the best writers, more correctly gives to
all industries a value in proportion to the utility of the
articles they produce ; but the prevailing thought and
custom of the day goes farther than this, and finds its ex-
ercise in practically belittling agriculture.
The ancient Romans, as all are aware, looked upon
this favorite occupation with a sort of " devotional
respect." Reproducing from Von Schlegel's " Philos-
ophy of History," we have the following passage, com-
prehensive and frequently quoted : " They (the Romans)
were exceedingly covetous of gain, or rather of land, for
it was from land, and in the production of the soil, that
their principal and almost only wealth consisted. They
were a thoroughly agricultural people, and it was only at
a late period that commerce, trades, and arts were intro-
duced among them, and even then, they occupied but a
subordinate place." When at length the majority of the
Roman people lost their hold upon the best of occupa-
12 AMERICAN FARMS.
tions, there still remained a goodly number of the noblest
and truest citizens who continued to hold to the once
universal custom — attachment to the cultivation of the
soil. Many it seems shared the sentiments of Cato —
"a pursuit in which a wise man's life should be spent."
The ancient Egyptians also gave the greatest attention
to agriculture, and carried it up to a high state of perfec-
tion. Writers claim that their paintings and inscriptions
lead to the conclusion that an advanced stage of civiliza-
tion also accompanied this love of and pride in this
choicest of occupations.
With the other nations of antiquity, the Israelites were
also remarkable for the high proficiency to which they
carried agricultural pursuits. In the " Encyclopaedia
Britannica " will be found the following concise passage,
relative to the importance of agriculture with the early
Israelites : " The sojourn of the Israelites in Egypt trained
them for the more purely agricultural life that awaited
them on their return to take possession of Canaan.
Nearly the whole population were virtually husbandmen.
Upon their entrance into Canaan, they found the coun-
try occupied by a dense population possessed of walled
cities and innumerable villages, masters of great accumu-
lated wealth, and subsisting on the produce of their
highly cultivated soil, which abounded with vineyards
and olive-yards. It was so rich in grain that the invad-
ing army, numbering 601,730 able-bodied men, with their
wives and children, and a mixed multitude of camp
followers, found ' old corn ' in the land sufficient to main-
tain them from the day that they passed the Jordan."
Sully's saying, " tillage and pasture are the two
breasts of the state," is just as true to-day as when the
expression was first used ; and the ancient belief, that
THE REAL IMPORTANCE OF AGRICULTURE. 1 3
" no other labor is at once so good for mind and body,
and so worthy of freemen, as agriculture," was one that
might well be revived at the present day.
It is something more than mere poetic fancy which
designates " the golden age " the days when kings, and
priests, and philosophers were husbandmen. The days
when love for the occupation, and veneration for sacred
customs pertaining thereto, combined in producing a
happy people, in making " the soil perpetual," in caus-
ing the land to " flow with milk and honey." They were
the days of national longevity, for agricultural nations
were the longest lived, and became the most eminently
accomplished, and the most wealthy in the truest sense.
Whatever may be the political economy of the states-
men of modern times, the most eminent teachers of this
science have continued to uphold the wisdom of the
ancients in their ascribing to agriculture supremacy
among national industries.
Quesney, the French political economist of the eigh-
teenth century, urged that " the sovereign and the nation
should never lose sight of the fact that the earth is the
unique source of riches, and. that it is agriculture which
multiplies them." J. B. Say, another French economist of
a later time, taught that " it is the acme of skill to turn the
powers of nature to best account, and the height of mad-
ness to contend against them, which is, in fact, wasting
part of our strength in destroying those powers she de-
signed for our use."
Professor De Laveleye, in his " Elements of Political
Economy," a work recently published, earnestly main-
tains the sovereign worth of agriculture. " At the pres-
ent time," says he, " attention and encouragement are
exclusively given to manufacturing. If it be more im-
14 AMERICAN FARMS.
portant to make men healthy and happy than to inces-
santly increase production, it is agriculture that deserves
every advantage. Other industries are productive, since
they increase the utility of things by rendering them fit
for our use, but the farmer sets at work not only physical
and chemical, but also vital forces, and thus multiplies
commodities. He sows one grain of corn and reaps
twenty ; this year he has a couple of sheep, in a few
years he will have a flock. Agriculture is the first of
industries, because it is the foundation of all others.
These can only increase the number of persons they
employ if the farms supply them with more food."
It would be unwise to ignore the counsel of this dis-
tinguished authority of our own time, having the inter-
ests of no party or class to serve, and pursuing his
investigations in the centre of the great manufacturing
enterprises of Europe.
Three years ago, in one of our journals, the author
published his views on this point in the following words :
" If we desire our people to avoid sameness or single-
ness of occupation, and corresponding degradation of
faculties, surely we should not change farm for factory
life. If it be for the possession of a great variety of
comforts and pleasures for our use as consumers, un-
doubtedly that occupation which we are best prepared to
develop, that is indigenous to the country, that will yield
the largest quantity of that measure which has in its power
the command of all wealth ; while no occupation offers
a greater multiplicity of interesting subjects for study
and experiment than agriculture."
Deeper and more extended study has not changed our
opinion of this view of the merits of the occupation of
husbandry, but it has impressed us even more with its
importance.
THE REAL IMPORTANCE OF AGRICULTURE. 1 5
What opportunities it should offer for the practical
application of a broad education, useful and entertain-
ing to the intelligent being ; an education embracing the
physical sciences, geology, chemistry, botany, and vegeta-
ble physiology, as well as the historical and classical
branches ; the cultivation of a refinement which finds
expression in taste, order, and beauty, in the arrange-
ment of trees for fruit, protection, or ornament, as well
as of the field and garden plots ; an intellectual culture
which has quite as much a place in the bringing into
being of the crop of corn, potatoes, or grains, as an
elaborate education for the clergyman or the lawyer ; a
culture which should lead the possessor, above all others,
to most profitable admiration of the wondrous works of
the Great Creator !
Turning our attention to the rural economy of the
British Isles, we find its history bearing most conclusive
testimony to the transcendent importance given in the past
by Britons to agriculture, in its economic, its social, and
its national bearings. Since the days of the Great Charter
love for rural life has been a national characteristic with
the English people, while a large proportion of English
statesmen have had their chief care in legislating for the
interests of the country. Even to-day, 31 per cent, of the
Parliament of Great Britain is, in some way, connected
with the landed interests. We may well claim that with
few other nations has the seat of economic, social, and
political power been longer retained in the country ;
notwithstanding the vexed problems which have, for
centuries, surrounded her land-holding system.
England's sovereigns, with few exceptions, have also
shared with the people this attachment for country,
taking the greatest interest in rural pursuits, while the
nobility — the temporal lords — have always prided them-
1 6 AMERICAN FARMS.
selves on being a rural aristocracy. Moreover, English
literature, in a marked degree, displays this peculiar
national trait, England's poets — Milton, Cowper, Spenser,
Gray, Shakespeare, Thomson, and Wordsworth — have
lauded in song the delights of rural life.
In the early years of the American Republic, the ad-
vancement of agriculture was the first care of most
American statesmen, and many of them, such as Webster,
Clay, and Adams, found the peaceful pursuits of the
farm a wholesome change from the abstracting cares of
statesmanship. Thomas Jefferson invented the hill-side
plow. The first President Harrison and Abraham Lin-
coln were familiar with log-cabin life in their early days.
Washington, however, who was inaugurated first Presi-
dent of the United States just one hundred years ago this
year (April 20, 1889), was, far above his compeers, the
great friend of American agriculture. This great man,
who led the armies of the Revolution, who was twice Presi-
dent, who " was by general consent the father of his
country," was more a farmer than soldier or politician.
In fact, husbandry was to him an occupation of the
highest order, and it seems to have been only the im-
perative demands of his country which drew him away
from his rural pursuits to the military or political arena.
Immediately after the war of the Revolution, Washing-
ton retired to his estates in Virginia. About this time,
in a letter to Lafayette, he remarks : " I am become a
private citizen on the banks of the Potomac, and under
the shadow of my own vine and fig-tree, free from the
bustle of camp, and the busy scenes of public life. I am
solacing myself with these tranquil enjoyments, of which
the soldier, who is ever in pursuit of fam'e ; the states-
THE REAL IMPORTANCE OF AGRICULTURE. I J
man, whose watchful days and sleepless nights are spent
in devising schemes to promote the welfare of his own,
perhaps the ruin of other countries, as if this globe were
insufficient for us all ; and the courtier, who is always
watching the countenance of his prince, in hopes of
catching a gracious smile, can have little conception. I
have not only retired from all public enjoyments, but I
am retiring within myself, and shall be able to view the
solitary walk, and tread the paths of private life with a
heartfelt satisfaction. Envious of none, I am determined
to be pleased with all ; and this, my dear friend, being
the order of march, I will move gently down the stream
of life, until I sleep with my fathers."
During the eight years of which Washington held the
office of President, he took every means to impress upon
the minds of his government and his people, the import-
ance of fostering agriculture by public patronage. To
Sir John Sinclair, an English gentleman, he writes, under
date July 20, 1794: "I know of no pursuit in which
more real and important service can be rendered to any
country than by improving its agriculture." In his last
message to Congress he refers to agriculture and its im-
portance to civilization in the following terms : " It will
not be doubted that with reference either to individual
or national welfare, agriculture is of primary importance.
In proportion as nations advance in population and
other circumstances of maturity, this truth becomes more
apparent, and renders the cultivation of the soil more and
more an object of public patronage." With Washington,
successful agriculture meant national life, virility, and
power.
Beyond all this, agriculture as a promoter of peace is
of vast importance to the human family. For while the
1 8 AMERICAN FARMS.
Strife, both of an international character and between
classes and communities, has, as a rule, been most in-
tense for the lion's share in production and through ex-
change, the farmer — naturally supplying his own wants
in a large degree, or in the centre of an industrial sys-
tem of self-contained independence — desires the privi-
leges of peace. Agriculturists, the world over, have a
common cause in securing the inestimable benefits of in-
dustrial, commercial, and international peace. Then De
Laveleye is not far wrong in claiming that " real civiliza-
tion dates from the time when man first entrusted a grain
of corn to the soil."
With the agriculturist, too, we may look for social
security ; for who can be more desirous of preserving
the institutions of the country from revolutionary shocks,
than those who have property in land with all its valued
associations ?
In a word, the agriculturists should be valued as the
temperate, the physical, the mental, the religious, the
moral, the social, as well as the best economic support to
our civilization. See Book VII.
If we study the statistics of the United States we find
that they furnish most conclusive evidence of the vast
importance of the farm industries of America. Dimin-
ished as they may seem to be in relative importance, the
capital invested in agriculture exceeds the capital em-
ployed in any other line of production. Agriculture
builds the railways of America, or they are built in
anticipation of the farmers paying for them ; it supports
directly the largest industrial class ; it settles the princi-
pal part of the foreign account for two hundred and thirty
millions of crude articles of manufacture purchased in
other countries — to say nothing of the manufactured.
THE REAL IMPORTANCE OF AGRICULTURE. 1 9
The same may be said of the nation's annual debt of
nearly a million of dollars to foreign ships for carrying
her imports and exports to and from the country ; also
of the million dollars yearly accruing to foreign capital
invested in the country.
In Canada, as in the United States, the farmers are
really at the back of the railways ; they give the largest
part of the employment received by her small shipping ;
send to foreign customers over fifty per cent, of her total
exports, without which it would be difficult for the inter-
est on the public debt to be paid, and the profits on for-
eign capital invested in the country to be settled.'
The importance of agriculture, as viewed by the early
writers of sacred history, is of too much moment to be
left unnoticed. They claim that it was in the garden of
Eden that man commenced his labors. " Out of the
ground made the Lord God to grow every thing that is
pleasant to the sight and good for food," and also "in
the midst of the garden " was the *' tree of life," and the
" tree of the knowledge of good and evil." Man in the
image of God, perfect in all essentials, was put " into the
* That the ' ' Trade and Navigation Returns " do not show a very large
balance of trade against Canada is owing to the fact that she borrows
from abroad much faster than the interest on her foreign debt is paid.
For, eventually, all borrowed capital must come into the country in
the shape of material. Consequently, it may be very far from the
fact to state that the production of any articles "would sweep away
the balance of trade against her. '.' That the change has not already
taken place in a marked degree is because she is still running in debt.
The farms must pay these debts, or the interest on these debts, through
exports. The policy of the country has stopped the export of manu-
factured goods. In 1878 she exported manufactured goods to the
value of $4,715,776. In 1886, only $3,306,587. (This latter amount
was increased slightly in 1888.)
20 AM ERICA IV FARMS.
garden of Eden, to dress it and keep it." The first trust,
then, given to man, was as an agriculturist, yet, in the
very presence of the knowledge with which gods are
endowed.
After the Fall, and when the injunction went forth to
all the human family, " In the sweat of thy face shalt
thou eat bread," we have the first glimpse of a primitive
political economy, in the division of labor between Cain,
the agriculturist, and Abel, the cattle-farmer. Farther
on, a greater division was made between the sons of
Lamech, — Jabal, Jubal, and Tubal-Cain. In this division
cattle-farming and agriculture stood first ; the second was
the harp and organ, which represents music, language,
literature, and the fine arts, whose special ofiices are to
cultivate and refine the higher faculties of man.
In political economy, agriculture should stand first, it
being a prime necessity. " It sets at work the organic
forces for the multiplication of both vegetable and animal
life," without which man's existence would be impossible.
To attain the high and noble destiny of man, the refining
and humanizing influences of the immaterial, as repre-
sented by Jabal, are also necessary, as are the class repre-
sented by Tubal-Cain, or those who deal with the prod-
ucts of agriculture and the extracts from the earth,
turning them into new forms of utility.
With our desire not to ignore the fact that evidences
are presented on every hand to show that nature is
requiring more and more aid to supply the increasing
numbers of the human family with a subsistence, calling
into play an ever-increasing variety of faculties for pur-
poses of invention and fabrication, we see no reason why
this cannot be realized and met by the agriculturist on
his own ground, and, in a sense, independent of other
THE REAL IMPORTANCE OF AGRICULTURE. 21
classes. New conditions should find the farmer expand-
ing his higher faculties to meet them in the prosecution
of his own labors ; exercising not only acquisitions
which a liberal education should give, but also of that
valuable instruction preserved in tradition only — a
science ** transmitted in fragments from father to son,"
from neighbor to neighbor, an evolution without record.
Taking societies in the aggregate, it is from the farm-
er's surplus that other occupations become possible.
When they take more than this, they are trenching upon
the farmer's capital and estates, and if continued it must
be but a matter of time when a crisis of vast proportions
must be the result. It is after the necessities of life are
satisfied that opportunities arise for new forms of pro-
duction and consumption.
The enjoyment of civilized life requires the full and
uninterrupted development of all the great divisions of
labor consistent with justice and safety ; we cannot dis-
pense with either. But it is in rural life, surrounded by
nature, that the highest and grandest application of the
results of all progress for the development of man is
possible.
To sum it all up, we have science, our own observa-
tion, and the histories of civilizations which have come
and gone, all loudly protesting against a decline of
agriculture.
CHAPTER 11.
THE POSSIBILITIES OF ACzRICULTURE.
Notwithstanding the fact that the old farms of the
world are in many instances showing signs of exhaustion,
and that the doctrine of Malthas is still held by very
many, we are of the belief that the possibilities of agri-
culture are immense. Under the ideal guidance that
would seem possible, no branch of material development
suggests to the mind greater chances for grand results.
Did the reader, who may happen to be a farmer, ever
think of what a paradise could be made of the acres
around his dwelling? What subjects for study and
development of intellect could be the possession of his
family and society ! And did he ever undertake to make
a calculation of what might be raised on his farm by the
proper mixing of soils and the application of fertilizers,
or how exceedingly few the acres which are yielding even
a trifle of their possibilities ?
Mr. Edward Atkinson, in his " Distribution of Prod-
ucts," states that the average crop of wheat in the
United States and Canada would give one person in
every twenty of the population of the globe a barrel of
flour in each year, with enough to spare for seed. The
land capable of producing wheat is not occupied to any
thing like one twentieth of its extent. We can raise
grain enough on a small part of the territory of the
THE POSSTBILITIES OF AGRICULTURE. 23
United States to feed the world. United States Consul-
General Way reports that " Russia, under favorable
conditions, could supply the world with wheat." India
could probably do the same, and the Argentine Republic
would not fall far behind.
A single State, properly fertilized, is capable of bear-
ing vegetables to feed the population of the whole
Union. And there is enough fertilizer in Boston harbor
to meet this requirement for very many years. There
are States in the West equal to the task of supplying
meat for the whole people of North America if the lands
were properly treated. The little Annapolis Valley in
Nova Scotia has sufficient apple-orchard area, with trees
in bearing and properly fertilized, to produce sufficient
apples to glut the markets of Great Britain and New
England. The fertilizer lies in the Annapolis basin.
California could be made to supply this whole continent
with most fruits.
There can be no exhaustion of the soil if properly
treated. There can be no destruction of matter in the
consumption of the products of the farm, but there may
be displacement. By intelligent guidance their forces
may be continually augmented for the increase of both
animal and vegetable life. If the proper returns are
made to the soil, the demands of man upon it can never
exhaust it.
It is the order of nature that the surface of the globe
be more and more adapted to the support of vegetable
and animal life. The results of decomposition of rocks,
and the breathing of gases from beneath the crust of the
earth and from our broad oceans, are being taken up con-
tinually by plant life through its leaves and roots ; to
decay and become soil, or to go into animal matter ; all
24 AM ERICA h' FARMS.
animal life to find its highest end in man ; and the con-
sumption of man to return again to the soil. But a
man, whose demand upon the soil once required an
average of eight hundred acres to supply him with
sufficient food, may now be better supplied with the
products of a single acre. Through the intelligent
guidance of man, what then may be the possibilities of
the productive capacity of land ?
That man has abused all these favorable natural con-
ditions is patent to those who study the subject. The
abuse is proved in the success which has attended, in
all cases, proper care to return to the land its due.
We have now about one and one half billions of peo-
ple sustained on the surface of the globe. What, in the
correct evolution of the productive powers of the earth,
is there to prevent its sustaining one hundred times as
many ? With these numbers so many times increased,
not a particle of matter would be destroyed any more
than now.
As the question refers to America, deduction from
scientific argument gives the following result : " In Eng-
land the density of population is about 389 persons per
square mile ; but England is in some measure the work-
shop of the world, and supports, by her foreign trade, a
greater population than the soil can nourish. In France
the density of population is about 177 ; in Germany it
varies from 100 to 200. On these grounds we may
assume that the number of persons which a square mile
can properly sustain, without generating the pressure of
a redundant population, is 150 at the latitude of 50,° and
26 is the number which expresses the productiveness of
this parallel. Then taking, for the sake of simplicity, 35
as the index of the productiveness of the useful soil be-
THE POSSIBILITIES OF AGRICULTURE. 25
yond 30° in America, and 85 as that of the country within
the parallel of 30° on each side of the equator, we have
about 4,000,000 square miles, each capable of supporting
490 persons. It follows that, if the natural resources of
America were fully developed, it would afford sustenance
to 3,600,000,000 of inhabitants, a number nearly three
times as great as the entire mass of human beings now
existing upon the globe." '
But, after all, the theory of Malthus, that moral re-
straint must be exercised for the prevention of famines,
only teaches that men must suffer when their supply of
food does not increase with the increase of their number.
The moral standard required is, moreover, movable, and
it is quite as likely to becoiTie a social condition, under
favorable circumstances of food supply, as when the
supply is low. With a true progress man's desires take
higher forms ; they seek expression in the exercise of his
better faculties ; not as a beast, he must live ; his is an
archetype of a grand and noble purpose. Where the na-
tional supply of food has dropped too low to give the peo-
ple a comfortable subsistence, it has always resulted from
a congested state, brought about through the sway of a
false condition in social organizations. Society is con-
vulsed because of some men's inability to gain the bread
which their associates believe their requirements demand.
These convulsions are becoming not far removed from
civil war.
And : " What is man, the animal who builds cities, and
excavates docks, and lays wires under the ocean, and
drives ships over it ? Is he not a land animal, whose
very body is composed of land ? What are his produc-
tions but the bringing forth of land materials drawn from
' " Encyclopsedia Britannica," vol. i., p. 717.
26 AMERICAN FARMS.
land, by moving, combining, separating them so as to
satisfy his designs ? Look in every direction ; see land
half used, or not used at all. Why should there be any
scarcity of work ? Why should men, willing to work,
suffer and strain for the want of the things that work
produces, while land, the natural source and means of all
production, is so abundant ? There is no reason in the
nature of things." '
We may well ask what are the possibilities of agricul-
ture, or to what extent may the earth, when properly
treated, be fruitful and multiply for the satisfaction of
man, when the science which may be brought to her aid
is studied, and its teachings followed ? when mankind
looks upon it as it should, as the greatest of all the
sciences, or the science of which others are only a part ?
To this end — namely, that lands "be fruitful," and
man prosper — it is necessary that every agricultural
community be a centre of interest to society in general ;
that society seek the agriculturist, and not that the agri-
culturist seek society ; that the city seek the country, not
the country the city. If he (the agriculturist) prospers,
they will come to him. Make drafts upon him of all
sorts, to be consumed away from his land, and his prod-
ucts must go abroad in any case to satisfy this demand ;
he will have nothing to spend on society at home.
With a numerous and prosperous land-holding class,
production will be large and competition natural, and
monopoly in agriculture will not be thought of. Nu-
merous country towns are far more desirable for the
indirect benefit of agriculture than the growth of a few
though wealthy cities. Between the former and the agri-
culturists, there is much more likely to be a real com-
> Henry George in the North American Review, October, 1889.
THE POSSIBILITIES OE AGRICULTURE. 27
munity of interests than with the latter. That such
towns may grow and prosper, it is required that the
industry of agriculture be first prosperous, as a base of
general industrial power. Agriculture must be treated
as the leading industry — not of secondary importance.
It is not, then, a correct political economy which de-
termines that manufacturing leads husbandry, as the
protectionists would have it ; nor that trade should lead,
as many free traders desire ; but that agriculture be the
first, the only true condition.
Mr. Henry C. Carey was correct when he advocated the
theory : " That man may cease to be enslaved, and that
agriculture may become a science, it is indispensable
that there be a division of employments ; that his facul-
ties be stimulated to activity ; that the power of associa-
tion arise ; that the market for his products be brought
to the neighborhood of the land ; that the utility of all
the things yielded by it, whether in the form of food
or vegetable fibre, coal, ore, lime, or marl be thus in-
creased ; that its owner be thereby freed from the
enormous taxation to which he is subjected because of
the extending necessity for effecting changes of place ;
that he be freed, too, from the extraordinary waste of
human power, physical and mental, that always attends
the absence of diversity in the modes of employment ;
and that the powers of the land be increased by means
of the constant repayment to it of the manure yielded by
the consumption of its products." '
' Carey was, however, far from correct in his claim that even the
extreme measures which he advocated could bring about the freedom
and community of interests which he desired, the very opposite being
the evident experience of America, as she has approached them.
BOOK 11.
A FAR-REACHING DISORDER.
Rome, in the days of Servius, presented to view a numerous body
of small proprietors, cultivating the land they owned. Later, we
find palaces owned by Scipios and Pompeys — the land having become
consolidated, and the free proprietors having disappeared. Fixed
property declined in value, while slaves increased in number, and
bankers in wealth and power. — Henry C. Carey.
CHAPTER I.
TROUBLES OF THE AGRICULTURISTS OF ANCIENT
TIMES.
In a former chapter we suggested a desire to make the
inquiry as to whether we have set about a solution of an
old difficulty. A careful survey of the histories of the
nations of antiquity, such as that of Israel, Greece, and
Rome, will convince the student that the agrarian ques-
tion and trouble to land properties has been an extremely
old subject of national, as well as individual, concern.
The husbandmen of Israel had their days of glory,
when the whole land of Palestine, to use the description
of one of England's great writers, was "a magnified copy
of our finest ideal of landscape gardening, " " laughingly
beauteous," "sumptuously rich," "lavishly varied."
But we find that, though with its mountain-clad vine-
yards, its olive groves, its palm plantations, its orchards
of dates, its pomp of fruit, and with its boundless store
to its votaries, yielding its "thirty to one hundred-fold,"
it finally failed to be the land of prosperous, happy homes
for intelligent men.
The hills of Benjamin and Judah, with once a " teem-
ing population " of husbandmen, are now the home of
wild beasts ; fertile Esdraelon and luxuriant Carmel are
inhabited by a few unintelligent beings ; and the high-
lands of Galilee, " with no appearance of life except the
31
32 AMERICAN FARMS.
occasional goatherd on the hill-side, or the gathering of
the women at the wells."' The old farms of Palestine
have been all abandoned, and the sons of the fathers and
founders of so much that we prize wander about in the
world, bereft of social or political influence anywhere.
As to the Grecian Republic, its history teems with
accounts of vexatious changes and disturbances on ac-
count of land difficulties. Plutarch, in his " Lives,"
speaks frequently of the disorders of the state, which he
attributes to agrarian troubles. Lycurgus, with a power
that seems marvellous to us, upsets the whole of the land
titles, in order to give back to thousands a share in the soil.
A few hundred years later and the country is plunged
in civil war over these land troubles. Agis and Cleo-
menes meet death through an attempt to grapple with
these difficulties : — landed property in the hands of " the
few," " and the rest of the people poor and miserable."
Poor and miserable was evidently the correct descrip-
tion of the peasantry of the Grecian Republic as it
approached its many social and political crises.
A hint only seems necessary to remind the intelligent
reader that most disastrous misfortunes overtook the
rural citizens of the Roman Republic and Empire, before
their overthrow. Roman gods and goddesses were un-
equal to the task of saving the small landed proprietors
from destruction ; for it amounted to that.
The land-holders must have been very numerous at
one time, especially at the period when seven acres con-
stituted the limit of the extent of the individual estate.
The vast majority of these, with their posterity, not
only had their grievous difficulties to contend against,
but were finally dispossessed of their properties. " Ex-
' Dr. Cunningham Geikie.
TROUBLES OF ANCIENT TIMES. 33
tensive parks," controlled by the favored few, took the
place of the once very numerous peasantry. The free
Roman citizen disappeared from the old farms, and the
cultivation of the soil was given over to the " slave
gangs." Tiberius Gracchus, who undertook to grapple
with the trouble, said of his unfortunate fellow-citizens :
" They are called * masters of the world,' and have not
a foot of ground in their possession ; without homes,
without any fixed abode, they wander from place to
place with their wives and children."
It is not required to pursue this farther, to show that
we have not entered upon the solution of an altogether
new problem, or a problem which has not a counterpart
in some important particulars, at least, with the fallen
civilizations.
2*
CHAPTER II.
THE DIFFICULTY FAR-REACHING TO-DAY.
Where is the country at the present time which has
not to face serious questions in relation to agriculture ?
Taking a hasty glance at the chief countries of Europe,
such as Italy, France, Germany, Belgium, and Great
Britain, we find not one of them whose thinking men
do not see in this matter (as it concerns themselves)
cause for reflection.
Rural Italy has of late years been experiencing a
crisis in agriculture. The condition became so serious
that a government commission was set at work about ten
years ago to investigate the matter. Their labors cov-
ered a term of seven years, and the final report appeared
in 1885. The substance of the report was to the effect
that the peasantry of Italy are " poor and miserable,
leading a life of wretche'd existence, to which emigration
alone offers a recourse " ; that " nearly 150,000 Italians
quit the country every year " ; that " half the children,
die, under seven years, in the Marches " ; that " families
live together sometimes to the number of forty " ; that
" in the mountain districts the whole family live in one
smoky room, with their pigs, their goats, and their
chickens." This is certainly a gloomy picture of the
condition of modern rural Italy, the garden of Europe.
Like Italy, France has made these matters a subject
34
THE DIFFICULTY FAR-REACIIING TO-DAY. 35
of parliamentary inquiry, and it is found that the agri-
cultural class are in a very unhappy condition. The
Institute Natural of Paris reported some time ago, that
in parts of France peasants are living like beasts. Of
eight millions of land proprietors, three millions are now
looked upon as subjects of charity.
As to Germany, one government commission after
another has been issued to look into the state of agricul-
tural troubles. They find that in many parts of the
empire, farm mortgages are eating up the peasants' little
properties, that the condition is any thing but satisfac-
tory ; and many schemes are proposed to alleviate their
distresses.
These matters in Belgium have also become a subject
of parliamentary notice. In every province in the land
a government representative has been stationed to ren-
der the farmers assistance, but still the trouble goes on.
In Russia, not only are the peasants' properties in very
many cases loaded with debt, but the owners them-
selves actually mortgaged for many years in advance.
As to Great Britain, her land troubles are a subject of
every-day conversation. We all know that efforts tow-
ard their solution consume a very large portion of the
time of the British statesman. This glance over Europe
will suffice to remind us that we are dealing with a diffi-
culty of large proportions.
CHAPTER III.
THE AMERICAN FARMER'S WANING ECONOMIC
POWER.
Most students of social science will admit that in all
stages in the growth of nations and of society, the indi-
viduals or the classes .which have had the largest shafe
in the general wealth have possessed immense advan-
tages over those less abundantly supplied. Such pos-
sessions have truly given them the " power of position " to
command men as well as things. The early farmers of
America could well boast of being the wealth producers,
as well as the wealth controllers of the Western world ;
a power of position which could reasonably defy oppres-
sion from the hands of others.
I am aware that the aggregate apparent wealth of the
agricultural and pastoral classes has increased in the
last fifty years, and that the average farmer may be in a
sense better conditioned than he was half a century ago ;
but so is the ordinary citizen, in a sense, better off than
the foremost citizen of primitive times. Even the average
pauper of to-day is, in a sense, better circumstanced, than
the most successful of the earliest pioneers in material
progress. As much could be said, perhaps, for the
slave of the Roman Empire in her palmy days, as com-
pared with the free savage of an earlier period. At any
stage of development, however, the successful ones, or
36
AMERICAN FARMER'S ECONOMIC POWER. 37
those who have made the greatest progress in gathering
wealth, have secured the power of position over their
contemporaries — the power to dictate terms. This has
been a rule, with few if any exceptions, all the way up.
The typical American farmer once held such control
of the national purse strings ; even in the year 1850, the
farmers of the United States could boast of possessing
60 per cent, of the capital power of the Union. It is
not easy to give a sufficiently high estimate to this rela-
tive power, secured and maintained as it was by indi-
vidual effort. It undoubtedly secured for its possessors
a commanding influence in political and social affairs,
while fostering a most desirable spirit of independence.
This power, however, which was really on the wane in
1850, though 60 per cent, of the total, sank to 53 per
cent, in i860. This decline of relative wealth has con-
tinued until the present day. In 1880, it had gone down
to 40 per cent, and it is probably not more than 35 per
cent, to-day.
Further than, this, I say, the farmer's power is declin-
ing, absolutely as well as relatively. In i860 there were
2,044,077 farms in the United States ; in 1880, 4,008,907.
In i860 the total value of farm property was $7,980,493,-
063, or an average of $3,904 per farm ; in 1880 the value
of the total value was $12,104,001, or an average of
$3,019 per farm. Up to i860 the farmers held their
ground, or rather increased the value of their possessions,
but from that date to 1880 the shrinkage has been
equivalent to $885 per farm, and we have every reason
for supposing that this decline is still going on.
In 1870 the property of the farmers of the six New
England States was valued at $707,942,439 ; in 1880 it
had fallen to $671,846,058. Is this not a serious change
r^anr:
38 AMERICAN FARMS.
— a change that demands searching inquiry ? Have we
not in it a question quite equal to the vexed question
between labor and capital, the unequal distribution of
land ? Or, are they not parts of one great question ?
But, let us review the opinions held thirty years ago,
as to the relative importance of agriculture in some of
the New England States. Our eye rests upon a volume
of the New England Farmer for the year 1854, and from
an editorial we extract the following emphatic passage :
"In the year 1850, the improved land of the State
(Massachusetts) amounted to 2,133,436 acres, and the
cash value of the farms was $109,076,347 ; the imple-
ments and machinery were worth $3,209,584 ; the value
of the live-stock was $9,649,710 ; and the value of rye
and Indian corn of that year was $2,857,732 ; to say
nothing of hay, fruit, root crops, which would be as
much more. These sums find the farmer investing
capital and producing crops in a single year to the
amount of one hundred and twenty-seven millions six
hundred and fifty-one thousand one hundred and five
dollars.
" The other principal industrial pursuits gave, for the
same period, in the cotton and woollen manufacture, in
pig-iron, castings, wrought-iron, malt and spirituous
liquors, and tanneries, an aggregate of eighty millions
three hundred thousand nine hundred and fifty -four dollars,
leaving a balance of forty-seven millions three hundred
and fifty-one dollars in favor of the industry of farming."
In this State, the value of the productions of Indian
corn, wheat, and rye has fallen from $2,750,000 in 1854
to $1,750,000 in 1887. The value of live-stock has risen
from $9,649,710 in 1850 to only $12,957,004, or an
average yearly increase of $89,386 : not quite one per
cent, per year.
AMERICAN FARMER'S ECONOMIC POWER. 39
In 1865 the pounds of beef slaughtered were 70,000,-
000 ; in 1885, only 10,000,000. The potato crop in 1845
amounted to 4,767,000 bushels ; in 1885 it was reduced
to 3,584,000 bushels.
In 1845 the production of wool reached the fine figure
of 1,015,000 pounds ; in 1885 the insignificant amount of
255,000 pounds.
Most startling, however, is the fact that, while the
total value of property rose from $573,343,286 in 1850
to $2,795,000,000 in 1880, the value of farm property
only rose from $121,935,641 in 1850 to $164,288,956 in
1880. That is to say, while the valuation of the property
of the people of the whole State increased by 171 per
cent, in thirty years, the per capita valuation of the
farmers' property increased by only 30 per cent. ; the
value of farm land declining $5,929,142 in the ten years
1875-85.
As in Massachusetts, the production of grain in New
Hampshire has declined. In 1853 it amounted, in wheat,
Indian corn, rye, buckwheat, and oats, to 2,988,982
bushels ; but in 1880, to only 2,665,912 bushels.
In 1853 the production of potatoes was 4,304,916
bushels, in 1880, 3,358,828 ; of hay, 598,854 tons in
1853, in 1880, 583,665 tons ; of cheese, 3,196,663 pounds
in 1853, in 1880, 807,076 pounds.
The value of live-stock for this State was $8,871,901
in 1853, and only $9,81 2,064 in 1880 — an increase of only
a fraction over 10 per cent, in twenty-seven years. The
production of fruit has no doubt much increased, but
with this exception and the slight increase in live-stock
and that of butter, the falling off has been alarmingly
large in every line.
' This decline was from $116,629,849 to $110,700,707.
40 AMERICAN FARMS.
It is admitted now, on all sides, that farm industry is
not progressing in New England ; rather, fast losing
ground. We have found, however, that not long since
the foremost public men of New England thought other-
wise. Not only were they satisfied with the progress of
their time, but were sanguine believers in a prosperous
future for the farmers of their several States.
The following, a portion of Governor Fairbanks' ad-
dress to the General Assembly of Vermont, in session
December, i860, takes the same view :
" From an abstract of the seventh United States cen-
sus, it appears that in 1850 there were in this State
2,600,409 acres of improved land, — a quantity exceeding
that of any other New England State ; and that our
agricultural products of that year exceeded in quantity
those of any of the same States in the articles of live-
stock, butter, cheese, wool, wheat, oats, potatoes, hay
and a variety of other crops.
" The value of live-stock, as shown by that census, was
$12,643,228, and the aggregate of farm productions for
that year shows a valuation, including live-stock, of
about $25,000,000, being nearly equal to $80 for each in-
dividual of our population.
" The well-known industry of our citizens engaged in
agricultural pursuits and the capabilities of our soil, have
been made available for increasing the amount of these
products under the stimulus of augmented prices conse-
quent upon the opening of railway communication with
the markets. It may therefore be assumed that this
department of industry has not only maintained its
relative importance, but that it has during the intervening
years, since the above data, experienced a constant and
healthful growth and increase. Still it is conceived
AMERICAN FARMER'S ECONOMIC POWER. 4 1
that it is capable of far greater development and a much
more abundant increase.
" Vermont is essentially an agricultural state. The
great body of its citizens are engaged in agricultural
pursuits. The salubriousness of its soil and the variety
of its physical structure adapt it to the cultivation of the
most essential and profitable crops and to the successful
prosecution of sheep and cattle husbandry. Other im-
portant interests exist, and are successfully prosecuted ;
but it is to this essentially that we are to look for the most
marked and healthy growth of the state in wealth and
prosperity."
The following is an extract from the message of Gov-
ernor Martin to the legislature of New Hampshire in
1853 : ** Agriculture is our leading interest, and, although
our state is more mountainous than any of our neigh-
boring states, yet we can justly boast of large quantities
of luxuriant intervale ; our uplands are productive, and
afford a pasturage unrivalled in excellence. Nowhere
can the necessaries, conveniences, and comforts of life be
found combined in greater abundance. Our lands, im-
proved and under tillage, number 2,251,448 acres ; value
of farms, $55,245,997 ; farming implements and ma-
chinery, $2,314,125 ; live-stock, $8,871,901 ; orchard
products, $248,563 ; domestic manufactures, $393,455.
We raise an average crop of 185,658 bushels of wheat,
183,117 bushels of rye, 1,573,970 bushels of Indian corn,
973,381 bushels of oats, 70,856 bushels of buckwheat,
4,304,919 bushels of potatoes, and we produced 1,108,-
476 pounds of wool, 6,977 pounds of butter, 3,196,663
pounds of cheese, 1,294,863 pounds of maple sugar,
598,854 tons of hay. Let the young farmers of this
state estimate the foregoing products of the farm and
42 AMERICAN FARMS.
dairy at fair average prices, and see what a fine aggregate
of values they will have as the result, bearing in mind
the while, that he who most increases the productiveness
of the earth is the greatest benefactor of his race." He
followed this by claiming that, although all classes in
the State were thriving and prosperous, the remark was
especially applicable to the department of agriculture.
It is important for us to note that agriculture had the
lead in this portion of America at that time, and that the
first government functionaries thought it destined to
experience a still higher measure of success in the future.
They saw nothing for the farmers to fear, but a great
deal to give them courage.
The decadence of the agricultural interests of New
Hampshire and Vermont is now the object of official in-
vestigation. Mr. B. Valentine, Commissioner of Agri-
culture for Vermont, finds that good areas of tillable land
can be bought in his State at prices approximating those
of Western lands. Two-hundred-acre farms, with " fair
buildings," good orchards, and plenty of timber, are
being sold for less than $i,ooo. In some counties large
tracts of land, of fair quality, can be bought for three or
four dollars per acre. Town-Clerk Fuller, of Vershire,
Vermont, says : " We have many abandoned farms in
different parts of our towns, with good buildings on them,
that could be bought for five dollars or less per acre.
All this land was once occupied by thrifty and prosperous
farmers."
In 45 agricultural towns in Connecticut the decrease
of wealth in the eleven years 1865-76 amounted to
$1,893, 172 ; between 1876 and 1886 the decrease ran up
to $2,741,520. Out of 603 farmers interviewed, 378
show a yearly loss. As we travel away from New Eng-
AMERICAN FARMER'S ECONOMIC POWER. 43
land to more western lands, we meet the same cry — the
decline of agriculture. The report on the financial
affairs of the farmers of Nebraska (1887-88) shows that
of 215 farmers, over 50 per cent, stated that they were
losing money.
Under the head of " Mortgaged Farms " we will deal
further with the relative condition of the Western farmer.
But, while touching the subject, we may say that the
relative capital power of the Western farmer is waning,
as is that of the Eastern, though not so apparent in its
rapidity.
From an article on " Commercial Union," to be found
in Mr. Goldwin Smith's " Hand-Book of Reciprocity,"
written by Mr. Thomas Shaw, Secretary of the Perma-
nent Central Farmer's Institute, Hamilton, Ontario, we
extract the following : " In 1882 the farmers of Ontario
were worth $882,624,610, in 1886 they were worth $989,-
497,911. The advance of these four years has been
$106,873,301, or an advance on the average capital in-
vested for the four years, $948,302,805, or .028 per cent.
The manufacturers of the Dominion made an advance
of 42 per cent., less the running expenses, exclusive of
wages, in the years of 1880 and 1881."
The Bulletin from the Bureau of Industries for Ontario
published in August, 1889, reports the value of farm
property to have increased during the past year from
$981,368,094 to $982,210,664, an increase of about one
tenth per cent. ; probably not more than the increase in
the amount of farm mortgages.
The Worthy Master of the Dominion Grange, in an ad-
dress at Toronto, in the autumn of 1886, contended that
the wealthy amongst the farmers were comparatively
few, and that " as matters exist the farmer can never
44 AMERICAN FARMS.
cope with the overwhelming odds that are pitted against
him."
Said the St. John Sun (Conservative) in its editorial of
July 24, 1888 : " In the Eastern Provinces of Canada
the natural hay land holds its own in value ; but arable
land, except in particular localities, is not increasing in
price ; while in districts remote from railway connection
there is an undoubted decline in values. In those parts
of Ontario where the farmers have given their attention
largely to raising grain for export, agricultural lands are
said not to be increasing in price." This admission is
important, as it comes from a source not likely to make
it if there were not the best of grounds for such con-
clusions.
Thus we find in various ways the power of position is
passing from the agriculturists of America.
CHAPTER IV.
FARM MORTGAGES.
Probably no better proof of the loss of the farmer's
relative capital power is required than in his growing de-
pendence for his capital on the successful men of other
occupations. And it certainly is an unquestionable in-
dication of coming disaster, if this demand for aid by the
farmer be growing faster than the increase in the value
of his possessions. Fifty years ago farm mortgages were
rare in America ; to-day they are the rule in many locali-
ties ; and everywhere they threaten to defy the farmer's
efforts to contend with the load they create.
It is claimed of New England ' that at least ^^^ per
cent, of the farms are mortgaged to the capitalists. Few
undertake to deny this startling declaration. In fact, it
is generally admitted. But, while some see in this grow-
ing evil in the New England farmer's financial condition,
the result of a malady which extends its destructive
influence over the whole continent, others find a cause
wholly in the unequal competition of the Western rival.
The grounds for the latter contention, though in a certain
sense of great importance, are not enough, since serious
troubles are overtaking the Western competitor.
' In Connecticut, out of 603 farms recently visited by an investiga-
tion, 241, or 34 per cent., valued at $1,008,350, were mortgaged to the
extent of $451,109,
45
46 AMERICAN FARMS.
The New York State Agent reported about eighteen
months ago that " there are large numbers of farms that
were purchased ten years ago and mortgaged, which
would not now sell for more than the face of the mort-
gages, owing to the depreciation of the farm lands,
which on an average is 2>Z P^r cent, in ten years.
Probably one third of the farms in the State would
not sell for more than the cost of the buildings and
other improvements, owing to this shrinkage. . . .
Thirty per cent, of the farms in the State are mortgaged,
ranging from 2 per cent, of their value to 100 per cent. ;
average, 66f per cent, of estimated value. These securi-
ties are held by retired or more successful farmers,
merchants, savings-banks, and insurance companies."
While the State agent claimed that " still a large pro-
portion of the farmers of New York are prosperous,
one cannot but be startled by a report from an official
source, that the farm lands of the leading State in the
Union — a State having advantages superior to most
others — had declined in value 33 per cent, in ten years,
and that one third of the farms in the State would not
sell for more than the cost of the buildings and other
improvements, owing to the shrinkage." The State of
New York contains within its limits some of the largest
centres of production and consumption in America, and
it also contains as good land as is to be found anywhere.
Then why should not the tillers of this soil prosper ?
The State of Ohio has, according to official reports,
an assessed valuation of real estate amounting to
$1,220,262,525, on which are 291,000 mortgages, forming
a total indebtedness of $330,999,205, much of which is,
however, upon other than farm lands.
Mr. Heath, Commissioner of Labor Statistics of
Michigan, has recently reported on the mortgage in-
FARM MORTGAGES. 47
debtedness of the farmers of his State. He stated that
he has reports from 90,803 farms, or 58 per cent, of all
the farms in the State. The assessed valuation of all
farms reported is $194,854,663, upon which there is a
mortgage indebtedness of $37,456,272, or a little more
than 19 per cent, of the total assessed valuation, and
nearly 47 per cent, on that of the farms mortgaged.
The assessed valuation of the farms in the State is
$335,378,025, upon which the estimated mortgage in-
debtedness is $64,392,580, with an annual interest
charge of $4,636,265 on farms alone.
The opinion of the Labor Commissioner of Michigan,
that the mortgages upon the farms of that State operate
" as a mammoth sponge " upon the labor of the owners,'
is the growing feeling of the majority of farmers all
over America — the older parts at least. The farms of
Michigan surround the great iron industries of the West.
The State now contains large centres of population, and
its lands are fertile and productive, and yet the farmers
are evidently on the downward track.
Says a Southern journal : " Think of it ! In as pros-
perous a State as Michigan 47 per cent., or nearly half,
of the farms are mortgaged. In Georgia, if one would
take the trouble to examine the clerks' offices in the
different counties, a condition of affairs equally bad,
perhaps worse, would be brought to light."
The Bureau of Labor Statistics for the State of Illinois
has issued reports which show that the farm lands of the
State have mortgages upon them to the amount of $123,-
733,098, not including Cook County.
As to Nebraska, official reports do not indicate a
happy condition of affairs in that State in reference to
this matter. The reports of 1887-88 deal with 215
farmers scattered all over the State. An analysis of
48 AMERICAN FARMS.
these reports shows that, of the 215 farms, 113 are
mortgaged.
Seventy-five per cent, of farms of Dakota are mort-
gaged for an aggregate amount of ^50,000,000.'
The New York Times of December 27, 1886, con-
tained a long article from Mr. Frank Wilkeson on the
condition of the farmers of Kansas. He said : " It is a
financial impossibility in this era of agricultural com-
petitive warfare for a farmer of average intelligence and
skill who tills a farm of 100 acres of land, except corn
land, to lift a mortgage of say $1,000, with money earned
by growing staple crops. ... I can safely say that
nine tenths of all the uplands lying west of the ninety-
seventh meridian are really small grain lands, which are
' According to the report of the Commissioner of Labor Statistics
for Illinois, "the mortgage indebtedness of farmers for borrowed
money has increased twenty-three per cent, since 1880 in this State,
twice the increase in the value of farm lands." Twenty-five counties
are reported to have increased their value of farm lands, twenty-three
have decreased, and in sixteen the values have remained the same.
" It is now twenty years at least that farming has been going rapidly
downward. Farms bought in the war era have been selling almost
everywhere in the East for one half to 07ie third of their cost. Farms
in New England, and some in the Middle States, are frequently sold
for less than the buildings cost which are upon them. This is really
no exaggeration. Sales of this sort, and where the depreciation in
value has wiped out the owner's equity in them, have been for years a
matter of notorious knowledge in almost every Eastern community.
Within a year, in a healthy and fertile county not sixty miles from
New York, a farm having on it two mortgages — a first mortgage of
$3,000 and a second mortgage of $2,000 — was sold under foreclosure
for the sum represented by the first mortgage only. The holder of
the second one did not think it worth while to be present, or to have
a representative present at the sale, to bid the single dollar which
would have saved, or made a show of saving, his investment."
JoEi, Benton, in Popular Science Monthly, Nov., 1889.
FARM MORTGAGES. 49
Utterly unfit to produce corn, excepting in excessively
wet seasons."
The picture given of life on Saturday in a Kansas
town is certainly a startling one : " It matters not how
dull the town has been during the week, on Saturday
the streets are crowded with people ; on that day chat-
tels are sold to satisfy the overdue mortgages. At pres-
ent these sales are numerous in the West, outside of the
corn belt, and a very large portion of these do not real-
ize sufficient to pay the mortgages. Teams, wagons, or
horned stock, which six months ago were considered
ample security for a loan of from $100 to $150, fre-
quently fetch at public auction 25 per cent, less than the
price of the mortgage."
So important has the question of increased mortgage
indebtedness become, that the Cleveland Administration
thought itself justified in appropriating $250,000 for col-
lecting the statistics relating thereto.
*' Mr. Henry M. McDonald, President of the Traders'
Bank, Pierre, Dakota, estimates that the volume of
Western-mortgage business, confined chiefly to Kansas,
Nebraska, Minnesota, and Dakota, has reached the sum of
$150,000,000 yearly. It may exceed his figures. That
it is of great magnitude is evident from the fact that in all
Eastern cities (and in most of the towns and villages)
are located numbers of agents who make a living from
the commissions paid them for securing loans. Boston
numbers more than fifty agencies of farm-mortgage com-
panies. It is computed that Philadelphia alone nego-
tiates yearly more than $15,000,000 on Western loans.
Kansas and Nebraska have 134 incorporated mortgage
companies. The companies organized under the laws
of other States, but operating in these two States, in-
3
50 AMERICAN FARMS.
crease the number at least 200. In this reckoning no
account is taken of firms and individuals, although a
large amount of money is directly invested by lenders of
this class." '
One feature of importance to be observed in this
mortgage business, is the fact that the chief part of the
power to put in bonds the lands of America comes not
from the country, but from the city ; while the country
is gaining no equivalent power over city interests of
any kind.
As to the oppressive nature of the Western farm mort-
gages the Chicago Times says : " The syndicates tliat
loan money at from one to three per cent, per month are
mainly made up of Scotch, English, and New England
capitalists, who have their agents throughout the South
and West. These mortgages are falling due, and soon
an immense number of Southern and Western farms
will be in the hands of foreign mortgageors. . . . The
territories are covered with mortgages on new farms
not yet patented. In some of them the law has permit-
ted outrageous interest, so that the farm-mortgage busi-
ness has grown into immense proportions. In many
districts half of the settlers borrow money at high
interest to pay the small price required by the govern-
ment in proving up. This is leading to widespread dis-
aster. The object of the pre-emption law is perverted.
Eastern and foreign capitalists get the land with such
improvements as the settler has put upon it. The settler
loses all by reason of the exorbitant interest he is com-
pelled to pay."
There are those who would fain establish the idea that
these growing financial embarrassments upon the farms of
' W. F. Mappin in Political Science Quarterly, September, 1889,
FARM MORTGAGES. 5 1
America are *' an evidence of thrift rather than the con-
trary." Borrowed capital has, no doubt, enabled many
Western farmers to push their enterprises with a success
which they, probably, would not have attained without it.
But the payment of the interest on Western farms, with
wheat at 80 cents per bushel, is quite a different matter,
as compared with the time when this cereal commanded
a price 30 per cent, higher. It was a different matter
when the lands yielded an average of 30 bushels of corn
to the acre, as compared with 20 bushels now — when
heavy outlays for fertilizers are required to secure a
crop.
Farm mortgage is a comparatively new disease with
the agriculturists of America. Fifty years ago, the farmer
who was obliged to put a mortgage on his farm was con-
sidered next to insolvent, and its clearance was thought
highly improbable. They are so numerous now that
their increase is hardly noticed by the rural communities.
But I believe that at the present day not more than 50
per cent, of mortgaged farms are released, except by
change of ownership.
Before us is the address of Mr. R. Wilkie, the Worthy
Master of the Dominion Grange Patrons of Husbandry,
delivered at a session of the Order in Toronto, Novem-
ber, 1886. From this high authority we learn that a
large proportion of the lands of the Dominion are, like
the United States farms, becoming hopelessly incum-
bered. He said : " Doubtless a very large amount of
capital is invested in farming ; but much of it belongs
to capitalists, and is only loaned on the land — a very
large proportion of which is under mortgage much
greater than most people suppose, and much of it is
hopelessly sunk . . . The only hope that still re-
52 AMERICAN FARMS.
mains in many cases is that the land may be sold for
something more than the amount of encumbrance. If
any one doubts this, let him turn to the number of ad-
vertisements of farms for sale. The newspapers are full
of them. And hundreds of land agents throughout the
country are furnishing long lists free to any expectant
purchaser. The owners of these lands are not men who
are retiring on their fortunes, nor are they men who de-
sire to engage in other pursuits. A large proportion of
them are men who are selling to save the little which
still remains, there being no longer any hope of saving
the farm."
From what can be gathered from other sources, the
picture drawn by the Worthy Master is not overdrawn as
regards Ontario. The lowest estimate puts the mortgage
indebtedness upon the farms of this province at $58,-
000,000. The Montreal yournal of Commerce recently
stated that, " as the possibility of the mortgages ever
being paid off is so remote, the interest may fairly be
looked upon as a fixed annual charge."
We may well ask : " Who are to own the farms of
America ? "
CHAPTER V.
THE CAPITALISTS GAINING THE LAND— THE TYPICAL
AMERICAN FARM.
The definition of an American farm, as given by Web-
ster, is : "A portion or tract of land consisting usually
of grass land, meadow, pasture, tillage, and woodland,
cultivated by one man, and usually owned by him in
fee." His definition of a farm in Great Britain is as fol-
lows : " A tract of land leased on rent reserved ; ground
let to a tenant on condition of his paying a certain sum,
annually or otherwise, for the use of it."
As a rule, the typical American farm was, and is,
worked by the owner and his family, with sometimes the
assistance of hired help for a large portion of the year,
but frequently without any help beyond the family, and
an extra gang for the haying season. He was and is
virtually landlord, capitalist, and laborer. His lands do
not support an idle aristocracy ; he was and is inde-
pendent of the usurer, and he depends in the main upon
his own industry, the sweat of his own brow, for the
part that man must do to fill his granaries, or for the
power to satisfy the wants of himself and family.
First, then, the typical American farmer, with his grass-
land, meadow, pasture, tillage, and woodland, chiefly
depending for its care and cultivation upon his own
exertions, was and is what is now called a small farmer.
53
54 AMERICAN FARMS.
Second, the typical American farmer was and is, usually,
an owner.
In order to show the present tendencies towards large
estates, we will divide the large from the small at too
acres, and compare those above and below at different
periods, say i860 with 1880. In the year i860, of the
2,044,077 land-holdings in the United States, 1,387,614,
or 67 per cent, were of the classes 100 acres and under.
In Canada, the census of 1881 found the lands in hold-
ings of 100 acres and under, to the extent of 71 per cent,
of the total. From this we draw the conclusion that
farms of 100 acres and less have been the rule. Such
have been the typical farms.
Such farmers providing their own capital, both for the
ownership of their lands and the prosecution of their
business, and depending chiefly upon their own labors,
needed no extensive areas. Indeed large areas would be
an intolerable encumbrance to the owners, as the fencing
of even a 200-acre farm would be a severe tax on their
time. It is true that in many cases, such as those which
formed the estates of Virginia, the original grants were
large blocks of land, but in those early days when such
grants were made, they were not taken for speculative
purposes, as now, or for carrying on a wholesale com-
petition in agriculture. And when a community did
really get down to the cultivation of the soil, or to gen-
eral farming, it was on small plots or town lots that the
farmers' labors were prosecuted, and each farmer was a
proprietor.
We have stated already that in i860, 67 per cent, of
the land-holdings were of the classes occupying 100
acres and under. The census of 1880, however, showed
that a rapid change had been made during the decade
THE TYPICAL AMERICAN FARM. 55
in reversing this condition ; of 4,008,907 holdings,
only 2,208,374 were of the classes named ; of the classes
between ten and one hundred acres there were 2,069,133,
or 51 per cent., while those over 100 acres had risen to
1,800,533.'
Still more important does this rapid change appear,
when we compare each class by their acres. Then we
begin to realize something of the real magnitude of the
change. So far as we can gather from the census reports
in i860, not more than 30 per cent, of the farm lands
were held by owners of over 100 acres ; in 1880, not
less than 75 per cent, was in the hands of this class. In
i860, the acres in possession of holders of above 500
acres were (taking the lowest limit of average) not over 4
per cent, of the total ; in 1880, not less than 12 percent.
It may be contended that all these movements toward
increase in the average size of land-holdings are taking
place only in the West, where foreigners have absorbed
so much of the land that the old States are holding to
their normal conditions. Even if this were the case, it
would not do much to disprove the statement that the
typical American farm was disappearing ; but what are
the facts even in this case ? We select three of the most
prominent of the farming States of New England, for the
purpose of comparison — Massachusetts, Maine, and Ver-
mont. These old States contained, in i860, 94,723 holders
of land of 100 acres and under ; in 1880, only 73,892 ;
whereas, of holdings of upwards of 100 acres, there was
an increase of 34,435, or from 23,412 to 57,847.
In the foregoing calculation all holdings below ten
acres are included. In 1880 they amounted to about 5
^ It must be remembered that but for the subdivision of plantations
in the South, since i860, the total change in the comparative decrease
of small holdings would appear far more conspicuously.
56 AMERICAN FARMS.
per cent, of the total for these States. They probably
represent the number of holdings occupied by other
classes than tillers of the soil. But ten acres and under
have, in many cases, supported families. We are brought
face to face with the startling fact that 20,821 of the
typical farms of these States during the twenty years,
1860-80, had either been abandoned to the wilds alto-
gether, or become attached to the large estates. No
doubt the transformation has been in both directions.
If in either, however, the changed condition is one for
serious thought.
One of America's most famous economists * states that
between 1875 and 1885 the woodland of Massachusetts
increased 49.64 per cent. In this State the tacking-on
must have been very considerable, as the number of
holdings above 500 acres had increased in the twenty
years — 1860-80 — by 254, while the cultivated land had
fallen from 2,133,436 to 2,128,311 acres.
In the State of Maine the holdings of over 100 acres
were only 9 per cent, of the total in i860 ; in 1880 they
were 39 per cent. In i860 there were only 2 holders
of estates exceeding 1,000 acres ; in 1880 there were 116.
Using the lowest limit of the census figures, we find
that there were 64,550 acres of the lands of Massachu-
setts, Maine, and Vermont in the hands of holders of up-
wards of 500 acres in the year i860, but in 1880 these
acres had swollen to 856,000. Using the medium figures
for the 10- to 50-acre holdings, there were in the neigh-
borhood of 1,624,485 acres of farm lands in these small
divisions in i860, but in 1880 only 1,009,750.
With such figures as these, culled from official sources,
who can deny that the lands of New England, and, in
' Hon. David A. Wells.
THE TYPICAL AMERICAN FARM. 57
fact, of the whole United States, are not rapidly assum-
ing a shape other than that represented by the typical
American farmer ?
It is well known that the Wall Street capitalists are
becoming owners of vast tracts of Western lands, and that
Boston capitalists are getting a mortgage grip upon the
New England farms, while British capital is fast coming
to the position of controlling more land in America than
at home. Restricted in the United States, it turns its
attention to Canada.
Aliens may have absorbed the new lands of Western
States, but how are we to account for the rapid absorp-
tion of the small properties by the large in the East ?
A like condition is developing in Canada. The great
Northwest is falling into the hands of the moneyed classes.
In Manitoba 44 per cent, of the land-holdings in 1880
were of the classes above 500 acres ; in the territories 58
per cent, were upwards of 500 acres in area. Sir Lester
Key now manages for a $2,000,000 syndicate 1,200,000
acres of Canadian lands.
By reckoning the i,ooo-acre classes, we have gained
but a slight insight into the real condition of affairs, but
we see enough to exemplify one important phase of the
nature of the question under discussion.
3*
CHAPTER VI.
RENTED FARMS
Through the United States census of 1880 an effort
was made to ascertain the tenure of American farms,
with the following result : It was found that out of a
total of 4,008,907 farms and plantations, 1,024,601 were
rented for money or worked on shares. This went to
show that, at that time, slightly over 25 per cent, of all
the farms of the United States were not owned by the
occupiers.
In studying the census report still further, it will be
found that of the 2,208,374 holdings of less than 100
acres, 730,702, or 33 per cent., were not owned by the
occupiers. But of the holdings of from 500 to 1,000
acres, 87 per cent, were owned by the occupiers ; and the
holdings of above 1,000 acres were thus owned to the
extent of 90 per cent, of the total. It is true, the largest
proportion of rented farms is in the South, where the
land has been rented to the negroes since their liberation,
and it is true also that the largest proportion of small
holdings are tenanted.
The census statistics, however, teach us that at the
date of their formation 7 per cent, of the farms of New
England were occupied by tenants, or one in about every
fourteen, and of New York 16 per cent., or one in about
every seven. Farther west, on the rich and productive
58
RENTED FARMS. 59
lands of Ohio, 20 per cent, of the farms were rented, or
one in every five.
In Canada a fraction less than \z\ per cent, of the
lands were rented in 1880, or one in about every eight —
owners and occupiers numbering 403,491, and tenants as
occupiers, 57,245-
In the Maritime Provinces one in every fourteen farms
was occupied by tenants, and in Ontario one in every
six.
In addition to the discovery recently made by the New
York State assessors, that, in fourteen counties visited
farm land is declining in value while city property is in-
creasing, sufficient information was gained on the ques-
tion of rented farms to warrant the State assessor in
forming the opinion that, *' in a few years there will be
few left but tenant farmers."
When we consider that about 25 per cent, of the small
farms of the United States are already in the hands of
capitalists, and thre occupiers are mere tenants, and that
this condition is on the increase, and add to this that
capitalists have mortgages on at least 20 per cent, of the
remainder, and further, that small farms are disappear-
ing, we may well say that the typical industry of rural
America is fast becoming a thing of the past.
CHAPTER VIL
ABANDONED FARMS.
One who has been familiar with the past history of
the farm-homes of a country, who has known of the
struggles and triumphs of the early possessors of these
properties, cannot but be saddened when he sees them,
one after another, abandoned ; the lands to become the
pasture domain of more successful estates, or to be en-
tirely given over to the public common. To be a wit-
ness to the industry, the planning, and the achievements
in moulding, in fashioning, and in subduing these spots
to the tastes and requirements of the occupiers, and then
to see them at last entirely surrendered to the wilderness,
is surely an impressive picture, even to the most indifferent
mind. Such an observer cannot but ask the question :
" Is this not an evidence of coming national decay ? "
Large tracts of country — away from the towns and
cities — in the old States and Provinces of America are
thus being transformed ; and not only are these manifes-
tations of failure on the part of our old farms to hold
their own against the conditions of the times confined
to the old States, but are rapidly extending over the
continent.
The New England farms have been the first, however,
to succumb. There are several reasons for this, though
60
ABANDONED FARMS. 6l
none of them give any assurance that the disease is not
to become general among the typical farms of America.
Through the Boston Advertiser, a rather conservative
journal, we have the following graphic picture of the
desolation which already reigns over portions of Massa-
chusetts, once the settlements of happy and prosperous
farmers :
" Throughout the State of Massachusetts, away from
the cities and from the large towns, may be met, besides
oral reports, traces of farms once yielding a support
to their occupants, but now abandoned. The signs of
former tenancy are to be found in conditions varying
from the indications of recent occupancy to those of a
generation or longer ago. Sometimes the dwelling-house
has a look of neatness, in its white paint and green blinds,
not yet yielding much to the weather. The barns, wagon
sheds, corn-cribs, and other out-buildings will be black-
ened, of course, from exposure of their unpainted surface,
but yet have in them wear and utility. But the stillness
of a solitude haunts the place, and the sign, affixed to a
tree, ' For Sale,' stirs in the practical observer the sus-
picious question, Why ? He glances over the undulating
fields, where now the grass is growing thinly, and thence
back to the stone wall, so carefully laid as to suggest that
at some inspection by a committee of an agricultural
fair, it must have won a prize. What labor the red-
dened and wearied hands must have expended here, and
yet the sons have not stayed to reap any profit from the
father's toil !
'' Again, the house is not so trim. The storms of several
decades have worn the paint away. The clapboards are
darkening in the weather. The mortar has crumbled
from between the bricks in the chimneys, so that you
62 AMERICAN FARMS.
see the light of the sky through the crevices. Some of
the panes in the windows are broken. The front door
hangs ajar. The winds sigh through the empty wood-
shed. The out-buildings, first to go, are falling in.
Acres of land once cultivated lie around. The sign
announcing the place as being for sale is broken and
hanging by a single nail, and the words are almost
untraceable.
" Another scene will represent a ruin. The roof has
tumbled in. The charming prospect of hill and dale and
wood and setting sun is now never more to be shut out
from the front door, where once the busy housewife may
have sometimes glanced, for the door is swung far back
and gaping on the scene, and no one is there to push it
to. At some time or other the barn fell down, and the
boards and timbers are rotting from the repeated dryings
and wettings. It is a scene of desolation. The sugges-
tiveness of former tenancy imparts to it a melancholy,
such as a mere old cellar or the traces of a stone under-
pinning do not have. These, too, may be found some-
times in the midst of lonely woods, where the trees have
grown up in tht fields formerly ploughed and sowed, so
that the owner is already counting on their value at some
lone saw-mill. But where the remnant of a frame is
standing, it suggests the farmer's hopes, the housewife's
counsels, the ploughboy's whistle, once known here, and
now gone forever.
" Large areas are now offered for sale. The prices
asked for the land are low compared with the prices
asked for land in the places where the population is
growing."
If any State of New England can be said to have made
verifiable progress in the past, it is Massachusetts ; and
ABANDONED FARMS. 63
yet the foregoing is the report with which a leading jour-
nal furnishes its readers. The article further states :
" Take the farmers of Franklin County. It has been
estimated that their average surplus of profit above
expense does not exceed $75 a year. In some localities
in that county, a farmer, who, at seventy-five, has ac-
cumulated $3,000 or $4,000, is thought to have attained
to the greatest measure of success.
** But many have found themselves unequal to the strug-
gle between the expenses and the profits. Not, indeed,
the large proportion of the farmers of the preceding
generation, but the sons, who, though laborious and
well-meaning, have not had the discipline that comes
from originating an enterprise, but have depended upon
their father's training and instruction. In the unequal
battle they have given up and fled from the field."
The cause assigned for the abandoned farms of New
England ' is one that is given by many — the competition
of the Western farms has been too severe, and in the
unequal contest the New England competitor has been
obliged to give up and flee to other parts.
The Hon. David A. Wells says : " A few years ago
the inhabitants of Ludlow, formerly a most prosperous
town in Windsor County, Vermont, memorialized the
legislature to the effect that there were twelve deserted
farms within the town limits, and asked permission to
guarantee to any persons who would lease and work
them exemption from taxation, local and State, for a
considerable term of years." He also states : ''All over
New England, farms in abundance can now be pur-
chased for less than the cost of the improvements upon
' Official reports state that in six towns in Massachusetts the un-
occupied dwellings number from ten to forty-five.
64 AMERICAN FARMS.
them, — yes, for less than the cost of the construction of
their stone walls." '
A writer in the Grange Homes, of Boston, mentions
seeing farms sold in Vermont for less than the cost of
the buildings upon them. He pertinently suggests the
query : The fathers among the hills were poor ; but they
cleared away the forests, raised and educated families,
and built homes. Why do the buildings now sell for
less than they are worth, with one or two hundred acres
of land thrown in to make the trade ? " Yes, why are
these lands being abandoned ? Why are the farmers
becoming mere tenants ? Why are mortgages settling
down on the old farms of America ? Why is the wealth
of farmers all over the land so little increased, when the
aggregate wealth is growing so rapidly ? Why is such a
large proportion of the agricultural class of the world
groaning under the trouble of procuring the necessities
of civilized life ? Why all this, while agriculture stands
at the base of all material development ?
' The catalogue of the abandoned farms of New Hampshire contains
particulars of 352 of these, referring to which the State Commissioner
says, that " in most instances these farms have not been abandoned
because the soil has become exhausted, or from the lack of natural
fertility, but from various causes appearing in the social and economic
history of the State."
On August II, 1889, the New York Tribune had an article on the
decline of the farming industries of Vermont, in which it said :
" Good lands are offered for sale as low as $3 an acre, and it is said
that it will be necessary to make $5 an acre the maximum price for
settlers, if the new Vermont boomers expect to compete with Western
lands. It may, as a vivid notion of the extent to which the depopu-
lating process has gone on, be said, that no difficulty was encountered
in finding abandoned farms in one locality to furnish contiguous
farms for the first proposed colony of fifty families. In fact, four
such localities were found."
BOOK III.
AGRICULTURE'S STRUGGLE.
Man becomes more free as the prices of rude products and finished
commodities approximate. — Henry C. Carey.
The whole question of freedom or slavery for man is therefore
embraced in that of competition. — Henry C. Carey.
CHAPTER I.
THE farmer's COTEMPORARIES.
It is necessary to keep the fact well in view, that there
are those cotemporary with the farmer who are prosper-
ing, or who are gathering to themselves wealth and the
various powers which abundance yields.
In a former chapter it was shown that relatively the
other great classes in the aggregate were leaving the
farmer far behind in the race for wealth, but nothing
was done to show the position of other special industries.
Some industries in America, like that of agriculture,
are in a depressed, if not a ruinous, condition. Shipping
is prosperous in some countries, but going to ruin in
America. This is admitted on all sides, and will require
little verification.
Manufacturing stands out prominently as of the utmost
importance in almost every dissertation on the industrial
progress of America. It certainly occupies a large place
in giving employment to labor, in the production of
wealth, and to development of various kinds.
Its real magnitude, as well as the importance which
the prevailing thought and political policies of the time
evidently tender it, as compared with their treatment of
agriculture, makes its consideration one of great moment
in the discussion we have entered upon.
67
68 AMERICAN FARMS.
By the United States census reports of 1880 we find
that the capital engaged in mining, mechanics, manufac-
turing, and in the production of petroleum in the Union,
amounted to $2,790,000,000, employing 22 per cent, of
the industrial population, or 3,838,112 persons, who
threw on the market that year a production valued at
$5,679,854,599. It is estimated, that of this amount,
$3,394,000,000 went into it in the shape of raw material,
which would leave $2,285,854,599 to represent the net
production for the year, or $595 for each person engaged.
Employed in agricultural pursuits were 7,670,493 indi-
viduals, or 44 per cent, of the total industrial population,
with a capital of $12,602,000,000, whose products — not
including increase in value of farm stock — amounted to
only $2,213,402,564.
A more comprehensive estimate made by Mr. J. R.
Dodge, Statistician of the Department of Agriculture,
gave $3,600,000,000 as the total value of the products of
agriculture for the census year ; which amount includes
an allowance of $1,000,000,000 for home consumption,
giving $473 for each. The farmers' outlay for seeds and
other articles consumed in procuring a crop (to say
nothing of taxes, insurance, etc.), would average not
much less than $100, leaving the average farmers of
America (including farm laborers) a net income $220 less
than the average manufacturer. It is claimed that farm-
ers have been paying as high wages to labor as have
been paid by manufacturers, and especially is this the
case when compared with the wages paid by the great
cotton and iron industries. Then the farmer, with his
farm, his capital, and his labor, is receiving a share in the
national income reduced in exchange value to very small
proportions compared with the manufacturer. Thus we
THE FARMER'S COTEMPOR ARIES. 69
find that though the farmers are by far the most impor-
tant class in numbers, they are of very much less impor-
tance in regard to the exchange value of their productions.
Mr. Andrew Carnegie states that "in manufacturing,
the annual product of each operative has advanced in value
from $1,100 in 1850 to $2,015 ^^ 1880." * The increase to
agriculture shows really no advance compared with this.
From a computation of that reliable statistician Mr. M.
G. Mulhall, we find that the per capita valuation of the
wealth of the United States, exclusive of agricultural
wealth, rose from $250 in i860 to $502 in 1880, or an
increase of slightly over 100 per cent. Surely this does
not seem much like decadence.
On the other hand, the value of the agricultural wealth
only increased by 22.5 per cent., or from $280 to $343
per inhabitant in the twenty years.
Looking to the State of Massachusetts, of which the
serious decadence of agriculture is admitted or confirmed
by ''official documents," we find that from the year i860
to 1880, the per capita valuation of property in this
State rose from $662 to $1,568. Here we find agriculture,
in close proximity to largest consuming markets for the
productions of agriculture, absolutely falling behind,
while others are rapidly advancing.
At this very time (1889), when so much is said about
the decay of the farm interests of this State, reports come
to us of enormous profits to many other industrial enter-
prises within its borders during the past year (1888). I
will name those of one city. Fall River, in the cotton
manufacturing industry.
Four mills, with a capital of $2,500,000, declared earn-
ings of $663,000, or 26 per cent, upon their capital.
' " Triumphant Democracy."
70 AMERICAN FARMS.
The Amoskeag Cotton Company is reported to have
cleared in the past year (1888) $425,000. It paid a
dividend of 25 per cent., and put 4 per cent, by for
surplus.
Many branches of commerce and manufacturing in
this old State are, no doubt suffering from a lop-sided
trade, owing to the restrictive character of the fiscal pol-
icy of the Union, but capital, even in this State, is gath-
ering more and more power.
In the Empire State, agricultural property declines ;
but here we find that the average wealth of some classes
must be increasing at a very rapid rate. The per capita
valuation of property in this State was only $475 in i860 ;
but in 1888 it had risen to $1,499. ^^ 1^9° i* will not
be less than $2,000.
Going farther, to the State of Ohio, of which it has
been said one half of the whole assessed value of the
farm lands is covered by mortgages, the per capita valu-
ation of property rose from $510 in i860 to $1,032
in 1880.
In the city of Cleveland, of this State, is the great
Rolling-Mill Company, owned by the three Chisholms,
of which Mr. Erastus Wiman remarked in his speech at
Dufferin Lake in Ontario in July of 1887 : " The products
of this firm last year reached the enormous sum of $12,-
000,000. These are some of the items which comprise
this aggregate :
100,000 tons of steel rails $3,600,000
150,000 tons of pig-iron 3,000,000
50,000 tons merchants' steel boiler-plate
and sheets 2,750,000
40,000 tons wire 2,400,000
THE FARMER'S COTEMPOP ARIES. /I
" With an increased output and an advance in the prices
their business this year will probably reach the high fig-
ure of ^15,000,000, a sum equal to the whole earnings of
the Grand Trunk Railway, a corporation of 40,000 share-
holders, and at least 50 per cent, more than the whole
earnings of the whole Canada Pacific Railway, to which
you (in Canada) have donated $100,000,000. All this
was the growth of a little more than twenty years. . . .
Think of the business of this one firm of American-Ca-
nadians nearly equalling the aggregate earnings of your
two great systems of railways, whose combined capital
reaches away up beyond ^300,000,000."
Going south, to the State of Pennsylvania, where the
greatest iron and coal industries of the Union are located,
the farmers are not making any headway toward increas-
ing their stores of wealth. At the same time the aggre-
gate wealth of this State is increasing with wonderful
rapidity. In i860 the whole wealth of Pennsylvania was
estimated at $1,416,510,818. Not a paltry amount by
any means, but small compared with the wealth of 1880
— $5,393,000,000 ; rising from a per capita valuation of
$487 in i860 to $1,259 in 1880.
Here we find among other successful enterprises the
famed Edgar Thompson Works, of whose proprietor —
Mr. Andrew Carnegie, — Mr. Wiman at Dufferin Lake,
made this remark : " A little over twenty years ago, they
(Andrew Carnegie and brother) went into the iron busi-
ness. One of the two brothers recently died, and the
other, Andrew Carnegie, now employs more than 7,000
men, and his business will this year very nearly equal the
combined earnings of both your combined Grand Trunk
and Canadian Pacific Railway systems."
Certainly " times " cannot bear hard on one who can
J 2 AMERICAN FARMS.
boast of a yearly net income of $1,250,000, and who,
besides supporting an establishment in America, has his
castle in Scotland for a summer retreat.
The Standard Oil monopoly, which started not many
years ago with a capital of $1,500,000, and is now said
to be declaring dividends on $90,000,000, has made
this vast fortune, and the fine dividends which it has
paid to its lucky stockholders, out of the control of an
article almost wholly consumed by the rural populations.
This concern is now able to dictate State and national
legislation and the management of most important rail-
way systems. It is absorbing the oil lands of Ohio, and
will soon have the whole oil business of North America
under its own management. This great monopoly has
evidently been able to bear up against troubles of all kinds.
As to Michigan, of which official reports prove the
serious nature of the troubles under which its farmers
labor, the per capita value of property rose from $343 in
i860, to $837 in 1880. Of the iron industries of this
State Mr. Wiman says :
" Recall the isolation, the barrenness of Canadian iron
regions, and contrast them with the activity of the upper
peninsula of Michigan, whose total money value of out-
put in 1883 was over $24,000,000 ! Listen to the story
of one or two mines as told in the following extract from
a report on the Gogebic region, Michigan, a State just
next door to Canada :
" ' The Menominee Mining Company was organized ten
years ago on the modest capital of $100,000, which, not-
withstanding the extent of its operations, which cover
the working of six mines, has never been increased.
The company has already paid to its stockholders
$6,500,000. So great is the appreciation of its shares,
TflF. FARMER'S COTEMPOKARIES. y^
that a single one has sold as high as $6,750 upon a par
of $100! The total output of its mines for the seven
years up to 1883 was 1,569,929 tons. Take, for example,
a stockholder in the Republic Company who bought his
shares when they were at their lowest, and held them.
He may have purchased the original stock at $12, on a
par of $25, and possibly lower. From that point it rose
to ^325- Then the capital was increased from $500,000
to $2,400,000, and the stock rose as high as $67, or $335
a share for the whole stock. This profit does not take
into account the enormous dividends that were being
paid in the meantime, frequently more than 100 per
cent. The stock of the Cleveland Company has sold as
low as $6 or $7. From these figures it advanced to about
$250. The company made an increase of capital similar
to the Republic's, and its new shares sold as high as $40
and as low as $14 ; its present price is about $20. But
aside from the fluctuations of market the steady holders
of Cleveland liave enjoyed much larger returns than they
could get out of any other security. During the last six
years this company has paid two dividends of 80 per
cent, and one of 120 per cent. The Lake Superior Com-
pany is another mine that has made its stockholders rich.
The capital of the company, originally half a million,
was increased to $1,500,000. The quotation of the new
stock has ranged from %2>2> to $80. The old sold as
high as $400, we believe. The Lake Superior is one of
the big dividend payers, and the steady holders have
been unable to get Aladdin's lamp out of their minds ! ' •"
The Calumet Hecla Copper Company, started a few
years ago with a capital of $1,200,000, has paid dividends
amounting to $20,000,000, and still holds a property
valued at $29,000,000.
4
74 AMERICAN FARMS.
The Iron Age, of New York, a well-informed authority,
in its issue of August 4, 1887, gave some information of
the doings of one huge enterprise. It said : " An estab-
lishment which can show gross earnings amounting to
over $14,000,000 in twelve months as the result of manu-
facturing operations exclusively, is certainly entitled to
be called great. This is the showing made to the stock-
holders of the North Chicago Rolling-Mill Company at
their annual meeting, which was held in Chicago on the
25th ult."
We are aware that figures are given to show that the
money made in great enterprises does not, as a rule, stay
by the families of those who engage in them ; but the
fact remains that every year a larger proportion of the
national income finds its way to this class than ever be-
fore ; while it finds a larger proportion of the farmers
facing financial ruin than ever before.
Manufactures may not always pay large dividends,
especially when forced into existence where not required,
or in localities not suited to their development, or when
they have been outdone by new rivals with superior ad-
vantages. The question for the farmer's consideration
is : Are not these losses, of whatever nature they may be,
frequently thrown on the farmer ; and are not these
manufacturers, whether they succeed or fail, given a
chance to enjoy large incomes and the luxuries of life
for at least a time, while the farmer must be satisfied
with a narrow income and the satisfaction of only the
most ordinary wants ? Situated in one of the principal
towns of New England is a large manufactory, producing
an article used almost wholly by the farmers, which pays
only a trifling interest to the shareholders. Yet by
having a controlling interest, one family has been en-
THE FARMER'^ COTEMPORARIES. 75
abled to draw in salaries from the concern at times the
fine sum of $100,000 annually. Such cases are not at all
infrequent under the present regime.
Of millionaire concerns, New York boasts of having
its hundreds, and Montreal its fifties. The Senate of
the United States has its twenty millionaires. How
many of these are farmers ?
Mr. Thomas G. Shearman, the publicist and statistician,
states in The Forum, for November, 1889, that there
are seventy persons in the United States whose average
wealth is over 1137,500,000, amounting in the aggregate
to $2,700,000,000. The wealth of J. J. Astor is esti-
mated at $150,000,000 ; Gould, Stanford, Rockefeller
and two Vanderbilts are rated at $100,000,000 each ; two
at $70,000,000 each, seven at $40,000,000 each. Then
there are four at $35,000,000, thirteen at $30,000,000,
ten at $25,000,000, four at $22,500,000, fifteen at
$20,000,000, while there are fifty others who are worth
$10,000,000, each. These are probably overestimated,
but enough is known to establish the fact that the wealth
of the United States in the hands of some 250,000 of its
people is enormous, whereas the average farmer's wealth
is less than it was twenty years ago.
However, in order to reduce this comparison to the
most severe test, we must show the position of the
proprietor farmer as compared with the ordinary wage
earner. Mr. Edward Atkinson's ' elaborate statistics go
to show that the average wages of the laboring class in
the United States is about $400 a year, and of the total
of the agricultural class $419. He states that "the
average farmer can be assumed to earn but a moderate
sum above that of the farm laborer."
' " Distribution of Products."
^6 AMERICAN TARMS.
I have averaged the farmer's income at $473 ; and I
place the wage earner's income at not less than $350,
$50 less than Mr. Atkinson, in order to be within safe
bounds. Out of the $473, the farmer must meet cost of
production, wear of machinery, loss of stock, pay in-
surance, and pay taxes ; all of which would amount to
not less than an average of $173. This would leave the
farmer $300 for living, savings, and interest on his
investment.
The average farmer's property in the United States,
according to census statistics, is $3,019 value. I contend
that at least $2,000 of this should be subject to a charge
of interest at the rate of 6 per cent, in our calculation.
This will leave the farmer $180 for support of family and
savings, or $170 less than the wage earner.'
" The farm does not pay if it merely affords a living
and prevents the accumulation of debt. It may do more
than this — it may even decrease debt and add to the
value of stock and improvements — and yet not pay. It
being assumed that the labor and superintendence of the
owner is equal in value to the support of the family, then
the net accumulations of the year must be equal to the
legal interest upon the whole capital invested, or the
farm does not pay. This is a simple method of farm
book-keeping, and will always answer the question ; yet
too many farmers will shrink from applying the test." "
' It is well to note that official reports, now coming in, go to show
that the price of labor is gradually increasing, while the returns to
agriculture are diminishing. While the wealth of the agriculturists
decreased by $890 per farm, the per capita increase of the property of
the Union was $566, though the increase in number of those who en-
tered occupations other than agricultural, owning nothing, was quite
as great as those who had swelled the numbers of the agriculturists.
^ American Agriculturist, September, 1889.
THE FARMER'S COTEMPORARIES. 'JJ
The Hon. Geo. B. Loring gives some statistics recently
in tTie North Aitierican Review ' to prove the prosperity
of agriculture. I propose analyzing those referring to this
question as it relates to Massachusetts, which he assures
his readers " is a good illustration of the type of Ameri-
can agriculture which increases year by year, and which
affords constant labor, and consequently good returns to
the farmer." Mr. Loring says that the aggregate value
of the agricultural products of the State is $47,756,033 ;
that the total agricultural property of the State is valued
at $215,230,550 ; that his estimate gives to each person
employed in farming about $620 annually, out of which
must come the expense oS producing and selling the
product — the total wages paid annually being $6,390,-
252.
If we assume that the average farm proprietor of
Massachusetts is receiving $700 (an outside figure), and
out of which deduct $200 for insurance, taxes, repairs,
loss of stock, seeds, and fertilizers, we have $500 left.
Out of this $500 we have to take, at least, $150 for wages.
This would leave $350 for the farmer, the return of an
ordinary wage earner, with not a cent for interest on his
investment. If the farmer charge this interest, say $150,
he would have only $200 for his family to live upon.
In the paragraph wherein Mr. Loring refers to the
above matter, he states that the income of the manufac-
turing operatives in Massachusetts averages $364. He
has this without a cent risked in the business which em-
ploys him. Surely if the laborers of America have cause
to make loud and bitter complaints of the inequality
under which they labor, the farm proprietors have much
more.
' March, 1889.
CHAPTER 11.
COMPETITION.
Taking a wide survey of the subject, we can consis-
tently say that a severe competition from even the most
distant producing countries is springing up to claim the
farmer's serious attention. The wheat fields of the great
American prairies have to contend for the markets of
the United Kingdom, not only against India and the
continent of Europe, but the Argentine Republic is be-
coming a formidable rival. India is devoting each new
year more than formerly to the production of this great
staple. The fourteen thousand miles of railway now
constructed in that country tap some of the finest wheat
lands of the world, and with plenty of cheap labor to
work them.
Competition all around, and the low rates of trans-
portation over the railways of America as well as in
other countries, have brought down the price of wheat
in the London market, during the last ten years, lower
than ever before. During the past five years the average
price at Mark Lane has been thirty-five shillings per
quarter ; during the decade 1860-70 it averaged fifty-one
shillings ; in 1868, sixty-three shillings.
The cattle and meat exports are also not without
rivals. Australia and South America are expanding
this trade remarkably. Meats are now sent to the mar-
78
COMPETITIOiY.
79
kets of Great Britain in steamers with vast refrigerators
in which these meats are safely carried. One establish-
ment on the Plata River is equipped with the necessary-
facilities for preparing and shipping five hundred car-
cases yearly.
Australia takes the lead in exports of mutton, and is
likely still to do so, because of its great natural advan-
tages and its shipping facilities.
The fiscal policy of the United States has made it
easy for such European countries as France and Ger-
many to find plausible excuse for shutting out American
food products. The pork industries, in an especial
manner, have suffered from this retaliation.
Even for the products of the dairy, England is not
by any means dependent upon the farmers of America.
Danish and Irish butter are now preferred in that
country.
In fact, England is not so absolutely dependent upon
outside countries as many suppose. She has large areas
uncultivated, which, were they cultivated, would increase
her food supply very much.
It is possible that with her lands all carefully culti-
vated, the present yield might be doubled, an amount
which would more than feed the people. In 1880,
according to Sir James Caird, a most reliable authority,
her consumption of corn and vegetable products was
of the value of ^386,637,500, of which her own soil
contributed ^260,737,500.
These economic facts, apparent to the observing
citizen, are of great practical importance to the food
exporter. They evidently point to the conclusion that
competition is likely to be even more severe in the
future than in the past, and should be met by the
8o AMERICAN FARMS.
American agriculturists if they would have their pro-
ductions find customers in foreign marts. No possible
home policy can shut off this competition.
Neither is the outlook at home any more cheering.
The small or least favored grain producers, who have
been unable to change their labors to other directions,
are being borne down by the overwhelming odds pitted
against them. The majority of the great "bonanza
farms," from which the severe competition comes, have,
in many cases, cost the owners comparatively but a trifle,
while little outlay is required for fertilizers. Further-
more, the most effective machinery to be procured is
being employed to turn these unequalled natural re-
sources into food products.
Of this, says a noted American economist ' : '* A
huge abundance therefore ensues from the least amount
of human labor. On some of the fattest land of the
West, the measure of the product of one man, working
the best machinery with a pair of horses, has reached
one hundred tons of corn in a single season. The aim of
some of the great ' bonanza farms ' of Dakota has been
to apply machinery so effectually that the cultivation of
one full section, or six hundred and forty acres, shall
represent one year's work of only one man. This has
not yet been reached, but so far as the production of
the grain of wheat is concerned, one man's work will
now give one thousand persons enough for a barrel of
flour a year, which is the average ration."
On the great farms of the West ploughing is per-
formed by immense double-gang ploughs — too expensive
and ponderous for use on the small farms. Each
plough is drawn by four horses, the ploughman riding
1 Mr. Edward Atkinson,
COMPETITION. 8 1
upon it as it moves along, cutting two furrows of
fourteen inches wide. When it is considered that not
infrequently four of these four-horse teams, one after
the other, are seen in the same field, cutting furrows
miles in length, an idea is gained of what is being
done in the West by machinery and a very limited
amount of human labor. One man, who does the har-
rowing, drives four horses attached to a gang of four
harrows, covering a width of twenty-four feet. The
seed is sown by broadcast seeders, planting seed over a
width of sixteen feet, and drawn by four horses. To
gather the harvest self-binding reapers, drawn by three
horses, are also managed by one man.
Of the great reapers one farm in Dakota operates
sixty-five. It is said that " Dr. Glen's forty-five thou-
sand acres of wheat in California in 1880 were gathered
by machines, each of which cut, threshed, winnowed,
and bagged, sixty acres of wheat in a day."
The threshing and cleaning are mostly done by steam
power in the field, and the grain is frequently hauled in
bulk to the railway stations to be deposited in elevators
or warehouses.
Mr. Dalrymple's hundred square miles of wheat are
cultivated and gathered with machines and a troop of
four hundred farm servants. Mr. Andrew Carnegie, in
referring to this in his " Triumphant Democracy," gives his
opinion that it would require five thousand men in the
ordinary way of the East to accomplish the same result.
As conditions exist it seems practically impossible for
small farmers to compete with farming conducted on
such a stupendous scale as that on the great farms of
the West.
At home, the broad ranches of Texas, Kansas, and
4*
82 AMERICAN FARMS.
Other States of the West, are providing the meat markets
of the old States of the East, even to the Pine Tree
State and the Maritime Provinces.
The numerous railways traversing the continent have
brought the vast prairies practically alongside the East-
ern consumers. In 1865, it cost from three to four
cents a ton per mile, to convey freight to the Atlantic
seaboard. It is now done for three fourths of a cent.
" Cornelius Vanderbilt consolidated and perfected
the railroad service in such a way that a year's supply of
meat and bread can be moved one thousand miles, from
the Western prairies to the Eastern workshops, at the
measure of the cost of a single day's wages of the
mechanic or artisan in Massachusetts, — that is to say, if
the mechanic or artisan of the East will give up one
holiday in a vear, he removes one thousand miles of
distance bet\veen himself and the main source of his
supply of necessary food." '
' Edward Atkinson, " Distribution of Products," p. 38.
The following is from the Halifax Morfiing Herald, Saturday, No-
vember 23, 1889, entitled " Impoverished Farmers " :
" In recent issues the Herald has called attention to a great body
of evidence furnished by state and municipal reports, newspaper
articles, public addresses, etc., all of which serve to show that the
farmers of the United States, both in New England and in the States
farther west, are, relatively speaking, in a most deplorable condition.
Large numbers of deserted farms are in vain offered for sale in New
England, while others, which were a few years ago in excellent con-
dition and free of debt, are now placed under the hammer of the
auctioneer to pay the mortgages that have been placed upon them.
In the West the farmers are endeavoring as best they can to bear up
under their almost overwhelming burden of indebtedness, living
largely on their capital-outlay, hoping against hope for better times in
the near future. The Bcuikers' Magazine for November, in ' A Re-
view of Finance and Business,' shows very clearly that the impov-
COMPETITION. 83
HOME MARKET.
Compare the position of the different localities in
America, as regards the production of grain and live-
stock fifty years ago, with the present, and it will be
found that, at that time, the farmers had the advantage
of a home market, while to-day no locality can boast of
being practically a home market. During the past half-
century the increase of the town and city populations of
Massachusetts has been upwards of 100 per cent., and
the increase of the aggregate wealth over 200 per cent.,
while during the same period the increase in the pro-
duction of live-stock has been but a trifle, and an actual
decline of over 2t^ per cent, has come about in the
production of grain.
erished condition of United States farmers is due to a limited demand
for their products, and in a consequent decline of prices which does
not return him sufficient to pay for his seed and labor. We quote :
" ' Instead of keeping up her early purchases of our new crop,
which were quite free in August, to bridge over the gap between her
{i. e., England) old and new crops, she has taken less and less as we
have gone into the new-crop year. Not only this, but it has been in
the face of steadily declining prices under an unusually heavy move-
ment of the crop, which has been necessitated by the impoverished
condition of American farmers. This has been true, not only of
wheat, but of every thing the farmer has raised, until prices have
reached a point in remote sections which hardly pay for hauling his
crops to market after being harvested. This is especially true of
corn, oats, and potatoes in the far West, where much of the crops
still lie on the ground unhoused, as farmers are too poor to buy the
lumber to crib their grain. Potatoes, which rotted so badly in the
East, owing to the wet autumn, seemed to have escaped in the West,
where they have been selling by the car-load at 20 cents a bushel
delivered in Chicago. Oats are selling there at 17 to 18 cents ; corn,
30 to 31 cents. How much is left the unfortunate farmer, after pay-
ing even the reduced rates of transportation the railways were com-
84 AMERICAN FARMS.
THE FRUIT PROBLEM.
As the great grain fields of the West have poured
their products into every market at home, the small
grain areas of the past have been converted into
orchards and vegetable plots ; and now there is not
only excessive production in cereals, but also in all
other field productions. Only a few months ago (June,
1888), fifteen to twenty thousand crates of fruit and
vegetables, " in good condition," were destroyed in New
York Harbor to relieve an overstocked market. Large
portions of the South, such as the country around Norfolk,
Virginia, have recently become devoted to fruit and vege-
table culture for Northern consumption. This production
will, do doubt, be vastly increased in the near future, if
the new cotton-picking machines, now under contem-
plation, drive the negroes from the industry of cotton-
picking, which has given so many of them employment
in the past.
pelled to make in order to get the farmers to move their crops at all,
can easily be figured. He is not getting enough to pay for his seed
and his labor, and the result is seen in the wholesale default in inter-
est, not only on farm mortgages, but on farm implements and live-
stock, which are being foreclosed, and the producers of our abundant
harvests are left homeless and penniless in an unusually large number
of cases to face the inclemency of the winter. As a consequence there
is more or less uprising of the farming communities of the far West
against the demands of the Eastern loan companies, which have not
only kept up the old rates of interest, but in some cases have in-
creased them. Cases have come to public notice where 5 per cent,
per month is charged upon cattle mortgages. Between the exporters,
who refuse to take their crops, except of corn, even at these ruinous
prices, and the Eastern and local money-lenders, the farmers of the
country are being ground between the upper and neither millstone,
instead of their harvests, which are too abundant to house and too
cheap to market,' "
COMPE TI TION. 8 5
It certainly seems that in scarcely any line has there
been a more rapid increase of competition than in that of
fruit-raising. In 1S59 the value of the production of the
orchards of the United States was $19,991,885 ; in 1879 it
rose to $50,876,154, or an increase of 154 per cent. Mr.
Loring now estimates, that by adding all the fruits sold
in small cities and villages, and those consumed on the
farms enumerated, " the annual value of the fruits of the
United States would not fall much below $200,000,000."
It must also be remembered that at no former period
in the history of America has there been a more rapid
increase in the area of new orchards than during the last
ten years.
In Canada, in recent years, pomology has become the
most popular science of husbandry. Investments in fruit
culture are made by both the practical farmer, the theo-
rist, and the speculator. And now, as with their contem-
poraries, the orchardists of Canada have to deal with the
question of competition in a way not dreamed of twenty
years ago, except, perhaps, by the very observing publi-
cist or economist. In 1871 the crop of apples in Ontario
was estimated at 2,000,000 of bushels ; seventeen years
later, 1888, at 20,000,000 of bushels, an increase of over
900 per cent., though the population of the Dominion had
not increased 30 per cent.
The apple production of the Annapolis valley in the
year 1871 was estimated at 45,000 barrels ; in 1888, at
300,000 barrels, — an increase of 566 per cent. In 187 1,
80 per cent, of the standard varieties were marketed at
home ; at present 50 per cent, of the yield would glut the
home market even in a " short-crop " season. It is gener-
ally estimated that when the young orchards already
planted get into bearing — or ten years hence — the pro-
duction of the valley will be over a million of barrels, or
86 AMERICAN FARMS.
sufficient to supply a population greater than the whole
of the Maritime Provinces would contain, seventy-five
years hence, at the present rate of increase.
It seems evident that, to carry on this industry as the
orchardists of America have set out, foreign markets, and
especially the markets of Great Britain, must be secured
in the face of competition growing sharper year by year.
Australia all at once threatens to become a formidable
competitor for the spring markets of London. It is a
mistake to suppose that this new rival is at a disadvantage
as regards freights ; for the odds are the other way. The
commerce carried on between Australia and Great Britain
is seven times as much per capita to Australia as that
between America and Great Britain is to America.
Apple producers and shippers cannot dictate the
prices, neither at home nor abroad ; while the foreign
market decides the prices which may be obtained in the
home market. In former times, a local short crop meant
high prices in the home market. It was purely a local
question. Now, in many cases in the northeastern part
of America, the production in most years being greater
than consumption, the prices must be fixed in the open
markets of the world.
This (1889) is called an unusually " short apple-crop
year " everywhere, and yet prices are not sufficiently high
in our domestic markets to make the returns of the aver-
age tree any thing like what it would have been twenty
years ago under similar circumstances as to its yield.
COMPETITION BETWEEN THE UPPER AND LOWER
PROVINCES.
Ontario and the Western provinces, with their immense
tracts of fertile prairie lands, and their railway system
opening these lands up to cultivators even faster than
COMPETITION. 87
they can be induced to occupy them, are unequalled for
competitive farming. The production of cereals is in-
creasing by leaps and bounds, and the lands of the older
provinces are rapidly giving up the contest in this branch
of husbandry.
Manitoba now bids fair to become the banner potato-
producing province. The Canada Pacific Railway's
reports state that the yield, per acre, runs up from 300 to
800 bushels. The Maritime Provinces, which have
hitherto borne the palm in the production of this tuber,
fall far behind in their yield per acre, 200 bushels now
being considered a good average crop. The surplus yield
of potatoes in Manitoba, in 1888, was estimated at two
millions of bushels.
In 1864, twenty-five years ago, the Upper Provinces sent
to Nova Scotia beef, pork, hams, butter, lard, and cheese to
the trifling amount of $8,269. This was at a time when
trade was perfectly free of tariff restrictions. Since the
operation of the railways between these provinces, the
shipments of farm produce from the Upper Provinces to
Nova Scotia have developed to about $100,000 yearly.'
According to Mr. A. C. Fairweather, an authority on
this subject, $105,000 in cheese, cured meats, and butter
alone, were sent from the Upper to the Maritime
Provinces in 1884.
THE BIG FISH CONSUME THE LITTLE.
The principle of the big fish consuming the little is
well exemplified in many of the anomalies connected
with the subject of the present competition in husbandry.
Some great central interests get all the advantages in re-
gard to freights, and others get other favors. The fruit
region of Nova Scotia is eight hundred miles nearer to
' Including grain and flour, aliout !|;2, 500,000.
88 AMERICAN FARMS.
London than the fruit districts of Ontario ; but it costs
more to put apples into the London market from the
former than from the latter. These centralizing influ-
ences gain more strength every day.
But perhaps the most trying feature of our develop-
ment is the competition growing up between individual
operators, the big and the little. How is the small or-
chardist to live, who, for instance, is depending chiefly
upon his crop of two hundred barrels of apples, in com-
peting with the capitalist merchant, lawyer, or banker,
as great orchardists, who are satisfied with a small in-
terest on their investments.
There are orchards in America which now turn out
from twenty-five to forty thousand bushels of apples.
Three hundred acres is the average of a fair-sized or-
chard in some parts of the United States, and there are
orchards in Canada coming into bearing, which are ex-
pected soon to turn out their five to ten thousand
barrels annually.
The small farmers, in competing with their bonanza
competitors, must support families and provide them
with the necessaries of life through the whole year. The
large capitalist operator needs to the amount produced,
but a fraction of hired help, and needs it but a short
period in each year.
But this is not all. The odds are entirely in favor of
the large operator every time an article is purchased
for use upon the farm. Special rates are always for
the capitalist's benefit in the commercial world. Thus,
we are forced to the conviction, that unlimited com-
petition, bearing on the typical American farmer, is a
condition which should be regarded as one of utmost
significance.
COMPE TI TION. 89
Every advantage gained in cost of production by the
farmer, in the way of improved implements of husband-
ry, in transportation, or through abundant harvests, etc.,
becomes, not mediately, but immediately, fused through
society, for its benefit. On the other hand, though the
cost of fabrication is being continually lessened, its
prices greatly lowered to consumers, and tne compara-
tive capacity for its expansion vastly increased, these
benefits do not become entirely or immediately fused
through society, but sufficient margin remains in the
hands of the producers of such fabrications to unduly
enrich them. How this advantage is secured to the lat-
ter, will be shown in chapters which follow.
CHAPTER III.
BETWEEN THE UPPER AND NETHER MILLSTONES.
Whatever be the cause of the troubles to agriculture,
the query, as to why contemporaneous industries are not
also in the same case, must now be met.
It is not the result of an unavoidable evolution in the
conditions of society which must close in upon the agri-
culturists sooner or later everywhere, and in all ages,
to overthrow them.
No, the condition is not natural, it is most decidedly
abnormal. The world is governed in its customs, in its
sentiments, in its politics, and in its laws, by a false
political economy. We magnify the importance of
nearly every thing but agriculture, and it is made to
bear all kinds of loads that other industries may develop
and be made prosperous, until agriculture is crushed
beneath the weight ; and government by unjust laws is
the chief medium through which this evil is brought
about.
The weight of a ponderous governmental machinery
as an outcome of endless law-making, and the granting
of privileges to all others at the expense of agriculture,
have put the farmers of America between the upper and
nether millstones. On the upper stone is the crushing
weight of a vicious system of taxation — the usurer, the
monopolist, and combines of all kinds pressing upon it,
90
THE UPPER AND NETHER MILLSTONES. 9 1
while the nether stone stands firm. The first is governed
by artificial laws ; the other by natural laws, though natural
laws sadly imposed upon ; one by impositions, injustices,
and duplicity, the other by the stern logic of facts.
The price of the farmer's productions is, as we have
seen in a former chapter, governed by a world-wide
competition, being neither protected by national boun-
daries nor by special combinations. This is the natural,
the normal condition. On the other hand, the prices
which the farmer is obliged to pay for the productions
and the services of others are inflated, through the re-
sult of artificial barriers, against all competition from
production outside the limits of the nation, and by com-
binations within. This is the unnatural, the abnormal
condition.
With such as the manufacturer, the conditions are
exactly reversed. As producers, the results of their
labors are inflated in exchange value by protection ;
whereas, as consumers of farm produce, they have but
to pay competition prices. The system of extreme in-
direct taxation, as operated in America, gives the great
manufacturing industries the power to relieve themselves,
however much they may be pressed upon. This is done
by forcing unnatural terms upon such as the farmer.
Whatever the extortion which one manufacturer may
practise upon another in the price he demands for his
productions, that other finds relief through an equivalent
exaction in return ; but the farmer is victimized by both,
and he does not, or cannot, retaliate.
The trades combine one against another, and both
against the farmer ; and he does not, or cannot, retaliate.
Government, in its combination with capital, uses its
power against such as the farmer ; and nothing is done,
or can be done, by retaliation.
92 AMERICAN FARMS.
It is these unnatural conditions which are a chief
cause of the relative decline of the farmer's share in the
national income ; which are causing the rapid increase of
our tenanted and mortgaged farms ; which make the
manufacturers and other combiners wealthy, and the
farmers comparatively poor ; which cause the fierceness
of competition to appear so much more severe in agri-
culture than in other occupations ; which do much to
dishearten our rural denizens and make them appear
unequal to the struggle of life ; which deprive our best
citizens of the pleasurable enjoyment and profiting con-
sumption of their just and natural share in the results of
the progress of the age.
American shipping engaged in foreign trade is gov-
erned by natural laws, the normal condition, on the one
hand, and, like agriculture, is crushed by vicious arti-
ficial laws on the other, and is being exterminated.
When these obstacles were taken from this industry by
England's free-trade policy, English shipping received
new life.
From doing but 26 per cent, of the world's ocean
carrying-trade at the time of the removal of duties, she
now does over 50 per cent. Whereas, in the United States,
burdens have been laid upon shipping until United
States ships have been pretty nearly driven from the
seas. Thirty-five years ago the United States had five
million tons of ships sailing the oceans ; they now have
less than one million'.
' It is frequently contended that it is England's superior advan-
tages for building iron steamships that gives her the chance to control
the world's carrying-trade. We ask : Did she build all the ships
she owned during the first twenty-five years after the repeal of ob-
structions to ship-building and ship-owning ? Why cannot America
buy, sail, and repair English ships, as England has done in the past
with American, and prospered Ijy so doing?
THE UPPER AND NETHER MILLSTONES. 93
While natural conditions show the immense importance
of these great mediums of wealth and general well-being,
artificial conditions throttle them.
Others are empowered to dictate prices to the farmer,
but who ever thinks of him taking the advantages which
others may take, — for instance, pile up his grain from
season to season, until he can sell at his own price ?
Does he store away, in times of abundance, his butter,
his cheese, etc., knowing that government will help him
out, at whatever price he and his neighbors decide to
ask ? Can the farmers — as an able writer suggests —
meet at hotels, and over their wine and cigars agree as
to what the price of their productions shall be, and the
public be obliged to submit to it ?
The manufacturer may run one engine or more, or
may shut down as many days in the week as he likes.
Legislation is made to insure him against loss, and the
consumers of his productions are obliged to furnish the
means.
We are governed by a political economy which takes
from the one class upon which our greatest prosperity
depends, that another may be empowered to crush it ;
national policies, which are based on laws, the actions of
which are to victimize the worthy, for the promotion of
that which in its effects is unworthy ; which erects a
tower, to finally overthrow the whole structure.
CHAPTER IV.
PROTECTION A DEADLY ENEMY TO THE FARMERS
OF AMERICA.
In fair New England, among the great manufacturers,
pampered and protected for generations ; on the broad
prairies of the West ; down the valley of the Mississippi,
unequalled for its fertility ; in favored Ontario, and in
the provinces by the sea, the farmers have a common
cause in resisting the great foes which threaten their
annihilation. To this end, it is absolutely necessary
that their foes be well known, and that their modes of
operation be clearly understood.
It is perfectly familiar to the tariff student, that almost
every thing the farmers require as consumers is taxed
in America to near the utmost limit. But many protec-
tionists maintain that the prices of goods are not higher
on account of indirect taxes levied on them. This latter
claim is, of course, denied by the state socialist laborer,
who contends that the Manchester free-trade theories
threaten to bring about a competition that would reduce
the price of goods and the price of labor to a shadow.
The socialists are right, as a rule, in their contention
that free competition — that is to say, competition where
monopoly controls no part of production — causes a con-
stant lowering of the cost and price in exchange of
products, but not that through this laborers would be
injured.
94
PROTECTION A DEADLY ENEMY. 95
Free competition permits the most abtindant and per-
fect production of goods necessary for man's wants,
with the least possible friction. The supplying of these
wants in the highest possible degree — that is to say, to
gain the most liberal consumption — is the end or aim of
all production. Hence, freedom in competition implies
increased consumption. Where this freedom is universal,
and the exchange of services — that is to say, of the
results of labor — is not obstructed, all should gain a
benefit.
Contrariwise, where services or goods made dearer by
friction or needless labor or unnatural conditions, on
the one hand, are exchanged for services or goods made
cheaper by a relief from friction, on the other, their
relative conditions are then improper and burdensome
to that party who has been handicapped. And now we
return to an important point in the subject, and reaffirm
that the protective laws of America produce a friction
which causes a relative increase in the exchange value
of protected commodities.
Many illustrations may be furnished to show that a
friction, and a serious one, is placed on production by
our meddlesome laws, but a few of these will suffice.
Wood screws are protected in the United States by a
duty of 2acr per cent, on the foreign article. The wood-
screw combination is said to have paid the English
makers of screws ;!^ 25,000 yearly, to keep their goods
out of the American market. We ask : has the American
Screw Combination paid this ^25,000 out of the pockets
of its members for the mere fun of it ? Has it not been
taken from the consumers of wood screws in the prices
charged them ?
The Mills tariff bill, which was lately brought before
96 AMERICAN FARMS.
the American preople^by the then dominant party, pro-
posed to reduce the *•© per cent, protection to 35 per
cent. The manufacturers, of whom a large proportion
were supporters of the party proposing the reduction,
made such an outcry that the movement was abandoned.
They declared, that with a protection of only 35 per
cent, the business would be ruined ! What was this but
an admission from the manufacturers, either that the
manufacturers are taking more than 35 per cent, of its
protection from consumers, or that screws may be pro-
cured from other countries at 35 per cent, less than in
the United States ?
The window-glass industries of the United States have
a protection of 70 per cent. Even with this, the manu-
facturers of these goods are not satisfied, and some of
them have proposed moving to Belgium for the purpose
of manufacturing and shipping to this country in the
face of a 70 per cent. duty. Does this not indicate a
friction somewhere, and a serious impediment to the
production or procuring of these goods ?
The tack-makers of Canada have a protection equiva-
lent to 60 per cent, but these goods are coming in from
the United States at regular prices plus this 60 per
cent.; but the Canadian tack-makers, rather than lower
their prices to the price of the foreign article plus the
duty, desire more protection. This is an industry which
was established and prosperous before the high-tariff era
in Canada, and it cannot be claimed that such favors are
necessary merely " to put them on their feet."
But here we have a very telling confession from a
manufacturer himself, in a circular addressed to the
capitalists of the United States, a copy of which will be
found by referring to the Iron Age of New York, of
PROTECTION A DEADLY ENEMY. 97
August 9, 1888. The paper first gives its views of the
condition of the nail market in New York.
*' After the dulness of the past month, there is a
somewhat better movement in cut nails, and it is
observed that the proportion of steel nails called for is
growing. Inquiries are running toward heavier lots, but
prices remain unsatisfactory, concessions from $1.90 on
dock for car-load lots being made with some frequency."
And then the following :
" E. G. Scovil, of St. John, New Brunswick, has issued
a circular, from which we quote as under : ' Your atten-
tion is called to the large amount of money which can be
made by manufacturing cut nails and bar iron under
the present Canadian tariff. As a paying investment
there is nothing to equal it in the history of the Ameri-
can iron trade. Cut nails are worth, wholesale, in Ca-
nadian market, $2.60 per keg of 100 pounds for 10^., and
upwards, other sizes in proportion, or 55 cents a keg
more than in the Boston market, while scrap iron can be
landed here at $4.82 per ton less than in the United
States, this amount being the difference saved between
United States duty on scrap iron of $6.82 per ton and
Canadian duty of $2.00 per ton, viz. :
Per ton.
55 cents a keg more than in Boston market, wholesale $11 00
Saved on scrap iron 4 82
Total $15 82
the amount to credit of manufacturing here over and
above Boston wholesale prices, which leaves the manu-
facturer a good profit. The demand for bar iron is large
and increasing, and the profit of manufacturing is much
larger than in the United States. Suitable coals from
Nova Scotia can be laid down at proposed works for
5
98 AMERICAN FARMS.
$2.65 per ton. Within six months we will have the
Short Line Railway open, placing us within sixteen hours
of Montreal, which will also open that market to this
company, as finished goods can be taken to Montreal
and other western points at a much less proportionate
rate of freight than the manufacturers there pay upon
our coal, which they must have. I intend forming a
company with capital of $200,000 in 2,000 shares of $100
each, organized under the laws of New Brunswick. This
company will pay a yearly dividend of 20 per cent, on
its paid-up capital at present prices.' "
The foregoing circular was from an old respectable
manufacturer, who was quite competent to give correct
information. The price of cut nails has been upwards
of sixty cents per keg lower in price in New York than
in the Provinces for the last two years, and continues so
at the present day. The New York Iron Age of August
29, 1889, says : "We quote cut nails $1.85 to $1.90 for
car-load lots on dock for standard brands and good as-
sortments." At the same date not a keg of cut nails is
to be procured in Canada for $2.60
The Maritime Provinces consume about 100,000 kegs
of cut nails yearly, of which the farmers should take at
least one half. If they consumed 100,000 kegs during
the last two years, they have paid out for this one article
not less than $70,000 more than had they the privilege
of buying where they pleased.
To manufacture these nails it requires the service of
about sixty nail-makers for the period of two years.
Their families have consumed in the time not more than
$15,000 worth of the products of the Maritime farmers,
on which the farmers' profit would not be more than
$3,000.
PROTECTION A DEADLY ENEMY. 99
Domestic nails controlled the Canadian market before
the Canadian protective era, and the farmers under
comparatively natural conditions had nail-makers for cus-
tomers of their productions. Consequently, the farm-
ers of the Maritime Provinces are now paying — provided
they are consuming the quantity of nails they should —
$35,000 worth yearly above free-trade prices, to insure
the production of an article which does not in any
possible way return them $1,500 yearly net profit, and
which was once produced among them with but a trifling
artificial stimulant.
Between 1S80 and 1886 every farmer in the United
States, on all the nails he purchased, paid an average of
thirty-five cents per keg more than had he the privilege
of purchasing in the open markets of the world. During
this period every pound of horse-nails worn out upon the
feet of the horses of the farmers of the United States cost
these farmers four cents per pound above free-trade
prices. In fact, these articles were, at the time above-
mentioned, sent from Canada to New York for export.
But it is the tariff against the import of European
goods which causes the greatest burden to be put upon
the farmers. Every article shipped between the United
States and Canada is made dear through the practical
prohibition of many European goods. The Canadian
tariff is 25 per cent, higher against the average import
from England than the average import from the United
States. The United States tariff is 50 per cent, higher
against England than against the average import from
Canada.
Through United States customs laws about twenty
millions of dollars go to revenue from the people's
pockets in the enhanced price of imported manufactures
lOO AMERICAN FARMS.
of cotton, and about ninety millions to the home manu-
facturers. Through them at least thirty-five millions of
dollars go to revenue in the enhanced price of imports of
iron and steel goods, and one hundred millions of dollars
to the home manufacturers ; about one hundred and
fifty millions to revenue on woollen goods, and one hun-
dred to the manufacturers ; about thirty millions to
revenue on the import of glass, and fifteen to the manu-
facturers ; about five millions to revenue on the consump-
tion of salt, and two and one half millions to the domestic
producers of salt. Of these amounts at least two thirds are
paid by the farmers of the United States.
In 1871, Canada manufactured 97 per cent, of her
agricultural implements under a tariff of 15 per cent. In
the interest of manufacturers the duty has been raised
from time to time, until it now averages 39 per cent.
The writer is prepared to state that the manufacturers, of
all small farming tools at least, have loaded the price of
the domestic goods to very near the full extent of this
protection.
On an annual import by the Maritime Provinces of
about $150,000 worth of burning oil, a duty of $100,000
is exacted, principally from the rural districts, all for
the benefit of a few manufacturers in Petrolia.
In fact, the farmer of both the United States and
Canada has to pay protectionist taxes on nearly every
thing he eats, drinks, wears, or uses in the prosecution of
his industry. He has to do this in order that favorites of
this meddlesome system may secure profits from their
investments. These favors average from 25 per cent, to
100 per cent, in the United States, and quite near as
much in Canada, — principally at the expense of the
farmer.
PROTECTION A DEADLY ENEMY. lOI
The socialists are right, that protection implies higher
prices for goods, but it does not imply an increase in the
exchange value of labor unless the laborer is enabled to
combine with the manufacturer. The socialist should
learn that there are two values to be considered : one, the
value of goods in use or in consumption ; and the other,
the value of goods in exchange or in production, and that
the former is quite as important in estimating the power
of income as the latter.
Nearly one half of the families of the continent of
America, say twenty millions of families, are depending
on industries almost directly upon land for their share
of what is called the world's wealth. And what is this
wealth ? Political economy says : " Riches, or wealth, is,
in fact, power — the power of getting what one wishes
done by other men, either by remunerating them direct-
ly, as in the case of servants, or by purchasing their
products, to which labor must be applied." And again :
'' Wealth may be defined as every thing which answers to
men's rational wants. The complete and harmonious
development of every human faculty being the object in
view, all wants, the satisfaction of which tends to this
end, may be considered rational."
It is a true political economy which endeavors to
bring about, and to perpetuate, that condition which
tends most to secure to all men the power of wealth in
return for their labor, time, and efforts. It considers
that, barring accidents, the full play of natural laws
would go very far toward giving to every industrious and
permanent citizen the opportunity in some shape for
obtaining an ever increasing store of wealth, or a chance
for the satisfaction of an ever increasing number of
wants. Not merely power to satisfy the bare necessities
I02 AMERICAN FARMS.
of an undeveloped existence, but for something far be-
yond this — something which makes man a victor over
nature ; opportunities for independent action ; the
chances for education, for travel, for comforts, for
luxuries, for the adornment of homes ; the power for
voluntary action in charities, religion, or for social
development. It is in the growth of this margin that
man becomes an individuality, an independent manhood.
While natural laws do so much to place these chances
within the reach of most men, it is a duty resting upon
all, by every legitimate means, to gain, in some shape,
the power these represent.
It is undoubtedly required of men that they occupy
as large a place in the affairs of life as possible. The
higher their aims, it is the more important that they con-
trol the influences which material acquisitions assist in
securing. And is it not a beautiful, a grand arrange-
ment in the laws of Providence, that the prosperity, the
development of one manhood need not interfere with
others, but rather that the advance of one may help to
carry others forward ?
Emerson finely says : " Kings have long arms, but
every man should have long arms, and should pluck his
living, his instruments, his power, and his knowing from
the sun, moon, and stars. Is not then the demand to be
rich legitimate ? Yet I have never seen a man as rich as
all men ought to be, or with an adequate command of
nature. The pulpit and the press have many common-
places denouncing the thirst for wealth, but if men
should take these moralists at their word, and leave off
aiming to be rich, the moralists would rush to rekindle
at all hazards this love of power, lest civilization should
be undone."
PROTECTION A DEADLY ENEMY. 103
Whether the aim be to extend the beneficent influences
of religion, or whether we seek to make this abode of
man fairer, and brighter, and better through increase in
the morality and virtue of its denizens, or, if we con-
sider only the purely utilitarian aspect of the question,
it is imperative that man's efforts toward the production
of wealth shall result in a success that overlaps the satis-
faction of the mere felt wants of an existence. But we
require conditions which will do most to give to the
greatest number these blessings of onward progress ;
better that the aggregate of wealth be less, if in the max-
imum there must be great inequality. The whole history
of man supports the foregoing contention. The greatest
progress has been where effort has been crowned with
abundant returns. Through these successes in produc-
tion power has been borne to the possessor, opportunities
have become possible for the storing of wealth, abundant
and profitable consumption, leisure for thought, for indi-
vidual development.
Bastiat is correct in his claim that progress everywhere
is, in fact, possible only through the increase of result as
compared with effort. As effort is at the minimum as to
the infinitude of result, so is power increased. Retro-
gression must of necessity follow the diminishing of the
results of effort, until society is reduced to barbarism,
ruin, and annihilation.
As Bastiat says : Do we not see everywhere that men in
the management of their own interests strive by all means
to remove obstacles in order that they may bring effort
down to the minimum, and are, on the other hand, en-
deavoring by every recourse to secure the maximum of
result, by the use of machinery, by invention, by the
shortening and improving of routes of travel and of
I04 AMERICAN FARMS.
transportation, by the removal of difificulties to naviga-
tion, and by securing every market, in all lands, for the
cheapest and most desirable articles as agents in repro-
duction, or for unproductive consumption ?
It is also true of our legislators as it was with the
legislators of Bastiat's time, that though obstructionists
in public policy when looking to their own interests, they
show that they recognize the advantages of their procur-
ing for themselves the largest returns by their endeavors
to escape the friction between effort and reward they
place against others. Is it not a common occurrence for
legislators to favor friends and corporations by the
removal of obstructions to the effectual disposal of the
results of labor and to the receiving of the results of the
labors of others ? What is all this for but to increase the
margin of gain between effort and result ? In Canada a
great transcontinental railway has lately been built with
free foreign material, and is now disbursed and repaired
with stock disencumbered from the taxation burdens
which most of other productive enterprises have to bear.
What has this been for but to secure to the stockholders
the benefits of a great result in return for their efforts ?
We are told that the success of such enterprises is a
boon to the whole people. But is it not so with most
enterprises ? Should not the success of agriculture be a
boon to the country ? Can a nation afford that the
farmers above all others shall not have effort crowned
with rich result ? Or is it wisdom to see, without regret,
the agricultural population obliged to absorb the stored-
up capital of the past in order to cancel the deficit
between the eifort and result of the present ?
What sort of a national policy is it that takes no heed
to these, when it is so jealous of the interests of others ?
PROTECTION A DEADLY ENEMY, 105
If government has a full treasury, supplied from the
precious metals of the mountains of the moon, why not
secure to agriculture a never failing margin between
effort and result ? There is a prevailing opinion or
sentiment that our farmers and their like are only show-
ing a commendable and, in fact, necessary patriotism in
making no complaints against the conditions or the ap-
parent impediments which exist between their efforts and
liberal returns ; that it is only the proper patriotism for
certain classes to make no complaints of returns which
give only the satisfaction of ordinary wants, so long as
others are increasing in importance and power ; and if
they wish well to their country they should not mind if
the rightful opportunities for a high place in the world's
progress is withheld from them, so long as their country,
by it, becomes independent in variety of industries.
In the first place, it is a trouble which is not confined to
one country only. Any country, however, is badly off
without a goodly number of patriotic citizens, but we
do not require patriotism from certain classes only.
We should not demand sacrifices from the great in-
dustrious, frugal, producing multitudes, and relieve those
who control capital and the national purse-strings.
Capital is permitted to gain whatever it may require
as agents in production, relieved from artificial impedi-
ments in order that its efforts may exceed the minimum.
We have an illustration in Canada's annual import of the
six and a half million dollars' worth of hides, cottons, and
sheep's wool freed from duty. Capital is thus favored,
that it may produce with a minimum of effort, at the
sacrifice of patriotic treatment toward the farmers against
whom these imports compete. Canadian national pride
was sacrificed by its government in furnishing the High
5*
I06 AMERICAN FARMS.
Commissioner's a costly establishment in London, with
English fabrics instead of Canadian. What a splendid
chance was thus lost for an exhibition of patriotic feeling
and for the advertisement of the country's superior
productions !
When the Postmaster-General requires a quantity of
wool serge for postmen's uniforms, as was lately the case
in Canada, the order goes to a foreign country, although
the farmers are all, more or less, depending on the suc-
cessful production of the raw material from which such
goods are fabricated, and the cloth manufacturers are
grumbling on account of lack of orders.
Protection — more correctly " aggression " — is the dead-
ly enemy of our farmers ; for, while the general tenden-
cies are for monopoly to absorb the rural population, a
protective policy, such as we now have, derives its power
to assist monopoly, not from the planets, not from the
mountains of the moon, but from the pockets of the
farmers.
Protection narrows down, to the farmer, the margin of
profit between effort and result. Thus his opportunities
for progress are not only limited, but are actually being
reduced to nothing. The results are, that the class who,
in the early days of America's history, laid the founda-
tion for its present greatness, are in the future to be
deprived of the necessary opportunities for economic
power, for political influence, for the gain of knowledge,
for culture, for the exercise of the higher faculties
through which progress is possible. There can be no
escape from this conclusion, for reports and proofs come
to us from all parties and from all quarters, that the
farmers of America are becoming hopelessly involved
in financial ruin.
PROTECTION A DEADLY ENEMY. lO/
Who now control all our great financial schemes, with
their far-reaching social and political consequences, but
the men who are secured a profit in their undertakings
by government at the expense of such as the farmer?
Who hold the balance of power in our legislation, but
the men who are secured an abundant reward for their
efforts at the expense of those situated as the farmer ?
Who are able to give to their families the shelter and
luxuries of $100,000 homes,, and to their children the
advantage of travel and European education, better than
those who are subsidized by government, at the expense
of those situated as the farmer ? Who sit in higher seats,
and in finer churches, and in more costly robes, than
thoseVho are permitted to carry on a practice of legal-
ized brigandage against the pockets of such as our
farmers ? Who travel up and down our valleys, occupy-
ing our palace and first-class cars, fill our best hotels, to
a greater extent, than the men who are sanctioned by
government, in effecting combinations for systematic
raids on the farmers' narrow incomes ?
The result of protection is to destroy the efiicacy of
the natural powers of soil and climate ; to counteract
the rich returns of the earth, and dwarf the efforts of
men ; to render their actions futile ; to exact the utmost
from the capacity of the producing forces, and to with-
hold from them their natural powers as mediums for the
satisfaction of wants. It is to pauperize man in the
midst of his abundance ; it is for man to see his over-
flowing granaries, without power to gain for him one
step forward in command of the progress to which he is
naturally entitled ; it is for him to witness the magnitude
of his flocks and herds, without the ability to cancel the
demands of the usurer and the tax-gatherer ; it is, in fact,
I08 AMERICAN FARMS.
a force in the direction of barbarism, whereas freedom
from its thraldom of attendant evils would allow high
measures of progress and development.
Protection causes our rich valley farms to be little
more powerful in yielding independence to the owners,
than barren hill-tops would yield with freedom. It makes
our mountain farms powerless to give to their owners
command of the mediums for progress of scarcely any
kind ; it is to shackle the farmers, from decade to decade,
to nothing but rounds of drudgery, in order that they
may be permitted merely to exist.
To meet our argument, some of the supporters of pro-
tective legislation contend that mankind progresses in
civilization much faster where they have a great deal to
contend against. They will say that, where natural con-
ditions are too favorable, there the people will be
indolent, shiftless, and improvident ; that obstructions
remedy all this ; yet we find that, where the obstructions
have been great, there mankind remains the same, making
no perceptible progress through ages.
The school which finds obstructions so beneficial for
the development of the mass is not the least disturbed
at the prospect of easy and abundant incomes for its
own members. They have no fear for the consequences
to their families on account of the thousands guaranteed
to them by government, for which they give nothing in
return.
Protection has been very properly designated Sisy-
phism, from the fact that its effects are similar to those
endured by the robber Sisyphus of fabulous history, *who
was punished by being required to roll a huge stone to
the top of a hill, which stone constantly returned, con-
signing him to perpetual labor.
PROTECTION A DEADLY ENEMY. 1 09
Protection to the farmer of America is Sisyphism at
each turn. In his efforts in production every means
necessary for its accomplishment is loaded with Sisy-
phism. Protection stands between his productions and
those who desire them. It is a black, unrelenting wall,
over which only professional smugglers and trained
monopolists climb with safety. It puts a friction on
every line of transportation. It stands ready to load
with Sisyphism every attempt made by the farmer to
gain a share in the productions of other lands, for the
use of himself and family. It is a foe which robs the
farmer of three dollars through taxes, for the benefit of
monopolists and political parasites, to one for the neces-
sary service of the country. It is, indeed, Sisyphism,
on every hand ; an endless slavery to its chief victims,
the farmers of America.
CHAPTER V.
TRUSTS, COMBINES, ETC.
A RELIABLE Statistical expert recently published the
statement that, in the United States alone, the capacity
for manufacturing the principal articles of production is
equal to the requirements of two hundred and sixty
millions of people instead of sixty millions. As the
country has little foreign market for her manufactures,
the results are: idle blast furnaces, closed-down mills,
restricted production, extensive strikes, frequently
throwing vast numbers out of employment ; thus causing
losses and expenses, which are thrown upon the people
in various ways.
That manufacturers, as well as undertakers of some
other great enterprises, may be safe from pressure upon
the profits of their investment because of their idle
works, and from competition, or that the returns may be
commensurate with their idea of what the public should
pay for their services, various systems are brought into
play, familiarly known by the names of trusts, combines,
and associations.
At the present time, huge trusts — in other words,
enormous combinations of monopolies — are the prevail-
ing methods of controlling production and profits. A de-
scription of the mode of forming these is interesting.
It is resolved by the great leading firms in a specified
industry to put themselves in a position to secure its
no
TRUSTS, COMBINES, ETC. Ill
success, claiming, of course, all for the public benefit.
The formation of a trust is determined upon by the most
powerful of the industry. These give notice of their
decision to all engaged in this particular branch of busi-
ness. The terms and stipulations are often of very
objectionable character ; to the smaller concerns, very
unfair and oppressive. But rather than suffer the annoy-
ance of continuous competition by more powerful rivals,
they yield and become subject to it. Those who refuse
to enter the grand union are squeezed out of existence ;
witness the " frozen out " sugar refiners, oil operators,
meat dealers, etc.
One of the first effects of these combinations is to
destroy all healthy markets for the sale of raw material.
Only one appears as purchaser, whereas, before the
union, many were appearing. The result is disastrous
to those who must market raw materials, unless the
owners of these raw materials are also in a similar
combination.
The Butchers' National Convention in Philadelphia
recently denounced the Western beef pool at Chicago as
''the most infamous tyranny that ever existed in the
United States. . . . We think also that the worst
combination in the country is the beef, pork, and adul-
terated lard packers. The prices of cattle to the pro-
ducer having gone down 50 per cent., and the price to
the consumer having increased, every single dollar of
the difference has gone into the pocket of the com-
bination."
An instance of the power of trusts to control the price
of raw products occurred at the port of New York in Feb-
ruary of that year (1888). A cargo of 1,200 tons of raw
Manilla sugar arrived, and was offered at auction — the
112 AMERICAN FARMS.
usual way of disposal. There was just one bid for it, and
this bid secured it at 4J cents per pound. About four weeks
previous to this sale, or before the sugar trust had begun
to show its power, a similar cargo, almost a duplicate,
was sold under competition at 4I cents per pound. This
was a matter of about $15,000, or thereabout, on a single
cargo, for the benefit of the trust. Meanwhile the re-
fined article, which had been selling for 6 cents per
pound, was advanced to 7^ cents or to 8| cents. From
these data we gather that the trust realized on this single
transaction over $100,000, through restricting compe-
tition, on purchase of raw material, and the sale of the
refined article.
The power of the trust, or in fact any monopoly or
capital power over smaller competitors, was well exem-
plified in the expose before the House Committee at
Washington last winter, as to the character of the trans-
actions of the Standard Oil Company as a competitor.
It was found that the Pennsylvania Railroad gave the
Standard and affiliated companies a rebate on crude
oil of 49 cents per barrel in transportation charges
from one field, and 51 cents from another. The rail-
road also gave the Standard 22^^ cents per barrel on all
oils shipped by all people not affiliated with the Stand-
ard. The rates of freight were $1.45 to the public and
80 cents to the Standard. State Senator Lewis Emery,
of Bedford, testified to the effect that the independent
refineries had been driven from the field by reason of
the rebates allowed the Standard. Representative
Breckenridge thought that the amount of rebates given
to the Standard amounted in the aggregate to over
$100,000,000. Had the railways treated all shippers
alike, those shippers would now have a larger income
TRUSTS, COMBINES, ETC. II3
by fifteen to twenty millions of dollars annually than
they now enjoy.
Advantages similar to those of the Standard over
their competitors are being secured all down through
our manufacturing and commercial enterprises. Not
long since a certain line of manufacture was not paying
the concerns interested profits which satisfied them. A
combine was proposed. The " big fish " of the industry
refused to consent to an arrangement for an advance,
unless he was allowed two cents per dozen, or about 10
per cent, on sales of the article by all the parties to the
proposed arrangement, until he received ten thousand
dollars out of their profits. The combine was formed ;
he received his 20 per-cent. advance on his own produc-
tion, and finally his ten thousand dollars from the others.
Such arrangements are being continually entered into
and executed all over America, under shelter of the
country's laws, whenever such sheltering is required.
Trusts and combines place the consumer at the mercy
of the monopolist, who is empowered to dictate his own
terms. If the consumer will but open his eyes, he will
see that in many important industries competition has
been virtually destroyed. It was stated not long since
by the New York Times that the Stair Oil-Cloth Associa-
tion of the United States, a pool of manufacturers, had
made the one who violates the terms of the combine
liable to a fine of $500 : no customer being allowed to
undersell stipulated prices, while they reserve the right
to advance prices at any time.
Very similar to the action of the Oil-Cloth Association
has been that of the only lock-manufacturing company
of Canada. Sheltered behind a thirty-five-cent protec-
tion, it has put in force a requirement that all jobbers
I 14 AMERICAN FARMS.
who purchasing from it must sell no lower than a certain
stipulated price. The result has been that it has not
only pocketed at least twenty-five per cent, above free-
trade prices, but has, at the same time, compelled its
customers to exact combination prices from all con-
sumers. These are only a few illustrations of a wide-
spread evil.*
The Montreal Star (Protectionist), speaking of com-
bines in Canada, says : '' They are nothing less than a
scandalous abuse of the privilege of protection from
foreign competition granted to Canadian manufacturers."
Adam Smith was not far from correct when he said :
" The price of monopoly is upon every occasion the
highest which can be got ; . . . the highest which can be
squeezed out of the buyers."
At a recent session of the legislature at Albany, New
York, the Committee on Trusts gave a very good descrip-
tion of the character of the average combine. " How-
ever different the influences which give rise to these
combinations may be, the main purpose, management,
and effect of all upon the public is the same, to wit : the
aggregation of capital, the power of controlling the manu-
facture and output of various necessary combinations,
the acquisition or destruction of competitive properties —
all leading to the final and conclusive purpose of annihi-
lating competition, and enabling the combinations to fix
the price at which they would purchase the raw material
from the producer, and at which they would sell the
' ' ' All the Western pottery manufacturers, with a single exception,
have entered into an agreement to maintain prices under bonds of
$1 , 200 each. . . . The greater portion of the pottery industries in
the United States are represented in the combination." — Iron Age,
item, Oct. 10, 1889.
TRUSTS, COMBINES, ETC. 11$
refined product to the consumer. In any event, the
public at each end of the industry — the producer and
consumer — is, and is intended to be, in a certain sense,
at the mercy of the syndicate, combination, or trust." '
' To evade the laws which have been recently passed aiming at the
suppression of trusts, these organizations are merging into huge
joint-stock associations, with the same purposes in view as the trusts
— namely, to control both demand and supply.
BOOK IV.
IMPOTENCE OF THE REMEDIES PROPOSED, AND THE
ERRONEOUS REASONS ASCRIBED FOR THE DIFFI-
CULTIES NOW OVERTAKING THE FARMERS OF
AMERICA.
What man is free to practise or not, is that association with his
fellow-men which, within certain limits, increases his powers and
enables him to perform prodigies. But carry this association to ex-
tremes, let no limit be assigned to its action, let it be developed and
applied without measure and without consideration, and where does
it end — in law or in communism ? — CouRTOls.
CHAPTER I.
DOES PROTECTION PROTECT THE FARMER?
The admitted decline of agriculture, especially in the
most protected countries, gives pretty conclusive evi-
dence that nothing has been done for it by forcing the
growth of other industries at its expense. Notwithstand-
ing this, it has been, and still continues to be, the pros-
pect of indirect benefit to farmers sooner or later, which
has tempted, and still continues to tempt, many commu-
nities to submit to laws which promise this result.
While natural laws of competition govern the produc-
tion and exchange value of farm produce, the tendency
is to make the consumer of farm produce, in almost
any locality, independent of the local producer of such
products. The tendency of the present day — there has
always been a tendency — is in the direction of giving the
consumer the benefit of this advantage much faster than
the producer could gain by the growth of forced indus-
tries. The assumption is borne out by all facts bearing
on the history of the subject. The conclusion follows,
that protection, to be consistent, cannot be a temporary
national policy. It must either grant equal privileges all
round, which would be absurd, since it would be the
people granting privileges to themselves out of their own
pockets, or, after it has built up certain industries to the
ruin of agriculture, it must then turn round and build
119
120 AMERICAN FARMS.
up agriculture at the expense of other industries. It
must either do this, or it must be decided that a country
may be as well off without prosperous husbandmen as
with them — a position which it will hardly do to
assume.
Furthermore, protection, to be fair, and especially to
the farmers, should be extremely local in its operations.
Each protective unit should be very small. This was the
idea of General Hancock, though it is evidently true he
lost popularity by its propagation. A protective line
drawn around North America might serve the protective
requirements of the carpet, rubber, paper, glass, sugar,
and a host of other manufacturing industries. But what
would it do to protect the fruit, the cattle, the sheep, the
horses, and many other productions of the farm ? The
half-dozen concerns that may govern a line of manufac-
ture may easily form combinations to govern the prices
of their commodities, but not so the farmer.
To serve the protective purpose of the fruit raisers of
New York, they must be protected from the fruit indus-
tries of Michigan ; the cattle raisers of New England
and the Maritime Provinces from Texas, Illinois, and
the Northwest ; the grain grower of the East from the
grain grower of the West ; the potato producers of New
England from their rivals in the Maritime Provinces ;
the grain, butter, and cheese productions of the Maritime
Provinces from those of Ontario, Manitoba, and the
Western States ; and so on.
Protection for the purpose of building up varied indus-
tries, that the farmer might be eventually benefited, has
so far been a conspicuous failure in America. The
sacrifices which this class has been called upon to make
have never been made good, nor can they ever be.
DOES PROTECTION PROTECT THE EARMER? 121
In fact, the admissions that are made by protectionists
as to the continued failure of the Eastern farmers on
account of Western competition, are a tacit acknowledg-
ment of the opinion that the manufacturers of the East
have not come to the aid of Eastern farmers, as yet,
though the manufacturers have been receiving aid from
the farmers for a century.
6
CHAPTER II.
THE HOME MARKETS FURTHER CONSIDERED.
It is claimed for protective legislation, that by stimu-
lating the growth of home industries, and the creation of
home markets for the products of the soil, a stop is put
to the export of the extractive industries ' of the coun-
try. That a tremendous waste is continually going on in
the consumption of farm products, through their practical
annihilation, at least for the time, as agents of reproduc-
tion, is very apparent. The waste is taking place at
home, in every city of America. From all over the
Union food products find their way to the New York
market, are consumed, and the principal part of their
fertilizing properties, in the change, flows to the ocean.
Probably hundreds of tons of beef are transported from
the country to that city each week, and but a trifling part
finds its way back again to the country.^
The products of the extractive industries are continu-
ally being shipped between nations, and protective legis-
lation is powerless to prevent it. Since Great Britain
adopted a free-trade policy, other countries have cease-
lessly poured into the ports of that country the products
' Agriculture is not properly an extractive industry.
" The city of Brooklyn alone expends ninety thousand dollars annu-
ally in carrying off to the ocean the kitchen garbage, to say nothing of
what goes in the sewers.
THE HOME MARKETS FURTHER CO.WSIDERED. 1 23
of their extractive industries. The United States, with a
policy, one of the objects of which has been to create
home markets for the products of the farm, sent to other
nations (principally Great Britain) during the six years,
1875-1880, of the products of the farm $3,114,785,000,
and during the six following years, ending with 1886,
$3,453,323,000, or about 72 per cent, of the total exports
of the Republic. Under protective legislation there has
been no diminution of the volume of the substance of this
outflow, but, on the contrary, a vast increase. In i860
the proportion of United States exports other than manu-
factured goods was 83 per cent, of her total export ; in
1870, 87 per cent., in 18S0 it rose to 88 per cent., or a total
volume of $685,961,000 ; 73 per cent, of the total in 1888.
In the revenue-tariff period, or in the ten years between
1850 and i860, the growth of home manufacturing indus-
tries reached 88 per cent., while in the extremely high-
tariff period, i860 to 1880, or in 20 years, the increase
was only 139 per cent. The export of manufactured
goods increased, in the low-tariff period just mentioned,
to the extent of 171 per cent., while in the twenty years
which followed, the increase was only 90 per cent.
Farther than this, we are not aware that the yearly
export of manufactured goods from the United States
has ever risen above $130,000,000. These facts have
special significance to the farmer, for they go to prove
that, with all that has been done to build up the nation
through the manufacturing industries, these industries
have done nothing to bring wealth from abroad. The
whole burden put upon consumers through inflated prices
of manufactures, has been borne by one class for the
benefit of another. And we must know that the farmer
has had to carry a good part of the load at every turn.
124 AMERICAN FARMS.
The condition of the agricultural lands of New Eng-
land, notwithstanding the great development of its cities,
is very good proof that there is something wrong in the
home-market theory.
The true home-market theory for the farmer is in the
independence, through natural laws, of each little rural
home. By allowing these to be the base of economic
action, a home market is always secured. Manufactures
will spring up as they are required. The productions of
the farm will be the raw material of the home manu-
facturer. Then our manufactures will be of natural
development, and these will exchange in foreign countries
for such goods as are the natural productions of those
countries.
This is the true division of labor, with a natural, a solid
base. How senseless it is to force foreign raw material
into our markets in order to give employment to our
artisans, when, without compulsion, artisans might be
fabricating our own raw materials for foreign countries.
By following the former course, our position is always
false ; by the latter it would be sound and enduring,
causing all classes to be ever more and more self-
sustaining.
CHAPTER III.
TRUSTS FOR THE FARMERS.
There is quite a prevalent feeling among farmers
that, if trusts and combines are to be the order of the
future, the farmer may as well enjoy whatever benefits
can be derived from them ; that many lines of the
farmer's productions might well come into combination
to the farmer's advantage, such as the milk business, the
marketing of butter, and the like. Their opinion is this :
that the services of middlemen may be dispensed with,
prices made steady, and a profit from their industry al-
ways made secure, resulting in an advantage to the buyer
as well as to the seller. This, however, has been the
argument of all who are about entering the charmed
circle of the combine. It is desirable for all farmers to
give the character of the trust or combine a searching
examination, that they may know whether they may so
far countenance the principle of the combine as to de-
pend upon such means for benefiting themselves. The
indirect consequences, as well as the remote results,
should be well weighed. However just and honorable
may be the motives which prompt men to enter into an
association, the object of which is to make safe their
position in transactions with their fellow-men who may
not be placed in equally secure positions themselves, and
upon whom the means for the success of their enterprise
125
126 AMERICAN FARMS.
must largely depend, it is a dangerous position to occupy.
As men gain power, they are apt to feel power ; and be-
come infused with the idea that power is safest with
them and may be increased with profit to all. If they
escape this themselves, there is always risk of their
associates becoming subject to this influence.
The nature of trusts and combines is to encourage the
impulse which seeks gain at the expense of others. This
is an impulse which, for many reasons, the rural classes
have a most decided interest in checking in every possi-
ble way. The effect of a trust that succeeds, is to crush
all who are not inclined to come under its manage-
ment. This is decidedly against the permanent welfare
of the masses engaged in agriculture. The trust also
forces terms upon the weakest members, and the weak
become subject to the strong ; a condition which the true
friend of the typical American farmer would avoid as
the danger of the future — real enthronement of wealth.
The trust causes business to pass over to the hands of
a directorate ; thus it brings the majority of its members
into a practical slavery. Its tendency is to stop the
growth of individuality.
Completeness, individuality, self-dependence, is the
ideal life which the country should stimulate — a state so
desirable for the really developed man. The growth of
sentiments and customs of a slavish character develops
slavery. It is necessary, that the rural classes may
retain their individuality, that they exercise it in all
their institutions. In the stimulating of this individual
development, there is the greatest actual bond of union.
" Throughout our solar system, harmony of movement —
interdependence — is a result of that local attraction
which preserves a perfect independence. So, too, is it
TRUSTS FOR THE FARMERS. 12/
with nations, the tendency toward peace and harmony
among them being in the ratio of their interdependence ;
that, in its turn, being the direct ratio of their indepen-
dence." ' Since liberty is the soul of independence —
power, so must a true interdependence know no slavish
bonds. Association, union, there should be among farm-
ers, but it should partake of no compulsory characteristics
calculated to weaken the springs of individual activity.
The trust, then, is not for the use of the farmer, though
we would not throttle it in the manner that some legis-
lators undertake to do.
Henry C. Carey, vol. iii., p. 464.
CHAPTER IV.
PROTECTION AS IT REFERS TO AGRICULTURE IN
ENGLAND;
In Great Britain, the freemen, or small holders of the
land have been over-borne from time to time in one way
and another, until they have become about extinct as a
class. The great body of the farmers of England now
own no land, but they must depend upon the lords of
the manor for the privilege of tilling the soil, though not,
as once, obliged under all circumstances to accept
these lords' terms.
The agricultural lands of Great Britain are supposed
to support three classes — namely, the landlord, the capi-
talist farmer, and the farm laborer. When a bushel of
grain is raised in England, three parties must each have
a share in the profit. The chances for a share of this
profit to any one of these parties have very much les-
sened during the last fifty years. The chances for the
landlord to take this profit to himself have also very
much lessened in the same period. For many years, agri-
culture in the hands of the landlords was a monopoly ;
profits through laws which prevented foreign competi-
tion being secured to the landlord. These profits went
to the landlord because the labor market was glutted.
These conditions are all changed. Agriculture is not
now a monopoly in England ; and the laborer is much
128
PROTECTION IN ENGLAND. 1 29
more independent of the landlord. Food supplies now
invade the markets of Great Britain, from the broad fields
of America, India, and the continent, at prices which
appal the home producer. But the landlord is the one
who looks upon this with the most concern. The cap-
italist farmer and the laborer are comparatively free to
escape to other occupations.
Fifty to one hundred years ago, the English farm and
English landlords were, as types, peculiar to England.
The American farm and the American farmer, as types,
were peculiar to America. Their relative conditions in
this respect have vastly changed, and with it another
striking change has come about. In those days land-
lordism in England was all that could be desired by the
English landlord, and the landless English farmers, who
were able to emigrate, were becoming the typical farmers
of America. To-day the English capitalist invests his
money in American land to become a competitive agri-
culturist, while the average emigrant is not attracted to
the land, but comes to swell the other occupations. Al-
though such a large portion of our interests are agricul-
tural, not more than one to fifteen come as agriculturists.*
Why these relative changes ? Are we not insidiously
bringing upon the small farmers of America what was
done to them in England in past times by force ?
Adam Smith's idea that agriculture, as he saw it in
England, was the best of industries, because it supported
three classes, was calculated to create an impression
hardly correct as an axiom of political economy.
Intrinsically great as the industry undoubtedly is, it is
not able to support an idle class, and when openly forced
' In 1886, of 117,546 males immigrating into the United States,
only 20,528 came as farmers.
6*
I30 AMERICAN- FARMS.
to do SO, as in past days in England, it must have been at
the expense of others.
In the days of monopoly in English agriculture the
lands of England assumed a value which they could not
maintain. Consequently, in comparing the condition of
agriculture there now with former periods and with other
countries, we must conclude that in England a more
normal condition, even under a chronic disorder, is being
reached for a time ; while in America an abnormal condi-
tion increases, while a chronic disorder is being produced.
When was the English farmer in a more miserable con-
dition than just prior to the repeal of the corn laws ?
Lardner's A7inual Retrospect^ of 1831, stated that the
most interesting topic touched upon in the king's speech,
was that contained in the paragraph which informed Par-
liament that " the export of British produce and manu-
factures in the last year had exceeded that of any former
year." It lamented that '' notwithstanding this indication
of active commerce, distress should prevail among the
agricultural and manufacturing classes in some parts of
the United Kingdom." Says our authority * : " The
country gentlemen brought reports to Parliament 'of
the sufferings among the tenantry and laborers, that
rents could not be paid, and poor-rates had absorbed
the profits of the farmers. One petition to Parliament,
from Bedfordshire, stated that the laborers were receiv-
ing wages which gave them barely the means of pro-
tracting a cheerless existence, deprived of all the comforts
and almost all the necessaries of life ; that there are
parishes in the country purely agricultural, where fifty
to ninety able-bodied men, destitute of other work,
are employed bv the parishes, and receiving four shil-
' The Financial Reformer^ of Liverpool.
PROTECTION IN ENGLAND. 13I
lings a week, and that no blame attaches to the farmers,
who are unable to afford more." In Berkshire '' the
weekly payment to able-bodied men who could find
employment is stated as being in some places so low as
two shillings and sixpence." A Buckingham petition in-
formed Parliament that " many persons commit depreda-
tions and misdemeanors to get into prison, thus to
preserve themselves from lingering starvation " ; that
"many have contracted disorders by eating the flesh
of animals that die naturally, and other unwholesome
food." The Bishop of Bath and Wells, in presenting
one from Frome, in Somersetshire, said, in support of it :
"I have been a witness to the most afflicting distress,
which I could not, if I would, describe."
Sir James Caird, a very high authority on these mat-
ters, recently stated before a committee in England
that the spendable income from the landed interests
fell off $114,000,000 in 1885. And yet it is evident
that the mere day laborer was in no such deplora-
ble condition in 1885, as is related of sixty years ago in
the foregoing paragraph. Evidences clearly indicate
that the land-owner, and tenant paying rents upon a
basis of former values, are those of the landed interests
which are feeling the depression most.
Finally, we arrive at the conclusion that, in all our com-
parisons as to the condition of agriculture in England to-
day with former times and with other countries, we should
keep the fact well in view that its congested state is due
to the evil results of protection in the past, and a bad
system of land-holding opposed to the best use of land.
Germany, France, and Italy, all having high protective
tariffs, are each contending with most perplexing agri-
cultural difficulties.
CHAPTER V.
AS TO FRUGALITY.
Not a few, even of farmers themselves, attribute the
disease, which they have to admit is settling itself upon
agriculture in America, or upon the economic affairs of
those who pursue it, to their habits of expensive living.
For a cure they demand frugality. This demand may,
in a sense, be reasonable ; but those who make it must
concede to the view that they ask cure for a disease
which is growing upon other classes even more than
upon the farmers. Then, why are the agriculturists less
able to bear up under it than other classes ?
It may well be claimed that the consumption of the
income of the husbandman is as rational as that of any
of his contemporaries. Let one become familiar with
the expenditures and habits of the bulk of the manufac-
turing and commercial classes, and they will be con-
vinced that these are far more irrational in such respects.
In fact, the farmer, of all men, feels very sensibly the
consequences of any injudicious use of his means. The
farmer also faces, as no one else, the responsibility
of his folly. It can rarely be thrown upon others, as
in the more commercial, or even professional, occupa-
tions. Governments may be extravagant, and their sup-
porters commend them for it, claiming that the country so
represented is made to appear more important and influ-
132
AS TO FRUGALITY. 1 33
ential through these expenditures ; but the people pay
for them. The patent-medicine vender spends his hun-
dreds of thousands in advertising, for the purpose of
creating an interest in his compounds. The more con-
spicuous for costliness these outlays, the better they pay ;
but the consumer foots the bill. The merchant spends
his thousands upon plate-glass windows for his store, be-
cause it pays ; but the customers at his store pay the
bill. The clerk and the commercial traveller must dress
well, and the latter must visit the best hotels ; and the
consumers of the goods he sells must eventually settle
the bill. We can safely say, that whatever may be the evil
of a too liberal use of income, such habits have not been
engendered within the ranks of the farmers, but come
from without.
But is there justice in the growing inability of farmers
to equal others in a liberal consumption ? Probably not
one farmer in a hundred, no, not one in a thousand, is
consuming as liberally as we desire that he should,
though perhaps less rationally. It is a calamity for a
class to lose its power to consume. Being continually
so situated, it must relapse into slavery of some kind.
The man who is in bondage to another, consumes merely
that he may produce. The one who can only consume
what barely suffices for an existence, is a slave to his
necessities. As man gets beyond this, and can become
victor over nature, he becomes free. The greater the con-
sumption, provided it be complete, the more advanced the
individual, the more rational, the expansion of all the en-
dowments with which God has been pleased to favor him.
No ! instead of less consumption for the farmer of
America, to allow him more should be the aim of all
who would guide his destinies to a happy issue.
CHAPTER VI.
HENRY GEORGE'S REMEDY.
The undoubted tendency of the time toward larger
farms, and the control of land by men of capital, and the
increase in the number of farms owned by others than
the occupiers, is evidently an indication that capital has,
in some way, gained an ascendency over the typical
American farmers. That the greater number of farms
becoming subject to the landlord are those of the
quite small areas, also goes to prove that the small land
proprietors are giving up the contest more rapidly than
any others.
Yet, notwithstanding all this, there is nothing in the
nature of the conditions now existing to give a grain of
weight to the conclusion, that the destruction of land
values to the individual would, in any way, give relief
to the small land proprietor. That the large farm is
growing larger by additions to its area of the small farms
about it, only shows that the larger farm is, in some
way, better circumstanced to hold its own in the contest
for gain.
The causes which have brought the small farms into
the hands of the capitalists are various, but the weight
of mortgage-debt has been the final agent in the ma-
jority of cases. The once fortunate owners of such
farms were, at the first, benefited by small loans from
134
HENRY GEORGE'S REMEDY. 1 35
the usurer, but through their struggle to keep on with
their enterprises, and to meet the demands of society
levied upon them, their debts were increased, interest
ceased to be paid, and finally the mortgagee took them
over to save his money. In the vast majority of cases
to-day the owners of tenanted farms would gladly sell
them off at a good discount on the amounts which they
have invested in them. They have no desire to be land-
lords, and it has only been through the failure of the
mortgageors that they have become so possessed with
land.
The tendency of the present time in America is to de-
stroy love for country life — to denude the farmer of
the sentiments that should impel him to hand down to
his own posterity, intact, the lands of his forefathers,
with all their valued associations. The single tax is cal-
culated to give greater impetus to this most undesirable
tendency. It is to increase this tendency with those
who engage in rural pursuits, for them to look upon
the farm as only a great factory for material purposes,
and material purposes only. The farms subjected to it
would become more and more the possession of those
who would look upon them only as the medium through
which to gain riches. Its adoption would be but to
give more stimulus to a tendency which Mr. George
dilates upon as an evil of great proportions already —
" bonanza farming." " These machine-worked ' grain
factories ' of our Great Republic of the New World are
doing just what was done by the slave-worked lati-
fundia of the Roman world. Here, they prevent, where
there, they destroyed, ' the crop of men.' " ' The whole-
sale system of agriculture, gathering more and more
' " The Land Question," p. 59.
13^ AMERICAN FARMS.
force in America, is something far more to be feared
than any danger from landlordism. Under it are being
destroyed our " best crops of men " — our small land pro-
prietors,— a trouble that would not abate one iota under
the single-tax regime.
Mr. George's remedy would relieve the " bonanza fac-
tories " of farm produce in the great West from taxes,
for he says : " To put taxation solely upon land values
would shift the weight of taxation from the sparsely set-
tled agricultural districts to those populous centres where
land has a real and a high value. As it would destroy
the speculative value of land, the result would be that
many farmers would have no taxes at all to pay ; for, no
matter what might be the value of his improvements, no
farmer would have more taxes to pay than could be col-
lected from unimproved land equal to his own in quality
and situation."
On the other hand, the advocates of the single-tax
claim that one of their aims is to make the great unoccu-
pied lands in the hands of the capitalists cheap by taxing
them, in order that men of small means may obtain them.
I think the result would be more likely in the direc-
tion of making them bonanza agricultural estates, and
thus increase competition in agriculture.
The single-tax theory abounds with contradictions, but
at best it has nothing to offer for the relief of the small
farmer. The great aim of the single-tax advocate is to
bring about a greater equality in the distribution of wealth
among men. It might have a levelling tendency in some
instances, but in others it would have just the opposite
effect. We will suppose the case of two farms of equal
size and natural value, and each paying the same heavy
tax : the owner of the one having capital to procure
HENRY GEORGE'S REMEDY. 1 37
the best of machinery, drains for his lands, trees for his
orchards, and every article required, at the lowest price
at which they could be purchased ; the other having
none of these advantages. Under such conditions the
latter would be driven to the wall. Under such a tax
it would be only men of capital who could carry on pro-
duction. Mr. George's remedies, from any point of
view, would only make matters worse for the small
farmer.'
' See Book V., Chapter II., on " The Single Tax."
BOOK V.
TAXATION.
With high-tariff men, I am for promoting American industry ;
and with them, I am for bringing the producer and consumer as near
together as practicable. Nevertheless, I am an absolute Free-Trader.
I would have no custom-house on the face of the earth. Never will
government be administered honestly and frugally until the cost of
administering it is paid by direct taxation. And never will govern-
ment be confined within its proper limits, until its sole office shall be
to protect persons and property. — Gerrit Smith.
CHAPTER I.
TAXATION Ix\ GENERAL.
Taxation of some sort and degree is a necessity
of civilized life, and it should be the desire of every
intelligent citizen to contribute something to meet the
needs of organized society. Yet, on the whole, it must
be considered one of the social burdens, and should be
limited in its extent to the actual requirements of the
state.
Excessive taxation is evidently a very great evil,
though it has been strangely enough urged, by men high
in legislative positions, that through it is " the only
gateway to prosperity." Taxation of this sort, says the
wise economist, is " a kind of suicide," however laid ;
while it is little less than criminal, when clumsily or in-
equitably drawn from the masses ; for its continuance
must finally end in the ruin of many whose incomes are
not sufificient to bear any added strain.
The rapidity with which taxation has rolled up against
the people of America during the last forty years, or
since the farmers began to lose their political power, is
enough to startle one when he takes courage to face the
figures which tell the story. In 1840, the federal treas-
ury of the United States took from the pockets of the
people $1.25 per capita ; in 1888, $5.57 per capita ; or,
for a family of five in 1840, $6.25 ; in 1888, $27.85 ; an
141
142 AMERICAN FARMS.
increase of over 400 per cent, in one department of
taxation.'
' In Canada, federal taxation has grown in volume
125 per cent, during the last twenty years, while the
population has not increased 50 per cent.
Mr. Edward Atkinson estimates the total taxation of
the Union for 1880, viz., federal, State, and municipal, at
$14 per capita, or $70 for the family of five, and the
savings of the people at $18 per capita. In Canada, the
proportions are probably about the same. These figures,
which we presume are near correct, show the somewhat
alarming proportion taxation bears to actual savings,
and how absolutely necessary it is that such a tax be put
upon the right shoulders. According to Mr. Atkinson,
the yearly net savings of the people would be nearly its
present amount, but for these taxes. The incidence of
taxation, in city as well as country municipality, and
between the classes universally, becomes a serious one.
Are not the majority of our agriculturists groaning
beneath their unequal burdens ?
There is hardly a doubt that such impositions did
much to assist in bringing about the ruin of the ancient
civilizations. And we are not without evidences to
show that the peasant classes in those times were the
bearers of the principal part of a load which was seldom
any thing but crushing. Geikie, in his *' Life of Christ,"
speaks of the exhaustion of Palestine through the op-
pression of the Romans " falling with special weight on
an agricultural people like the Jews " ; Gibbon, in his
' The late civil war should not be held accountable for the weight
of taxes twenty-three years after its close. From 1789 to 1830, with
the burden of the expenses of two wars resting upon the United
States, the tax per capita was less than $1.75 annually. But, what of
Canada's federal tax in the year 1889, of $5.66 per capita, without
any disastrous war on which to throw the odium ?
TAXATION IN GENERAL. 1 43
"Downfall of the Roman Empire," of the ** intolerable
weight of taxes attached to the land." How full of
warning for all ages are the words of Lactantius, the
Latin rhetorician, when referring in this particular to the
fall of the Roman Empire. " Thanks to the multitude of
functionaries, there were more tax-consumers in the
empire than tax-payers,' so that the cultivator was ruined
by the exactions to which he was exposed. Fields were
deserted, and lands once tilled were abandoned, till they
lapsed again into the forest." Another writer says that
" the treasury was a robbery which completed the fall of
the Roman Empire."
In the years in which the lands of Great Britain were
passing from the control of the small landholders, the
burden of taxation rested upon land. Indeed, we ven-
ture the assertion, that all through the ages since the
organization of society, the principal state burdens have
in some way been thrown upon the tillers of the soil
whenever they could be so applied. In our time a
piteous wail comes ever and anon from the tax-ridden
peasants of Italy, France, and Germany. Of this unfor-
tunate class in Russia, " a former resident " writes :
" The peasants are financially ruined ; the worst off
are dying, literally dying, of hunger, while others have
scarcely any thing to eat, or to drink, or the where-
withal to protect their bodies from the cold, and
yet their last cow that fed the children, innocent of
mother's milk, is distrained for taxes, and they them-
selves flogged in order to extract from them the money
' The central government at Washington embraces, in the Internal
Revenue, Post-office, and other departments under its control, 130,000
officials, and its numbers are constantly increasing. If the number of
officials multiply in Canada for the next fifty years as they have during
the last twenty, they will comprise a body of tax-consumers not much
fewer than the tax-payers.
144 AMERICAN FARMS.
requisite to keep the administrative machine in motion.
Oh, Father of Compassion ! is this the only gateway to
prosperity ? "
After the masses of the ruralists have once begun to
lose their relative power, it has only been when the lands
have become the property of a monopoly of some kind or
other that the land-holding classes have been able to
dictate terms.
" The progress of a community toward wealth and
power being in the direct ratio of the combination of
action among the people of whom it is composed ; it
follows that the advance towards both must be in the
ratio in which they are enabled to dispense with the
services of the politician, the soldier, the owner of slaves,
and the trader — of that class which lives by virtue of the
simple act of appropriation. Every movement, however,
in that direction, looking necessarily to a diminution in
the power of the latter, they are all — soldier, trader, and
politician — found uniformly banded together for the
subjugation of the people ; as was seen in Athens and in
Rome, and as may now be seen in all the countries of
Europe and America. The history of the world is but a
record of the attempts of the few to tax the many, and
those of the many to escape taxation ; and the tendency
of society to assume a natural and stable form is in the
precise ratio of the success of this latter class — a success,
however slowly and tediously accomplished, because of
the power of those who live by appropriation to come
together in towns and cities, while they who contribute
to their revenues are scattered throughout the country." '
' This, from the pen of Henry C. Carey (" Social Science," p. 235),
applies to America to-day even better than when it was written, —
thirty years ago.
CHAPTER II.
THE SINGLE TAX.
We are brought again to a consideration of the agi-
tation now going on, to have all taxes for public revenue
merged into one upon land only. It has already assumed
proportions which should cause the utmost concern to
the agricultural classes. Started principally in the inter-
est of the laboring classes, years ago in Europe, and
more recently and perhaps more prominently by Mr.
Henry George in America, it is now growing in favor, we
have to admit, with most city classes. And, even leading
publicists and respectable influential journals are giving
it their approval.
The single-tax advocate, makes a point of contending
that so nearly is direct taxation now thrown upon real
estate, that it would be but taking a short step farther to
make it bear the whole. They are right, in so far as
America is concerned, in claiming that the chief burden
of direct taxation bears upon this class of property.
It is admitted by most observers that real estate is sure
to be taxed, while personal property is sure to escape.
The estimate recently made of personal property which
is escaping taxation in the State of New York, runs up to
the fine figure of $2,500,000,000. Mr. Thomas G. Shear-
man, makes the statement that between i860 and 1880,
the assessed value of real estate in the United States,
7 145
146 AMERICAN FARMS.
increased from $4,564,000,000 to $10,470,000,000, or an
increase of 130 per cent. ; while the increase in the
assessed value of personal property increased from
$2,015,000,000 to $2,870,000,000, or an increase of only
43 per cent. It must be borne in mind, in these com-
parisons, that personality in the aggregate, as it is valued
in exchange, is augmenting at much the faster rate.
The situation appears serious for our farmers, when it
is realized that the classes which may be likely to favor
this system of taxation are a growing majority of the
voters of America. Mr. George intimates his satisfaction
on this score in his chapter on " The American Farmer,"
in " Social Problems." It is now proposed to have the
adoption of this mode of taxation secured for all local
purposes where the farmers are in the minority — and so
hem the farmers in. Hence, it becomes incumbent on
farmers not only to give the question of taxation their
earnest attention, but their immediate attention also.
While Mr. George admits that the adoption of his
scheme of taxation would destroy the selling value of the
farmers' land, he claims * that it would increase the value
of his improvements, and thus make his labor so much
more remunerative, that he would be more than com-
pensated for the loss of his land. I think it would not
only take from him the selling value of his land, but in
many cases be the cause of the loss of the improvements
as well.'
' " Social Problems," p. 304.
''■ According to Mr. Edward Atkinson, the total amount of taxes
paid by the people of the United States aggregated $700,000,000 in
1880. It is safe to assume that under the single tax much more than
one half would have rested upon the land-holdings of the country-
districts — say $400,000,000. At that time there were 4,008,907
farms. For these farms to have paid the $400,000,000, the average
THE SINGLE TAX. 1 47
What are the single-tax arguments ? They may be di-
vided into two principal divisions, namely : those which
maintain that all taxes must finally rest upon the con-
sumer ; and the opposites, which maintain that taxes fall
altogether upon production. The first may be repre-
sented by the following quotations from Mr. Edvvard At-
kinson's " Distribution of Products " : " It will be borne in
mind that, with few exceptions, all taxes are distributed,
wherever they may be first imposed, and ultimately fall
on all consumers in almost the exact ratio of their con-
sumption." (p. 103.) "The writer is of the profound
conviction that whenever the subject of taxation is re-
duced to a science, taxation on real estate will become
the source of nearly all taxes." (p. 115.) It is true that
in these quotations Mr. Atkinson does not pin his faith
to the single tax, or one upon the rent value of land
only ; but they serve to represent the opinions of many
leading students and publicists upon the subject of the
final bearings of taxation.
As regards taxes upon land (or real estate) and the
cultivator, it is argued : Every one must consume the
products of land. Every producer must go to the land
for his raw material. Consequently, where land is taxed,
the one in possession of it is enabled to charge this tax
to the consumer, who is obliged to purchase his products.
On the other hand, Mr. Henry George contends that
"a tax on land values does not add to prices, and is
thus paid directly by the person on whom it falls ; where-
as all taxes upon things of unfixed quantity increase
would have had to pay $100. Since the unearned increment, or rent
per farm accruing to vakie of the bare land in the United States, does
not reach 40 per cent, of this amount, such a tax would certainly have
encroached either upon the farmer's labor or his capital.
148 AMERICAN FARMS.
prices, and in the course of exchange are shifted from
seller to buyer, increasing as they go " ' ; that the un-
earned increment attached to the value of land should
belong to the state ; that it is becoming impossible for
laborers to buy farms, and that, as a consequence, the
cities are being overcrowded.
Neither the real-estate-tax advocate, who contends that
all taxes placed upon land values must finally rest upon
the consumer of the products raised from this land, nor
the one who claims that no tax upon land values can add
to prices, is, by any means, correct. This is where the
grand mistake is made.
That all must consume the products of land is per-
fectly true, but that all must consume the products of
labor is also true. Professor Sumner's claim, that the
unearned increment is upon most property in a condition
of property, is probably not far from correct.^
The gathering of people about land increases the value
of land, the gathering of people on land creates a demand
for the products of labor. One waits for his increment,
and the other takes it at the time he throws his products
on the market. The settler on land is induced to accept
a small immediate return for the products of his land,
looking to the more remote benefits to be derived through
the increasing value of his lands as neighbors surround
him ; the fabricator of the materials extracted from land
receives his unearned increment at once.
That the power of this increment on farm land may be
over-estimated, as compared with the productiveness of
other industries, is seen now by the relatively impoverished
condition of the peasant proprietors of Europe, in their
' " The Canons of Taxation," p. 2.
* "What Social Classes Owe to Each Other,"
THE SINGLE TAX. I49
efforts to hold on to their lands with devoted attach-
ment after they have ceased to give their owners the
necessaries of a tolerable existence (an attachment, how-
ever, which it would be a calamity to drive from the
human breast).
Agriculturists could not shift their taxation burdens
upon other classes through the price of their productions,
simply because agriculture is not a monopoly ; whereas
all interests, under the single-tax regime^ which are mo-
nopolies and touched by it, would have the same chance
to shift their tax upon agriculture and other helpless in-
dustries, as now. But how easy would it be for great
trusts, such as a salt trust, having control of the salt
deposits ; or the oil trust ; or the coal and iron, having
control of the coal and iron deposits, to force all con-
sumers of these commodities to pay their land tax.
They would simply charge to cost of production, and
the consumers would pay it in the prices paid.
Customs walls aid these combinations in accomplish-
ing their purposes, but they are not necessary for this
end when combinations become international in their
character. The single-tax advocate contends that by
putting a tax upon the unworked mineral lands, these
lands would become available to new competitors ; but
how long before the latter would be brought into the
combination, or be crushed out by those with greater
capital ? The average farmer of America to-day is as
powerless to burden society in any shape, in his control
of the rent value of his land, as he is to make the con-
sumer pay his taxes. In fact, these conditions move on
parallel lines.
Mr. George is one who is able to see that the farmer
cannot throw the burden of indirect taxation upon other
I50 AMERICAN FARMS.
classes, for he says : " Let the working farmer consider
how the weight of indirect taxation falls upon him, with-
out his having the power to shift it off upon any one
else ; how it adds to the price of nearly every thing he
has to buy, without adding to the price of what he has to
sell." •
Why has the farmer " not the power to shift it off upon
any one else ? " Simply because competition is so great
in the articles he produces that he is powerless to make
his own prices, and every pinch drives him to seek relief
by increasing production — that is to say, competition."
Notwithstanding the fact that many things indicate
that land is going at the present time into the possession
of large holders, and that the small land proprietors are
being exterminated, there is not the slightest probability
of competition in agriculture diminishing for ages to
come. However, let the monopoly period be near or
remote, competition under the single-tax regime would
be sufficiently severe to exterminate the value of all
improvements to the small holder, either through their
' " Social Problems," p. 301.
* When Mr. Edward Atkinson dealt with the question of the rail-
way and the farmer in their economic relations, he evidently thought
it quite possible for an industry to be so situated that it would be
powerless to increase the prices of its products for the purpose of
throwing its taxes or any thing else upon the consumer, for he says :
' ' The charge (freights) which can be put upon the wheat is fixed by
the price at which East-India wheat can be sold in Market Lane."
(" Distribution of Products," p. 259.) He admits in this that the farmer
cannot always make his own prices, consequently taxes may rest upon
him when placed there. But, since railways may be in monopoly,
the price of wheat at Market Lane may have nothing to do with the
amount of freight they may take from the farmer ; besides, they are
of the industries which may shove their taxes upon those who use
them, as Mr. Atkinson elsewhere states.
THE SINGLE TAX. 151
abandoning their lands early in the contest, or later on
when they were obliged to do so.
Mr. George thinks that the small farmer in competing
with his bonanza rival would gain an advantage under
his scheme of taxation which he does not now possess,
as the small farmer has the greater proportion of im-
provements to be freed. But has he sufficiently con-
sidered the fact that the small farmers are principally
near the cities, where he proposes to lay the burden of
his tax, because there the lands have the greater rent
value than in sections more remote, while the small
farmer's most troublesome rival is situated on lands
which have a much less relative value, and would bear
but a small relative tax.' It is evident that the land-
holders which most threaten the peace of the typical
farmer of this country are a landed plutocracy as com-
petitive agriculturists, rather than a landed aristocracy
withholding land from use. Little England years ago,
with a large consuming population, and a great portion
of her lands kept out of use by an aristocracy, and with
a high protective tariff, was enabled to make agriculture
a monopoly. It was then a period when the burdens of
taxation were shifted from this industry. From at one
time bearing all, it finally fell to less than 5 per cent.,
where it remains. Under such a condition, lands became
abnormally high." The peculiar position of England for
a time gave to agriculture every advantage over other
' If this be met by the claim that one of the special purposes of the
single tax is to bring down the rent value of land in and about the
cities, as compared with land in the country, the conclusion must fol-
low, from the single-tax theory, that the cities will become the more
desirable for the masses to congregate in. Then what becomes of the
great argument, the cheapening of country lands for the masses ?
* See Book V. Chapter IV. on English agriculture.
152 AMERICAN FARMS.
industries, — a condition which is not likely to occur
again very soon, certainly not over the principal part of
the globe. In the States and Provinces every year sees
the incomes from most other occupations rise in com-
parison to the value of farms, and Mr. George was in
profound error when he said : " It has already become
impossible in our older States for a man starting with
nothing to become by his labor the owner of a farm."
("Social Problems," p. 314.)
The facts are that, in the old States and Provinces, it
is becoming all the time easier for the farm laborer to
buy out the typical American farmer who employs him ;
at the same time, he is less and less inclined to do so,
preferring, as he gains means, to make his escape to the
cities, or to mechanical occupations. At no period have
there been greater opportunities for men of small capital
to gain land than during the last twenty years. Yet
never in America has the concentration of population in
the cities been greater than during this period.
In leaving the country they leave land, if not falling in
value, certainly, in most cases, not rising, to go to where
land is rising rapidly in value. The human family, for
some cause or other, is preferring those very spots where
to obtain land gold enough to near cover it must be
offered. It follows that if there is an evil in this flocking
to cities, it comes not from pressure for want of land, but
from something outside or anterior to the land-pressure
trouble. Then the flocking of people to cities, in its
relation to land values, is a cause, and not an effect, as
the single-tax advocate maintains. The first cause lying
back of the flocking of people to cities, other causes
than those ascribed by Mr. George for the gregarious
tendency of the time must be found.
THE SINGLE TAX. 1 53
In truth, these anomalous conditions, of which I have
just been writing, seem a proof that the land of the
typical American farmer is declining in value through
the extreme pressure of taxation of all sorts which has
been gradually forced upon it, to the ruin of the farmers,
rather than that their ruin is coming through land rising
in value by escape of direct taxation. If this be correct,
the application of Mr. George's cure would be but to add
to the disease.
In the neighborhood where I now write are families-
supported on incomes from farms which pay in direct
taxes over three times as much as corresponding incomes
from other occupations ; and I believe conditions similar
to this are not rare all over America. Is this equality ?
Why should one escape, and not the other ?
The proprietor farmer, however small the income
derived from his occupation, has heavy land taxes to
pay ; the wage-earner, who may have twice the income,
practically escapes. Is this equality ?
The mortgaged land proprietor pays the usurers' taxes
upon his capital, and the usurer pays on merely the
income, and more frequently escapes altogether. Is this
justice ?
Again we quote from Mr. George : " If we impose
a tax upon money loaned, as has often been attempted,
the lender will charge the tax to the borrower, and the
borrower must pay it, or not obtain the loan," (" The
Canons of Taxation," p. 2.)
Not a few labor under the same impression as Mr.
George upon this subject. We beg to suggest that this
error springs from a defective analysis of the question,
notwithstanding the fact that so astute a reasoner as Mr.
George is among the number who hold to the theory.
154 AMERICAN FARMS.
The rate of interest is governed by demand as well as
supply ; decrease the number of those who borrow, and
demand decreases. Every financial burden lifted from
the borrower makes the lender less necessary. Relieve
the one million or more mortgaged farms of the United
States from all taxation for five years (say $350 in all to
each), and put it upon the loaners of money, and then
mark the decrease in the number of mortgaged farms.
In shifting these burdens from the borrower to the
lender you increase the number of those who have cap-
ital ; you are working in the direction of breaking up a
monopoly. With a sugar, a salt, or an oil combine it is
different ; put the single tax upon them and still they
control the price of sugar, of salt, and of oil ; for these
articles are still required, and these combines only fur-
nish them. Something further is necessary in regulating
the incidence of taxation, a subject which will receive
due consideration further on.
It is argued by the supporter of the single-tax theory
that the cities would bear as large a share of the burden
as the rural districts, with all taxes levied upon the rent
value of land, since real estate in our cities is reaching
an aggregate value as great as in the country. Even so
it but proves an abnormal condition, which we wish to
remedy. Give to rural property the relative value which
it had forty years ago, that is to say, from representing
35 per cent, of the total wealth of the nation to 60 per
cent., — a desirable change, — and where then would the
tax fall the heaviest ? Or, apply the tax to-day in Can-
ada, and which but the country would pay it ?
Looking upon the single tax in this, its most flattering
aspect, it is found that it can only be applied to an
abnormal condition, one which it would aid in continu-
THE SINGLE TAX. 1 55
ing. It is not reasonable that the lands of a great country
should have an aggregate value higher in cities than
in its country. Consequently, our aim should be, not
merely to establish a system which only promises to serve
a condition which must continue false, in order that the
system may be maintained, but to look for something to
bring about a truer state.
However, the procuring of a system for laying a just
direct tax is a matter of grave importance. This neces-
sity has been heedlessly evaded by economists, as well as
statesmen, under whose province it comes for treatment.
Every thoughtful publicist should know that its solution
must become the base on which fiscal reforms must
rise ! without which that many-headed monster — indirect
taxation — must continue to hold sway.
CHAPTER III.
INDIRECT TAXATION.
If farmers have been slow to appreciate the injustice
of the system of direct taxation under which they have
labored, and the dangers now threatening them in the
agitations going on in the great influential centres to in-
crease these evils, it is hardly a wonder that the more
intricate question of indirect taxation has failed to receive
the disapproval which it merits from them. Yet, on the
other hand, it seems almost incredible that a scheme for
collecting public revenue could be devised to work so
much and so continuous harm as our customs and excise
taxes have, without causing louder protests from the
masses ere this ; that farmers, who are the most deeply
victimized, should nurse the delusion that possibly it
was benefiting them.
It is plainly evident that indirect taxation has been the
chief working instrument in a system of government
prevailing in America, through which the slavery of class
to class is being secured. Through it, the policy of pro-
tection, of which we have said so much in condemnation
in the preceding chapters, has been of easy application.
It has shown how it is possible, by artificial means, to
entirely change the course of national industry. Without
it, or similar means, it must have followed the course in
America which the protectionists of as far back as 1789
156
INDIRECT TAXATION. \%J
decided it should not follow, viz. : '* Seek with success a
competency from our cheap and fertile soil." ' Thus a
century ago the first blow at American agriculture was
given.
Practically, America's indirect-taxation system is just a
century old. The modest proportions of the monster's
early days seem almost ridiculous compared with its
present huge development. The United States customs
tariff of 1789, equivalent to an advalore?fi rate of 8| per
cent, as a temporary expedient, has grown to a vicious
tax of above 40 per cent. Canada is marching in the
same direction, and at a rate quite as rapid.
To-day the evasions and perversions of the customs
laws involve sums in terms of money not far behind the
total-revenue considerations of a hundred years ago, to
say little of the more important matter of the moral
effects on the parties immediately in contact with the
operations of the law. It is well, perhaps, for the peace
of the spirits of those worthy gentlemen who in 1789
protested against an 8|- per cent, tariff, because of the
temptation it would offer to the breaking of law and
endangering the morals of the people, that they are
probably ignorant of the fact, that here in America,
within a century, under the fostering influence of the
system then introduced, smuggling has become a fine
art.
The history of our indirect taxation is an interesting
study. From it we learn how it is possible for a people
to become gradually and unconsciously enslaved, the
power of the people to govern themselves to be snatched
away, and the safety of our civilization brought into
peril. Even away back in the days of the Romans, im-
' Fisher Ames.
158 AMERICAN FARMS.
ports on merchandise were levied, it is true, for revenue
purposes ; but a tariff, as a chief medium in holding
together a system of government — a sort of despotism by
jugglery, — has, strange to say, its highest development in
modern ages.
Through indirect taxation, alliances between selfish
interests having the command of wealth and govern-
ments with matchless fondness for attachments which
insure possession of abundant money resources, are
easily formed. Thus combines, monopolies, and other
moneyed interests become ascendant in government.
Such a rule brings the liberties of the people into actual
peril. Farmers have much to fear from the sway of
the plutocrat. Some one very correctly remarks : " A
plutocracy has its throne in cities ; an aristocracy in
the country." Even an aristocracy is in sympathy with
the great rural classes. Moreover, with the country
shorn of its political power, democracy is a delusion. It
follows, that the farmers, of all others, are imperilled by
a revenue system which secures the alliance of wealth
and government. But more of this elsewhere.
The first great canon of taxation laid down by all
eminent economists is to the effect that the volume of
taxation be rigidly limited to the actual necessities of
the state. The violation in America of this first rule is
to be laid principally to the door of our system of in-
direct taxation. Politicians have learned that by this
system " the fowl is plucked without crying out." Tax-
ation always becomes so adjusted as to bear upon those
least likely to rebel against it. That the farmers are they
of America who have never yet united their forces to
resist this system of oppression is patent to all who have
given the subject any attention.
INDIA' EC r TAXATION. I 59
We speak advisedly when we say — it cannot be uttered
too often — that ''indirect taxation is a cowardly, mean,
unjust method of drawing from the small incomes of
the people at large, vast aggregate amounts, which, if
proportionately borne by the rich, would result in their
immediate rebellion." This brings us to consider the
fact that through our indirect tax we are continually in-
creasing the violation of another most important canon
of taxation — to wit, the levying of taxation in just
proportion between rich and poor.
Adam Smith's rule as to equality was, that "the sub-
jects of every state ought to contribute toward the
support of the government as nearly as possible in pro-
portion to the revenue which they respectively enjoy
under the protection of the state." This canon must
stand as the citadel of justice in schemes for obtaining
public revenue ; for the power of private revenue in
society increases to the individual possessing it, as reve-
nue is augmented from that of yielding what may barely
suffice for existence to that of affluence and luxury.
Placing the bearings of indirect taxation on consump-
tion at say 15 per cent., we will have the family whose
total income is $240, with the bare necessities of exist-
ence requiring an outlay of $200 before indirect taxes
are paid, contributing $30 for revenue, or 12.5 per cent,
of total income ; while, -on the other hand, the family
whose income is $10,000, living in comparative luxury
on an outlay of $5,000, will be paying $750 in taxes, or
only 7 1 per cent, on total income. One will be paying
75 per cent, of possible savings — the true consideration
in estimating the incidence of taxation ; the other, less
than 8 per cent. The million-dollar income contributes
I to 1 1 per cent, for revenue, and the so-called poor
l6o AMERICAN FARMS,
man his lo to 20 per cent. How unjust ! the state
stimulating the growth of inequality by treatment totally
unscientific as well as inhumane.'
To those who say that our indirect taxes are so regu-
lated as to bear heaviest on articles consumed by the
rich, we reply : A study of our tariff laws, our trade
and navigation returns, and the opinions of those having
practical information on the subject does not warrant
such a conclusion. The writer's many years of constant
observation of the workings of America's customs laws,
and a knowledge of the many advantages taken and con-
cessions made, permit him to make no such deduction
in behalf of the wisdom and humanity of these laws.
" Books, carpets, dishes, " and the like, are a necessity of
civilized life, and " surely " the so-called " poor men " of
our farmers who should be obliged to " do without these "
are few ; though there are politicians who think other-
wise."
Another important canon of taxation is to the effect
that a tax should take as little as possible beyond the
sum that reaches the exchequer. Our system of indirect
taxation is most expensive, for it exacts large sums from
the payer, through the profits charged by the merchant
who advances the tax.
Mr. Henry C. Carey was an uncompromising opponent
of free trade and decidedly in favor of land taxes, but he
has left on record the result of a vast amount of research,
' One hundred thousand capitalists in the United States are enabled
to save more after taxes are paid than fifteen millions of its people,
in whom are included the farmers, the greatest actual wealth pro-
ducers of the commonwealth.
* The pauper is not treated as a subject for consideration in the
incidence of taxation, as he is supported by the state in any case.
INDIRECT TAXATION. l6l
accompanied by his own opinions, all in most pronounced
opposition to indirect taxation. He tells of how at one
time, in the days of the Roman Empire, " duties on im-
ports and exports, on the passage of country produce
into towns and cities, on the passage of rivers, on sales
by auction, on almost every kind of property in motion,
mark the later portion of the history of the republic, and
the whole of that of the empire. Slaves could not change
masters, nor could property change hands by legacy or
donation, without payment of a tax. The raising of
cattle and the consumption of salt were privileges to be
paid for to the state. The consumer of water, and he
who needed to avoid it, alike were taxed. Nothing was
so trivial in appearance as to warrant its escape from
the hands of the tax-gatherer, provided only that it
promised to add to a revenue required for the main-
tenance of a system under which labor and land declined
in value and slavery took the place of freedom."
Of Turkey he said : " Taxation there has no reference
whatever to the value of the land, but only to the ability
of the collector and his agents to squeeze from its culti-
vator the largest share of its products."
Thus also of the United States : " The government of
the United States has, throughout most of its existence,
been misled by the erroneous idea that indirect taxation
was the legitimate mode of raising the public revenue.
. . . What has been the effect of this policy is seen in
the facts already stated in relation to the comparative
prices of agricultural products they need to sell and those
metallic ones they require to purchase — the experience
of forty years having exhibited a steady and regular
increase in the quantity of wheat, flour, rice, tobacco,
and cotton required to be given in exchange for smaller
l62 AMERICAN FARMS.
quantities of lead, tin, iron, copper, gold, and silver.
That being the road towards barbarism, and the course
in that direction having been continued with remarkable
pertinacity, we are thus supplied with an explanation of
the facts, that the power of trade grows steadily while
that of commerce declines, and that in the land in which
all men were once declared to be free and equal ' free
society ' is now declared to have proved 'a failure.'"'
And still the difficulty becomes greater. More decided
protection has only augmented the forces of centraliza-
tion within the national bounds, but indirect taxation
remains the same evil.
' " Social Science," vol. iii., p. igi.
CHAPTER IV.
DIRECT TAXATION.
Mr. Thomas G. Shearman, who is a student of this
subject, claims that for the United States, by the substi-
tution of direct for indirect taxation, $650,000,000, or
nearly one half the present burden, might be saved the
people ; the total aggregate weight being $1,350,000,000,
made up of the " share to government, profits on levy by
merchants, and the action of the tariff in increasing the
cost of domestic manufactures."
The writer's estimate is as follows : United States
customs and excise taxes amount to about $335,000,000
a year ; domestic manufactures, which now amount to
about $6,000,000,000, are increased in price at least 5
per cent, (one quarter the average protection), which
gives $300,000,000. By adding together the taxes paid
into the treasury and that paid the manufacturers, we
have $635,000,000, on which the jobbers and retailers
get at least 20 per cent., or an aggregate amount of
$137,000,000. Thus we have $1,132,000,000, representing
the indirect taxes upon the people of the United States ;
a yearly tax equivalent to $12.86 per capita, or $64.30
for the family of five. If this is the approximate sum of
the indirect taxes bearing upon the average farmers of
America, it is quite enough to account for the decline of
American agriculture.
163
164 AMERICAN FARMS.
In Canada the federal treasury gets about $28,000,000
at the present time through indirect taxation ; domestic
manufactures, which now amount to above $400,000,000,'
are increased on the average not less than 5 per cent.,
making another burden on the consumer of at least
$20,000,000. On these two amounts the merchants,
jobbers, and retailers who collect them get at least
another 20 per cent., or $5,760,000, making in all the
fine sum of $57,600,000, or about $57 for the average
family.
An average direct tax of $25 against the million or
more incomes in Canada would secure a revenue of $25,-
000,000. Would this not be a change calculated to
lighten the load carried by many a tax-burdened citizen ?
An annual direct tax of $15 upon each of the upwards
of 500,000 farm holdings in Canada would yield a
revenue greater than the sum total of its customs col-
lections of twenty years ago ($8,578,000 in 1868). This
even would be too liberal a contribution to the federal
treasury from the farmers of Canada ; a small one, how-
ever, compared with that now extracted from them.
The cities have a burden to bear, and personal property
has no right to escape. Death, probate, legacy, or
succession duties, to a limited extent, could also be
utilized to regulate inequality.
But, on whatever taxation be laid, it should rest on
the respective payers, as strictly as possible, in propor-
tion to income, and it should, after a certain limit, be
progressive. This is really the only scientific base on
which to found an equitable fiscal structure ; one at the
same time in perfect accord with the highest principles
of ethics. God never intended science to divide the
' Estimated $635,000,000 for 1889.
DIRECT TAXATION. 165
brotherhood of men by an impassable gulf, growing
wider and ever wider. Its mission is rather to bring all
this seeming conflict of interests into harmony.
Properly adjust a progressive tax on property and
mammoth incomes, and you give relief to the one to
whom the labor for the gratification of his necessities is a
real burden of itself. Levy this progressive tax with
all the weight it should have on combines, trusts, and
monopolies, and you give back to society an increment
which is really unearned. Tax the bonanza farmer in
this progressive way, relieve the small proprietor, and
competition would be relieved of a terror, the result of
an abnormal condition.
Small farmers could well demand this — without which
there appears no salvation for them, — a right in conform-
ity with science and the common weal ; but not as
suppliants for the crumbs of state charity ; not as the
millions of the peasantry of France and Germany, who
are now receiving presumed favors from the state after
being destroyed as actual forces in the national life.
Allow the small farmers of the world, before they
have lost courage and become depraved, to come under
the influence of these Avise changes as to taxation ; to
take a place as the ideal typical farmers of America,
and their power and usefulness as tax producers would
prove them no subjects for the exercise of charity, but
the equal of any of their contemporaries in bearing
the burdens of the state. It is an abnormal condition
which makes the farmer a subject of charity.
While these are my views on the one hand, I maintain
on the other that it would be harmful as well as un-
scientific political economy to prohibit the aggregation
of capital in industry. Deal with these matters by way
1 66 AMERICAN FARMS.
of taxation, as the great economist, Adam Smith, sug-
gested over one hundred years ago. Allow capital
freedom to work — the state securing its share ; permit no
public favors, and the harm from it will be brought into
small proportions. If it becomes a monopoly, and is thus
empowered to shift its burdens on the consumers of its
products, it is then robbing the citizens of the state, and
taxes should be put upon it until monopoly is broken.
If the state be a factor in the accumulation of incomes,
how much more is it true of the incomes which
roll up into the millions, than of those which barely
suffice for the possessor's existence ? How much more
then should the state claim from the former than from the
latter ? These views are in accord with those of many
thoughtful students of the present day, while a few
practical statesmen have dared to utter similar ones.
" The rich man, with a surplus income, should con-
tribute more proportionately out of that income, than
the poor man out of that poverty which leaves him no
more than a bare subsistence." ' J. B. Say, long ago,
taught that '' taxation is a sacrifice to the preservation of
society and social organization, which ought not to be
purchased by the destruction of individuals " ; that taxa-
tion " cannot be equitable unless its ratio is progressive." "
An excellent precedent for a progressive tax is given
in the eminently successful fiscal legislation of Solon, in
the little community of Attica. The weight of taxation
was then laid upon the largest property-holders — those
having the highest political privileges ; the next class
was relieved to the extent of \ ; the next f, and so on,
until those were reached who were ineligible for office —
' Hon. Edward Blake, speech at Toronto, 1886.
'•' " Political Economy," p. 459.
DIRECT TAXATION. 1 67
these were relieved altogether. It is true that Solon's tax
was levied principally on land, but the largest part of the
people were at that time landholders, and it became the
main concern to make taxation equitable between the
small and the large land proprietors, and this Solon's
policy accomplished in a high degree. In it was ex-
hibited the " most equitable division of the responsibili-
ties of citizenship that the world has ever seen." And
through it a condition of society was established which
" affected even succeeding generations most beneficially."
Legislation which followed finally overthrew all this, and
the masses became re-enslaved.
Mr. R. G. Haywood read an excellent paper before
the Social Science Congress at Huddersfield, England,
in 1883, on " How to Apply Direct Taxation." For
England he suggested the following distribution :
— Lands and Tenements at 4^^. in the pound
income 37.4 <^
— Railways, Canals, Mines, Minerals, at 4^. in
the pound income 10.8 "
— Legacy Duty 2.8 "
Succession Duty at \s. in the pound 15.0 "
— House Tax (warehouses, factories, works,
offices, shops, etc.) 20.0 "
— Miscellaneous 14.0 "
loo.o 5^
In amplifying this Mr. Haywood said : " The forego-
ing estimate is intended to show not only that there are
abundant sources from which ample income may be
drawn, but which are now unjustly allowed to escape
their legal liability. Moreover, it is plain that a suffi-
1 68 AMERICAN FARMS.
cient revenue may thus be obtained by a direct system
in the simplest manner at less cost of collection, and
with no interference with the operations of trade.
" The present house duty affords the best foundation
on which to build a system of direct taxation, extending
to all interests beyond the owners of land. Every man
resides in a house of some kind. Household suffrage is
now the basis of our parliamentary franchise, and this
fact will go far to reconcile even the lower classes to a
revenue system constructed upon it. Adam Smith
observes that ' a proportional house tax might perhaps
produce a more considerable revenue than any that has
been drawn from it in any part of Europe.' Again he
says : * A tax put upon house rents would in general
fall heaviest upon the rich, and in this sort of inequality
there would not be any thing unreasonable.'
" It is not very unreasonable that the rich should con-
tribute to the public expense, not only in proportion to
their revenue, but something more than that proportion.
To this, however, as well as to any other proposal whatever,
a hundred objections will be raised. But a graduated tax,
beginning with the exemption of the very poorest class
having a bare subsistence, and rising in a scale adjusted
not according to rent alone, but taking also into ac-
count the occupation, profession, and position in rank,
might, and doubtless would, bring in a more elastic and
productive revenue than our present income tax."
The more these matters are studied, the clearer it will
appear that the matter of adjusting a progressive tax,
is not a more insurmountable difficulty than that of
adjusting a single tax by taking the unearned incre-
ment of land. And, whether with or without the single-
tax system, all lands held for speculative purposes
DIRECT TAXA TION. 1 69
should be taxed at their highest rate up to their full
market value, both for federal and local revenue. The
same may be said of bonanza farms.
With direct taxation, however levied, a stop may be
put to lavish and unnecessary public expenditures. Lord
Derby's remark forcibly expressed its immense advan-
tages when he said : " By making the whole revenue
depend upon direct taxation, the pressure would be so
odious that war would be avoided, because no party
would incur the odium of carrying it on." The tax-
payer will have a direct interest in holding a govern-
ment to strict account for exactions which are made
directly against him, for the reason that he directly
feels the severity of the burden imposed. Under such
circumstances it is only reasonable to suppose that he
will weigh well the question of his ability to bear the
imposition before he sanctions expenditures which may
be avoided. This certainly is another weighty argument
in favor of direct taxation. With direct taxation a check
would be immediately put to the growing power of Par-
liaments. With it properly laid, and with the results
which would necessarily follow, the American farmer
would again take his place in our legislative chambers.
CHAPTER V.
THE REAL STRENGTH OF AN EVIL SYSTEM OF
TAXATION.
In early times despotism gained its power by physical
force. It is claimed, with good reason, that, in most in-
stances of to-day, governments gain ascendancy, not only
over their opponents but over the people at large, by
cunning. It is conspicuously apparent to the student
of these subjects that, by this means, they are continually
increasing their command of the purses of the people of
America, and making stronger their alliances with the
wealthy classes. Surely, with such an advantage as this,
they have the power of position. Will they yield it up
without a desperate struggle ? We think they will not.
Professor Sumner very correctly remarks : " It is the
Forgotten Man who is threatened by every extension of
the paternal system of government." ' " Every new sub-
ject to be legislated upon strengthens the influence and
power of government, makes the politician more import-
ant in his own eyes, as well as in the eyes of others."
" All governments like to interfere ; it elevates their
position to make out that they can cure the evils of man-
kind."^ As the subjects seeking legislative benefits are
continually increasing, these potent props to the paternal
' " What the Social Classes Owe to Each Other," p. 150.
* Walter Bagehot, in " Economic Studies."
170
AN EVIL SYSTEM OF TAXATION. 171
system constantly augment its power ; while " expectant
ones " who hope, sooner or later, to have a share in
" manipulating the state control," — even down to the day
laborer, — are ever putting themselves in line to give it
support. Do away with indirect taxation, and place direct
taxation upon a proper basis, and the paternal govern-
ment of a civilized country would be shorn of its greatest
power, and the leaders of its forces know this only too
well. The twenty or more millionaires in the Senate of the
United States are thoroughly imbued with the idea that
wealth and government are inseparable ; they know just
how specially serviceable government may be to wealth,
and how specially serviceable wealth may be to govern-
ment, and they, like their fellows in every department of
the political machine, govern themselves accordingly.
The result is that against reform in our system of taxa-
tion and the evils it occasions there is a well consoli-
dated force, commanded by well-trained, experienced,
and self-interested officers.
But it is not only this regular army of active forces
which opposes this reform, there is also a force of nega-
tives, more or less irregular, who are most effective
impediments to wholesome efforts to effect this purpose.
They object to the policies of the actives, but they
formulate nothing to stimulate hope in the breasts of
those who long for remedial action. Worthless as are
their objections to action on the lines of their professions,
they are really grave stumbling-blocks to the many who
may desire a better state of things, for their ever ready
" wet blanket " is a constant check to weak-hearted
though honest reformers.' Yet reform is imperative.
' One of the most effective objections to radical changes in fiscal
policies made by its assumed friends, is that the necessity for large
1/2 AMERICAN FARMS.
However ponderous and expensive the machinery of
the state may be, it draws its support solely from the
substance of the people. " Woe to the people who are
incapable of limiting the sphere of the action of the
state. Liberty, private activity, riches, well-being, inde-
pendence, dignity depend upon this." '
Have the farmers and the thoughtful people of America
lost that power which alone can overcome these condi-
tions, the continued triumphing of which must finally
result in the ruin of all ?
revenues precludes the possibility of making these changes. The
reasoning is absurd : first, because revenue will always be required,
and, under our present system, whatever party is in power, every day
is making the conditions worse ; second, if it be admitted that a
change would be desirable for the collection of a small revenue, it is
still more desirable for the collection of a large one. Under our
system of taxation, the volume is increased at an arithmetical ratio,
while the evils may be said to increase at a geometrical ratio.
' Frederic Bastiat.
BOOK VI.
POLITICS.
The conditions of prosperity with every people are involved in the
extent to which they bring their purest and wisest minds into positions
of honor and control. No nation, however strong ; no nation, how-
ever vigorous, could long preserve its relative prestige and prosperity
in the world, if it should disregard these conditions. — Dorman B.
Eaton.
CHAPTER I.
THE FARMER LOSING HIS POLITICAL POWER.
That the farmer of America is rapidly losing his
chances to have a controlling influence in the political
concerns of his country is patent to all who will give the
subject any consideration. In the United States, forty
years ago, the farmers composed 70 per cent, of the
industrial population. And even twenty years ago
the cattle farmers and agriculturists outnumbered all
ottiers. To-day they are in the minority. In Canada the
agriculturist vote is still in the majority ; but even in
this new country we fear the farmer is losing a lingering
chance to save his class from political annihilation. In
proportion to numbers and to capital invested in agri-
culture and cattle farming, compared with numbers and
amounts invested by other classes, there should be over
one hundred farmers representing their various con-
stituencies, sitting in the Dominion Parliament, and
looking after the interests of the agriculturists. Instead
of that number, not more than thirty-nine can in any way
be classed as representing the farmers. Of the whole
number of the last United States House of Representa-
tives, only seventeen were farmers, or i to every 470,000
of that occupation. Even in 1870 twenty-six farmers, or
I to every 228,000 of their number, had a seat in the
House. In our State and Provincial Legislatures, the
175
1/6 AMERICAN FARMS.
representatives from other classes outnumber the farmers
by three to one. These facts prove a decreasing power
in the farmers in a matter fraught with vital importance
to them.
Educated men of the professions are necessary for
certain positions in Parliament. But the majority of our
public men are inclined to encourage large expenditures,
elaborate formulas, numberless acts, and to the securing
of vast powers to Parliaments — much of all which is
decidedly antagonistic to the true interests of the people.
After prorogations, they boast of their labors, and the
number of their acts passed, many of which will, in the
public interest, require repealing. In Mr. Herbert
Spencer's " Sins of Legislators," he informs us that in
May, 1873, a Mr. Jason, vice-president of one of the law
societies of England, publicly stated that from the time
of Henry HI. to 1872, there had been passed through
Parliament, in England 18,110 public acts, of which four
fifths had been wholly or partially repealed. We are in-
clined to think, that at no time have politicians been
more anxious to magnify the necessity for much legisla-
tion than at the present day, and in no portion of the
globe more than in some of our own local as well as our
federal Legislatures.
In 186 1, the farmers of Nova Scotia composed 61 per
cent, of the industrial population of the province ; in
1 881, 43 per cent. This constant relative decline in the
numbers of the agricultural class, as compared with
others, shows most plainly that however prone the
farmer may be at the present to throw away his chances,
the time is not far distant when the power which he
might exercise to-day will be gone, perhaps never to
return.
THE FARMER LOSING HIS POLITICAL PO WER. 1 77
Few, we think, will deny that even on great questions
the farmer usually supports the old party, but he does it
from far higher motives than those which govern the aver-
age voter. But the consequences are that the politician
thinks it unnecessary to give himself any concern as to far-
mers' rights or his support. And, whatever has been
said to the contrary, the average farmer of America is, I
believe, above bribes. He, the farmer, with his industry,
his self-reliance, is really the nation-builder ; but in poli-
tics his vote counts but one, and the politician has faith
enough in his integrity to know for whom it will be cast.
With all that must be done to suit the exigencies of the
times, the demands for benefactions, protections, pre-
ventions, and encouragements, and which the State can
only satisfy by large demands upon the farmer and his
like, who have produced and saved, — the farmer is what
Professor Sumner calls him, "The Forgotten Man."
Even in many constituencies where agriculture largely
predominates either a coal, a coal-oil, a cotton-seed, a
railroad, a sugar-refining, or a cotton-manufacturing mo-
nopoly marches its forces to the polls, " an organized
army." The agricultural vote is, so far as self-interest is
concerned, practically a fruitless effort. When our poll-
ing days arrive, our agriculturists gather around the
booths and promptly record their votes. So long as
only farmers vote, the ward-workers have little trouble
to decide the state of the poll, carefully guarded as the
secrets of the poll may be. They know that their neigh-
bors are influenced in their choice of representatives, in
the main, by their feelings in reference to the antecedents
of the party whose name the candidate bears. But the
effect on the ballot-box by the squad of electors who
are to be marched down from the factories near by, will
178 AMERICAN FARMS.
depend altogether upon the numbers who turn out. An-
tecedents do not count with these. At such important
times a half-holiday is usually granted. " Election day ! "
" Hurrah for Edgar Thompson ! " " Hurrah for the age
of steel ! " This great army of toilers march and record
their votes in support of the majestic power of capital.
Their numbers decide the state of the poll before the
ballot closes. The friends of monopoly gather in crowds
around the booths, the opponents disappear, capital
wins ! " Hurrah for the hammer ! " " Hurrah for
patriotism and progress ! " A daring sceptic may have
the hardihood to wait the sheriff's decision, and upon
this outburst he very well suggests that it would be
better if they could hurrah for " liberty, patriotism, and
progress." He would be told that "the man who cries
'liberty' is an enemy to his country." The daring op-
ponent might well retort that, " at the back of all this,
there is a despotism which will one day crush us all.''
He would be told '- " If you don't like your country, you
had better get out." " Hurrah for the age of steel ! "
" There will be a grand dinner and an illumination
at the factory ! " " Hurrah for Mammon & Co ! "
Farmers of America ! You have against you an or-
ganized enemy that requires a solid union of your whole
strength to combat, or you are most surely undone !
Though far from believing in unbridled liberalism, or
rather the extreme of egoism, I think there can be little
doubt that Mr. Herbert Spencer is correct in his claim
that one of the most alarming tendencies of our time is
the encroaching power of Parliaments, and the willing-
ness with which the people are surrendering one pre-
rogative after another to the control of legislators. By
such yielding up of the management of concerns, which
THE FARMER LOSING HIS POLITICAL PO WER. I 79
were once considered best under the control of individ-
ual choice, a slavery is established, which, though volun-
tary, is none the less real. The consequences are that
not only is the scope of individual development and
relative influence lessened; but, through such deliver-
ance, new opportunities are created for selfish and
unscrupulous lobbyists to victimize the masses.
We have seen the popularity of meddlesome legislation
in the United States ; and we have also seen the ease
with which Canadian legislators have been able to satisfy
their constituents, that in the hands of a paternal gov-
ernment they could trust the management of their
dearest interests.
In the United States, at the present time, seventy-five
per cent, of the people allow their liberties, in regard to
trade, to be sacrificed to satisfy the avarice of a few
monopolists and the needs of a ponderous political sys-
tem. Yet the fathers of this same people, little more
than one hundred years ago, rose in their might and
waged war with England to gain perfect commercial
freedom. Just now, in Canada, a faction are clamoring
for the privilege of having their commercial dealings
confined to this continent alone ; though the liberties,
and chances for trade, which they are willing to imperil,
are valuable beyond compare with those which the colo-
nies of America a century ago were ready to fight for in
order to secure to their own control. In America, the
most burdensome system of taxation that can be devised
— taxes on imports — has increased, in the last twenty-five
years, many times the increase of population. And still
the people sanction a continual increase. Will they
eventually cry a halt ? Or will they allow it to go on
unchecked, until they are powerless to compel a change ?
l8o AMERICAN FARMS.
Our political systems give to our legislators most
tempting opportunities, by effecting slight changes, to
put thousands into the hands of the monopolist and the
treasury at the expense of the people ; while the manu-
facturer in return will put his hundreds into the poli-
tician's election fund, and make a good bargain by this
exchange of services. The politician has but to support
the aims of the monopolist, and the monopolist will stand
by the politician.
So apparently irresistible are the toils of our various
politico-fiscal systems that even some of our best men
are unable to escape their pernicious influence. Have
we not recently seen our most earnest, able, high-minded,
and experienced statesmen, who, from their first entry
into the political arena, have stood by the masses, finally
advocating the cause of the oppressor as a last recourse
for a return to power ? The results, of course, are a
greater victory for capital and the loss of champions for
the interests of the people.
Many of our laws are made, not in the interest of the
masses, but for the selfish ends of the few, and very often
for the direct benefit of the selfish politicians who make
them. A goodly number of our people know all this ;
they feel that its corrupting and demoralizing influence
has permeated through our whole social life ; but we, in
effect, have decided that party despotism must be main-
tained.
How appropriate are these words of Bastiat : " What !
the law is no longer the refuge of the oppressed, but the
arm of the oppressor ! The law is no longer a shield,
but a sword ! The law no longer holds in her august
hands a scale, but false weights and measures ! And you
wish to have society well regulated ! Your system has
THE FARMER LOSING HIS POLITICAL PO WER. 1 8 I
written over the entrance of the legislative halls these
words : ' Whoever acquires any influence here can obtain
his share of the legalized pillage.' And what has been
the result ? All classes of society have become demora-
lized by shouting around the gates of the palace : ' Give
me a share in the spoils ! ' "
Yes, many of us know full well that our laws are op-
pressive, demoralizing, and expensive. Professor Sum-
ner says of the United States : " Men are put up for the
correction of these bad laws who are ' no better than the
laws themselves ' " — men whose hearts are not in the
interest of reforms, whose very natures prompt them to
oppression. Can we expect an extension of justice and
liberty at their hands ? " Can you gather grapes from
thorns, or figs from thistles ? " Party declares for them ;
and the independent voice, the best voice of the country,
is not heard in our legislative halls.'
Our public men are urged to stand by principle, by
truth, by the cause of real liberalism, as the only cause
worth working for, as the cause which must eventually
win. But, in return, they say : " It is no time to philoso-
phize, to moralize, to theorize " ; that '' the man who
' Says New York T7-ibiine editorially : ' ' The governing classes at
Ottawa prosper with the adventurous aid of railway contracts and
jobbery of every description. . . . The future seems dark and uncer-
tain and clouded with difficulty, because the present is a period of
disenchantment, during which the people have found out that Confed-
eration is enriching a powerful ring of government politicians, office-
holders, and corruptionists, without promoting the permanent pros-
perity of the people." — October, 1889. The people of Canada may
be induced to stand by Confederation, but the greatest cause for dis-
satisfaction is in its being held together by the very system which
Sir John Macdonald borrowed from the protectionists of the United
States, for whom the New York Tribune is the chief organ,
1 82 AMERICAN FARMS,
advocates principles is a crank, a lunatic " ; that " the
first and main thing is victory, principles afterwards."
Victory or no victory, principles are shoved aside or
degraded into merely serving the objects of the hour.
These politicians, it is true, often go to the hustings
advocating changes of the most startling character for
the presumed welfare of the " sovereign people." But
when they get into secure positions themselves, they
coolly take effectual measures to shelve these reforms or
warp them into harmony with their own selfish interests.
And are they brought to book by the people, as they
should be ? O no ! Unforeseen circumstances require
a new programme, and the dissatisfied are silenced for
the time.'
New schemes are being continually set afloat to mys-
tify and captivate, and for the purpose of using up taxa-
tion surpluses, and to furnish excuses for further drafts
on the people. For the onerous tax extracted from the
citizen through a vicious system one day, he is made to
laud and glorify his representatives the next for gaining
for him, in the most conspicuous and flattering manner,
a trifling service in return, the intrinsic value of which
may be most questionable.
Our political schemes are decided, not by the inherent
value of the different planks in the platform agreed on —
not because those planks rest upon principles of high
and desirable order, but because their adoption offers, as
' All thoughtful persons can bear testimony that the result of a
dependence upon expedients ends in barren result — sorrow and con-
fusion. Legislators are but human. Statecraft, however, is supposed
to be the work of ripe experience. Says Ruskin : " It is far better
to spend your thousand pounds in making a good gun, and then blow
it to pieces, than to pass a life of idleness. Only do not let it be
THE FARMER LOSING HIS POLITICAL POWER. 1 83
the politician believes, the easiest and quickest route to
power, to office, to the public treasury. These policies
are made by the great " bosses," who give their orders to
the professionals, and who write and work up the inter-
ests of party organizations in line with the party policy.
The professionals give their orders to special ward-
workers, who are supposed to carry out, to the letter, the
plan of the "bosses." Those who " kick," remonstrate,
or philosophize, are ostracised from any participation in
the management or secrets of the great organizations.
They are treated with the utmost severity. Neither on
the platform nor through the press will they gain the
public ear, if the party machine can prevent them. The
press is too much controlled by one or the other of the
great political parties. Those who are in office, make it
their business to assist in holding together that party to
which they are indebted for their offices. Those who
are out of office must carry the next election in order to
gain office.
Outside the great party machine are the larger por-
tion of the people, who are getting to feel, more and
more, either indifferent, discouraged, helpless, or dis-
gusted with repeated failures, compromises, and expedi-
ents, in lieu of the fulfilling of promises and pledges, or
expectations raised by the clever politician through the
vehement denunciation of past wrongs. A farmer, here
and there, may show dissatisfaction at all this. His pro-
called political economy." Legislators have as good a right as others
to their years of experimental schooling. And they also have a right,
as others have, to the plea for human fallibility. But they have no
right to practise political experiments, speculations, and expedients
at the expense of the people, and claim for their actions the appella-
tion of statesmanship.
1 84 AM ERICA Kf FARMS.
testations (should he choose to make them) are not to
be heeded, if it can be avoided, though he make them
ever so loudly.'
The same old story is repeated over and over again.
We tacitly decide that either one or the other despotism
will rule, and rule in its own way, in defiance of the
objections and threatenings of the victimized. Our
whole political and social morality must be degenerating
under this regime.^
' A few days ago the writer suggested to a legislator that we should
have more farmers in our Parliaments. He replied: "It is a hard
place for a farmer, for the moment he rises in the House in their be-
half he is set upon by a half-dozen lawyers." The Farm and Home
expressed similar views recently when referring to the action of one of
our legislative bodies — views which apply well to the general feelings
of politicians toward the farmer who runs the gauntlet of presuming
to mix in political matters — " Whenever the Senate could see a farm-
er's head, it hit it."
''■ Recently said the Quebec Chronicle (Conservative): " There are
honest men in both political camps, but the difficulty is to get them to
enter public life. It is the tactician who eventually comes to the
front, and success only crowns the efforts of the man who possesses an
elastic conscience. In the old days there used to be a strong public
opinion in the country. When the politicians went wrong there was
such a thing as keeping them from power and putting into their places
men of sterling integrity. Alas ! we have no public opinion nowa-
days worth the toss of a copper. Self-interest is the first law of
nature, and the premier who knows his man and understands the art
of buying, can have little difficulty in maintaining himself in power as
long as he has a mind to reign."
On the foregoing the St. John Telegraph (Liberal) remarks : " Has
it really come to this, that an honest politician cannot succeed, and
that there is no public opinion worth the toss of a copper ? We trust
it is not yet so bad as that. There is, no doubt, less honesty in poli-
tics than there was a quarter of a century ago, and vastly less of
public opinion. . . . What fate is in store for a country that will
not have honest men for rulers ? "
THE FARMER LOSING HIS POLITICAL POWER. 1 85
Said George William Curtis, a few years ago, before
one of the universities of America : " The rural states-
men who founded the Republic saw, in a vision, a homo-
geneous and intelligent community, the peace and
prosperity and intelligence of the state reflected in the
virtue and wisdom of the government. But is this our
actual America ? Or a glimpse of Arcadia ? Is this the
United States of Plato's Republic ? Or Harrington's
Oceana? Or Sir Thomas More's Utopia? What are
the political maxims of the hour ? In Rome do as
Romans do. Fight fire with fire. Beat the devil with
his own weapons. Take men as they are ; and don't
affect superior goodness. Beware of the politics of the
moon ; and of Sunday-school statesmanship. This is
our current political wisdom ; and the results are
familiar. ' This is a nasty State,' cries the eager parti-
san, ' and I hope we have done enough nasty work to
carry it ! ' ' The conduct of the opposition,' says another,
' was infamous. They resorted to every kind of base and
contemptible means, and, thank God ! we have beaten
them at their own game.' The majority is overthrown
by the political machinery intended to secure its will.
The machinery is oiled by corruption, and grinds the
honest majority to powder."
How well all this applies, at this very hour, to the
party politics of Canada as well as the United States, all
know too well. Either party in each country is ener-
getic in its vociferations against the corrupting influences
used by the other. Yet from all sides we hear that it is
preposterous to think of gaining power without using the
same corrupting means. However righteous the cause,
however direct its appeals to reason, however great the
interest of the people in its triumphs, it is the current
1 86 AMERICAN FARMS.
political wisdom to ostracise public discussion, and to
favor the dependence upon petty bribes, secret influ-
ences, and pot-house arguments.
Knowledge of the fact that in less than fifteen years
in Canada, over seventy elections have been voided by
the courts of that country for corrupt practices, should
cause all its right-thinking people to blush for its political
impurity.
Even as late as thirty years ago, Simon Brown, the
politician, and gifted editor of the New England
Farmer of those days, had not lost hope for the future
of America, through the power of the rural population
to guide in wisdom and virtue the political, as well as the
social and economic destinies of the Republic. He saw
a future before the farmers of America as the proper
governors of the commonwealth. In January, 1859, he
said to them : " The people, the yeomanry, the dwellers
in the rural districts," — the readers of the New England
Earmer, and the like, must realize that they are the
legitimate rulers of the land, and act accordingly — must
take the reins of government into their own hands.
Every year sees the farmer with less political influence
than ever before. This certainly is a lamentable fact.
When the people of Greece got to look upon its rural
populations as unfit for any thing but drudgery, they
were preparing the Grecian Republic for its downfall.
This, then, is a first cause of the American farmer's
troubles, the neglect of his political rights and duties ;
others follow as consequences.
CHAPTER II.
THE farmer's interest IN FREE TRADE IN NAT-
URAL PRODUCTS ONLY.*
I am not about to select that great interest connected with the
agriculture of this country, and call upon the landowners to relinquish
protection, unprepared at the same time to call upon other protected
classes to relinquish protection also. In the confidence that the prin-
ciple for which I contend is a just and wise one, I ask all protected
interests to make the sacrifice, if it be a sacrifice, which the appli-
cation of that principle will render necessary. — Sir Robert Peel,
1846.
From the columns of a valuable little farm paper — The
Farm and Home — we read the other day : '' Most agri-
cultural products seem to be viewed as raw material.
This view appears to have largely permeated both politi-
cal parties. It is a view that appears destined to do
incalculable harm to our agriculture, if permitted to pre-
vail. . . . Most of his (the farmer's) products are as
really manufactured articles as are the clothes he wears.
Let us demand and compel a halt until this principle is
honestly recognized." This protest seems to us correct
and timely in the interest of the farmer. Is there not
quite as much reason for protecting the producer of so-
called "natural products," or products of the farm, as
the so-called manufactured articles ?
' The substance of this chapter appeared in correspondence of the
writer, printed in the Halifax Morning Chronicle, November, 1S88.
187
1 88 AMERICAN FARMS.
Though the much-talked-of "Mills Bill," which the
American people have lately passed their verdict upon,
was certainly a free-trade measure in an international
sense ; we are not surprised that it found no more favor
with the agricultural classes. It offered them little relief
from the avarice of the monopolist, while it threatened
to take from a large class of farmers the little protection
they may have enjoyed. But it is hard to conceive it
possible that the farmers of the United States should
have suffered the impositions which have been gradually
put upon them, without louder protests ere this. We
find, however, that these exactions have gathered with
more or less increasing force for a century.
The "triumphant" Republican party boasts of having
done much in the interest of the people in increasing the
free list, from representing an import of only 14 millions
per annum twenty years ago, to representing 244 millions
at the present time. Into this free list has gone the
greater part of the slight protection which the farmer
may have had. While these changes have been made
against him, more important ones have been made in
another direction. The duties which he has been
obliged to pay on manufactured articles, have risen
from ^bout 25 J per cent, in the decade 1850-60, to 38
per cent, in the decade 1860-70 ; to be raised again to
42^ per cent, in the decade 1870-80 ; and then again to
44 per cent, in the last seven years ; to finish up with 47
per cent, in 1887. The free list has been made to cover
such articles as are consumed by all, and productive of
revenue for the government treasury only — when taxed
— and the few articles of farm produce which may be
imported. Says Professor Taussig, in his " Tariff His-
tory of the United States " : " Step by step, in the
THE FARMER'S INTEREST. 1 89
various tariff acts which have been passed since the war,
all the non-protective duties have been swept away, in
order that the protective duties might be retained. Arti-
cles like^ cocoa, pepper, cinnamon, cloves, olives, the
most natural and proper sources of revenue from import
duties, have been admitted free of duty. The decisive
step in this process was the tea and coffee act of 1872.
There are at present none other than protective duties in
our tariff."
Thus we find that, though the United States customs
free list has been extended, it has been by ignoring the
farmer's right to be considered a subject for protection,
while at the same time increasing protection to
manufactures. While these changes referring to the
tariff have been transpiring, the internal taxes upon
domestic manufacture laid in 1862, which amounted at
one time to $127,000,000, nullifying, to a slight extent,
the protection given the manufactures, have been discon-
tinued. Besides this, the tax of $72,000,000, which was
taken yearly from the 460,170 persons who were found
to have incomes exceeding $r,ooo, to the aggregate
amount of $800,000,000, is no more collected. In fact,
this vast aggregate income, which has doubled or trebled
since the repeal of the tax, pays nothing for its protection
into the federal revenues, except in the individual cases
where the indirect taxes operate to the extent that the
living expenses exceed the $1,000.
In the earliest days of Canadian protective legislation,
the agricultural interests were classed among those which
were to be directly guarded and vastly benefited by re-
strictive duties against the products of the foreign rival.
Many farmers were highly delighted at the prospect of
having the domestic markets all to themselves for the
190 AMERICAN FARMS.
fruits of their orchards. The beef, pork, and hams of
the United States were to be kept out of the country,
and consequently the farmers would have a chance to
market their meats at profitable prices. The duty levied
against the import of corn and corn-meal, it was argued,
would give the farmers of the Maritime Provinces an
opportunity for reviving a once profitable industry — the
raising of coarse grains for the use of the fisherman and
lumberman. And the duty of fifty or seventy-five cents per
barrel on the import of wheat-flour was, it was claimed,
to cause the maritime consumers to depend upon the
lands of the Lower Provinces for their bread. No doubt
these flattering prospects prompted many a farmer to
cast in his lot with the party for protective legislation.
An enthusiastic advocate of this new policy, residing in
the western part of Nova Scotia, was so deeply impressed
with the probable happy results of protection to the
farmers' grain interests, that he immediately erected an
expensive mill for the grinding of domestic grains, im-
ported large quantities of seeds, and gave his farmer
friends every assistance possible in taking advantage of
this new wealth-producing policy. The mill ran little
more than a year, and then closed up.
The experience of the years which have passed since
the inauguration of the Canadian policy of protection
should do much to teach how delusive and unreliable are
the promises of meddlesome legislation for the control
of industry. Probably never before were the farmers of
Canada driven more to depend merely upon the pro-
duction of those articles which can be exported in com-
petition with all rivals, than at the present day. When
the manufacturers of cottons, of rubber goods, of agri-
cultural implements, and of the products of sugar refin-
THE FARMER S INTEREST. I9I
eries and the like have found that foreign competitors
have continued to send in their productions in spite of
existing restrictions, the paternal government has always
been ready to answer their entreaties for more protec-
tion. Three times since the inception of the high tariff
in Canada, have the manufacturers of agricultural tools
been granted increased protection, in order that the for-
eign articles might be prohibited, and that the profit to
their labors might be increased. We ask — What has
been done for the Canadian farmer in this ? We think
the answer will be, all over Canada, " practically noth-
ing ! "
If it be desirable to increase the variety of industries,
it should be good policy to retain and augment those
already in existence. Why not increase the obstructions
to the import of beef, pork, and hams into Canada, until
the domestic productions have complete control of the
home markets ? Why allow the fruits of the orchards and
gardens of the United States to take any part in supply-
ing consumers in Canada ? Would it not be encouraging
as worthy a class of labor as that of the foreign workmen
and workwomen, who are being drawn to our factories ?
But what is really the character of the Canadian pro-
tective principles in reference to this very important
question, and what are the views of its guiding spirits ?
Sir John Macdonald, Premier of Canada, most as-
toundingly declares, that: "To the farmer free inter-
change of natural products (with foreign countries),
would, of course, be highly advantageous " ; but of the
manufacturer, he says : " Free trade in manufactures
would be disastrous for him at present." '
Sir Leonard Tilley, at present Governor of New Bruns-
' To the representative of the E'all Mall Gazette.
192 AMERICAN FARMS.
wick, who has the honor of being one of the principal
framers of the national policy of Canada, which, it was
claimed, would foster and develop the industries of all
classes, now ** favors a largely increased free list of the
natural products, and of certai?i kinds of manufactured
goods."
Sir Charles Tupper, late Finance Minister of Canada,
has admitted to having lately offered to enter into nego-
tiations with the United States Government for the pur-
pose of placing all natural products upon the free list
between the two countries. At the Cutlers' feast at
Sheffield, England, September 5, 1888, Sir Charles stated
that " they (the Conservatives of Canada) had always
been ready, as they were ready now, to extend their
commercial relations with them (the United States) with
regard to the natural products of the two countries."
Moreover, in debating the question of unrestricted
reciprocity before Parliament at Ottawa (1888), nearly
every speaker on the government side of the House
favored absolute free trade in "natural products."
One said : " I am the son of a farmer, and I believe
in protecting every individual when it is necessary he
should be protected. But I contend that, so far as the
farmers of Annapolis and Kings (in Nova Scotia) are
concerned, they do not want any protection." '
Further, the whole government press in Canada is
declaring the willingness of its party to enter into the
utmost reciprocity of trade in farm products with any
country willing for it. And is it not a provision of the
national policy act, that, whenever the United States
chooses to put natural products upon the free list,
Canada shall reciprocate ? Of course, to open thus the
'Mr. Mills, of Annapolis.
THE FARMER'S INTEREST. 193
markets of Canada to the farm productions of the United
States, is to open such markets to the only competitors
worth considering.
The more that is known of American protection,
either in the United States or in Canada, the more it will
be found that its aims are not for the benefit of all
classes, but for a special class. Either this or protec-
tion is a delusion. It was well said by Sir John's organ,
the Toronto Empire: "As far as the manufacturer is
concerned, cheapening food (by imports), which the
country cannot raise in sufficient quantities, is a protec-
tive measure, not an abandonment of protection." We
presume this to be an authoritative exposition of the real
sentiments of the leading Canadian protectionists who
are giving the cause political guidance. Gradually the
farmer must be borne on to the conclusion, that the
national policy of Canada is not for his benefit ; and that
when the protectionist politician, whether innocently or
otherwise, signifies his willingness to support a policy of
free trade in " natural products only," he is one who
would sacrifice the farmers for the benefit of the
manufacturers ! and that the protective policy of Canada,
when properly looked into, like its prototype in the
United States, means protection for the manufacturers
and plutocracy, and for them only.
If it be contended the farmers, through protection to
manufacturers, gain indirectly, by the increase of home
markets, we answer : Would not universal free trade in
natural products, or farm products, be making these very
markets free markets for the farm products of the world ?
If this is so, then what becomes of the theory of building
up home markets for the farmers ?
The Hon. Charles Tupper, in a speech at Beaverton,
9
194 AMERICAN FARMS.
in September, 1888, gave utterance to most extraordinary-
views on this subject. He said : *' I say again, that we
have every reason, from the policy of the (United States)
Democratic party, to believe that we can have virtually
the old reciprocal relations and still keep the Canadian
market for the Canadian manufacturer and the Canadian
farmer as well." How these two opposite things could be
accomplished we are unable to understand : keep the
home market for the farmer, and at the same time throw
it open to free competition.'
What has been done by protection to make a home
' The following, from the St. John Sun of August 23, i88g, states
the position of the government of Canada exactly : " In declaring
their approval of reciprocity in natural products, therefore, govern-
ment journals are not hedging, but simply restating a position from
which they have never withdrawn."
The opposition press are equally correct in their claim that no
public man in Canada has ever opposed ' ' free trade in natural products
only " ; therefore the farmers' interests are not represented in Par-
liament.
The following is the standing proposition appended to the Canadian
customs act of 1879 : " Any or all of the following things, that is to
say, animals of all kinds, green fruits, hay, straw, bran, seeds of all
kinds, vegetables (including potatoes and other roots), plants, trees and
shrubs, coal and coke, salt, hops, wheat, peas and beans, barley, rye,
oats, Indian corn, buckwheat and all other grain, flour of wheat and
flour of rye, Indian meal and oatmeal and flour and meal of any other
grain, butter, cheese, fish (salted or smoked), lard, tallow, meats
(fresh, salted, or smoked), and lumber may be imported into Canada
free of duty, or at a less rate of duty than is provided by this act,
upon proclamation of the Governor-in-Council, which may be issued
whenever it appears to his satisfaction that similar articles from Can-
ada may be imported into the United States free of duty, or at a rate
of duty not exceeding that payable on the same under such proclama-
tion when imported into Canada." This offer has been modified
slightly, but not in the interest of the farmer.
7'HE FARMER'S INTEREST. 1 95
market for the farmers of New England ? From thou-
sands of miles away to the West, the consumers of New
England are being supplied with farm produce. " This
4,000,000 of people use grain," but 96 per cent, of their
breadstuffs are sent in from the West. The West sends
them annually upwards of 500,000 tons of grain, $20,-
000,000 of breadstuffs, $3,000,000 of butter, $55,000,000
of provisions, $45,000,000 of wool, besides hides and
other farm products. In all, not less than $200,000,000
of farm produce per year (or equal to upwards of $300
for each individual employed in manufacturing in New
England) is supplied by the West to the consumers of
New England.'
In the Maritime Provinces manufacturing towns may
spring up, but any increase of demand for farm produce,
consequent upon this, will be met by the Western or
Ontario producer. We look over the advertising col-
umns of the dailies of the manufacturing towns of New
Brunswick at one time, and we find that the markets are
being supplied by Ontario apples, at another by apples
from the United States. And yet the Nova Scotia
farmer looks to England for a market for his apples. Is
not the home-market theory a delusion ? ^
Driven from one horn of the dilemma to the other,
protectionists will tell us that the policy is necessary for
the purpose of binding the country together, to create a
national sentiment. Such schemes maybe necessary where
rulers and people are in a semi-civilized state. But in
' Mr. James G. Blaine to the Western farmers.
^ Including grain and flour, the annual shipments of the products
of the farm from the Upper Provinces to Nova Scotia, now amount
to $2,500,000; in other than grain and flour $100,000 annually;
whereas such shipments from Nova Scotia to the Upper Provinces
has not amounted to $50,000 in a quarter of a century.
196 AMERICAN FARMS,
order that a nation may be created is it necessary for an
intelligent people to be moulded into the required con-
dition through the existence of a fiscal policy that is
destitute of the principles of equity, that is scientifically
and economically false, — a policy towards which our best
feelings must be in constant rebellion ? Is this the true
national policy for civilized beings ?
And we may also ask, Is it a true and upright policy to
strive to warp any intelligent community into any politi-
cal change through the workings of a false fiscal policy?
What does protection undertake to do for the indus-
trial classes ? We have but to glance over the speeches
and writings of its advocates to learn that it assumes the
ofiice of protecting labor, to secure to industrial classes a
profitable market for their productions that national
labor may not be exposed to the keen competition of the
foreign rival. This being its aim, why should this pro-
tection not be extended to the laborers who till the farms,
who cultivate the orchards, and who tend the flocks ?
That this object, the creation of a necessity for labor,
without regard to its effect upon the masses, is a prin-
ciple of the Canadian national policy, may be seen in
many ways. We have an illustration in the peculiar
sugar duties, which cause the import of raw sugars,
which require refining, from countries to which she ex-
ports nothing, instead of encouraging the importation of
sugars which may not require refining, and from coun-
tries which buy her natural products from her.
We must certainly admit that labor may not compose
the total exchange value of productions, though it does
in the main, but we contend that in our farm productions
labor should be considered as important, both as regards
its nature and extent, as in any of the manufactures for
THE FARMER'S INTEREST. 197
which the farmer's productions are eventually exchanged.
Taking this view as being undoubtedly correct, we are
unable to understand why the laboring farmer, who
throws on the market his barley, his oats, his apples, his
small fruits, his beef and his pork, should be exposed to
a world-wide competition to reduce the exchange value
of his labor to the minimum ; while, on the contrary, the
manufacturer's labor must be so protected that he may
be enabled to force consumers to pay the maximum price
for his hours of labor. For, is it not the admission of
the meddlesome legislator, that the tendency of free trade
is to reduce the price of articles exposed to free competi-
tion ? If not, why favor the free import of raw materials
in the interest of the manufacturers ?
But we will go a little into particulars to show how
protection in Canada has served the agricultural interests.
In the fiscal year ending with June 30, 1887, the free im-
ports of goods classed " animals and their products, and
agricultural products," composed about 6yV per cent, of
the total imports into Canada. The three fourths of a
million dollars of fruits, seeds, and trees, lately put upon
the free list, increase these classes to above 6f per cent,
of the total import.
In the fiscal year 1887, grain and grain products, ani-
mals, butter, cheese, lard, meats, sausage casings, vege-
tables, tomatoes, canned vegetables, seeds, trees, and
green fruits, to the amount of $4,908,145, were imported,
on which, within a fraction of $800,000 in duties was
levied. To this dutiable import, by adding the $6,437,-
219 free imports of farm products (omitting tobacco), we
have $11,345,264 to represent the imports of farm produce
for that year. By a little calculating it will be found that
these imports paid about 7 per cent, into the treasury, and
198 AMERICAN FARMS.
that the placing of about three quarters of a million
dollars' worth of fruit, seed, and tree imports upon the
free list reduces the farmer's protection down to about
6 per cent. Small as these figures representing the
farmer's protection seem, it must also be borne in mind,
that a large portion of even these small figures is made up
of protective imposts on canned goods (really protection
to manufacturers).
While the tendency in the past has been so much in the
direction of putting farm products on the free list, it has
been also in the direction of rapidly increasing the pro-
tective duties upon the farmer's articles of consumption.
In 1867, the Canadian tariff gave the manufacturer 15 per
cent, protection, and in 1877, 17I per cent. In 1881, the
tariff had grown in the interest of the manufacturers to
about 27 per cent., calculating on the dutiable list only,
and about 23! per cent, if the free list of manufactures
be also taken into account. In 1887, the average protec-
tion to manufacturers was about 30 per cent, on goods
classed dutiable, and 27^ per cent, on dutiable and free
manufactured goods combined. For 1S88, it will not be
less than 2)Z P^^ cent, on dutiable manufactures, as the
tariff for this year has been vastly increased.'
Canadian protection has worked about as the following
table shows :
Against
1879. Assumed fair play all round. the
farmer as
1881. To the farmer 8 ^, to the manufacturer 27 ^ . . 3f to i
1887. To the farmer 7 ^, to the manufacturer 30 ^ . . 4f to I
1888. To the farmer 6 ^, to the manufacturer about 33 %,^ ^\ to i
The average Canadian protectionist seems to be per-
fectly satisfied with this one-sided protection. We had a
' This prediction has been fully confirmed.
^ Over 500,000 families in Canada are depending directly upon
agriculture for a living, and less than one fifth of tliis number upon
THE FARMER'S INTEREST. 1 99
conspicuous illustration of this satisfaction in the remarks
of the protectionist journal, the Halifax Mail (May i
1888), relative to the repeal of the Canadian fruit duties,
in an editorial entitled, *' Cheaper Fruits and Berries."
It said : " These changes in the tariff will place within
the reach of our citizens a more bountiful supply of
cheaper berries and fruits during the ensuing season.''
The question arises, if fruits and other so-called nat-
ural products are made " cheaper " and more " bountiful
in supply," and placed more " within the reach of our
citizens " by reason of such freedom, why should not the
same results follow to the farmer citizen, if manufactures
were put upon the free list ? If articles are placed
" within reach of citizens " by being made " cheaper "
through the removal of tariff obstructions, we have to
conclude that the consumers of such articles have here-
tofore paid the duties, and have by these removals gained
an advantage as consumers, without corresponding loss
in income as producers. If so, why should not the
"cheapening" of manufactures by free trade in them,
" place them in more bountiful supply " and " within
the reach of the farmers," or increase the farmers' advan-
tages as consumers, without diminishing their power as
producers ? It can hardly be said that the home supply of
manufactures is greater than the home supply of " fruits
and berries." ' If the increase of price in farm products
manufacturing ; yet her customs laws collect less than f 1,000,000
upon the import of products which come at all into competition with
her farmers ; whereas over $13,000,000 are collected from foreign
manufactures.
' The fruit growers of Nova Scotia have now (January, 1890) a
petition before the Dominion government asking for a reimposition of
fruit duties, but even the representatives of the fruit-raising constitu-
encies have not courage, at this date, to define their real economic
views upon this matter.
200 AMERICAN FARMS.
through tariff legislation for the protection of the farmer
cannot be met by the other classes through the indirect
benefits which protection is said to produce, how can the
farmer expect benefit through protection to the manufac-
turers ? Moreover, if nothing can be done by protecting
farm products and other natural products in the way of
bringing laborers into the country, or to keep them in
the country to raise such natural products, and thereby
create a home market for manufacturers, how is the
farmer to gain a benefit by protection to the manufac-
turers ? Prosperous farmers mean decidedly good home
markets for the blacksmith, shoemaker, carriage-builder,
the house-builder, brick-maker, the school teacher, the
clergyman, and the merchant.
The protectionists are undoubtedly right in the admis-
sion that an extension of free trade in natural products
only, means an increase of protection to domestic manu-
factures. Free traders who contend to the contrary, are
of a very questionable class ; though, to use the words
of Bastiat, " there is in political economy no more gen-
erally accredited sophism than this." In serving as
argument in the hands of the pretended free-trade
school, says Bastiat, " its most mischievous tendencies
are called into action. For a good cause suffers much
less in being attacked than in being badly defended."
Yet, not only are the avowed protectionists willing for
this one-sided trade, but some of the most prominent
figures in the so-called free-trade party in Canada, as
well as in the United States, are advocates of such a
system.
It certainly appears obvious enough, that an extension
of freedom as to the importation of raw materials and of
food necessaries, gives the manufacturer a new advan-
THE FARMER'S INTEREST. 20I
tage in producing cheaply, without, in the least, com-
pelling him to sell his productions at lower prices. On
the other hand, it is evident that every additional article
placed upon the list to be really protected, must, in a
measure, reduce the chances for the monopolist to pocket
monopoly profits, without contributing to the monopoly
profits of others. A duty which raises the price of agri-
cultural implements, discourages agriculture. A duty
which increases the price of agricultural fertilizers, dis-
courages the production of potatoes, grains, grasses, etc.
On the other hand, a duty which increases the price of
raw materials and food necessaries, discourages the man-
ufacture of cottons, boots, clothing, hardware, and sugar
refining ; but why should these manufactures be granted
an assurance of success at the expense of the farmer ?
The protective system cannot be fair all round, unless
it protects all round. Though it is perfectly clear that
to protect all round is to increase the price of production
all round, until the object sought — the building up of
special industries — is defeated. Moreover, to increase
prices all round, or the cost of general production, is to
destroy the chances to supply foreign consumers. This
latter assumption is conspicuously shown in the continual
decline in Canada's exports of many lines of manufac-
ture since the adoption of her high-tax policy. And yet
the farmer is not true to the interests of his class, if he
does not demand either free trade all round, or protection
all round.
The protectionists can hardly contend that the farmers
are benefited by being permitted to import some lines
of food, trees, seeds, etc., from other countries, instead of
producing these themselves, or buying them at protected
prices from their neighbors. Though no doubt all are
Q*
202 AMERICAN FARMS.
benefited when the consumers — and all are consumers —
are permitted to procure every article required, from the
place where most cheaply produced. For if the manu-
facturers find it is profitable to rob one another a little,
for the chance to rob the multitudes a good deal, why
should not the farmers, or any of the cultivators of the
soil, find it equally profitable ?
When England, in her old protective days, sought by
this means to serve the interests of her farmers, she even
prohibited the use of cotton goods at one time, because
their use, it was thought, would sacrifice the farmers'
wool industries. It might be asked, why allow free
cotton to come into Canada to interfere with the con-
sumption of wool in the manufacture of light woollen
goods ? Or, why not force, by increase of protection,
Canadian consumers of grapes to depend upon her own
vineyards, as England did in the early days of her his-
tory ? Would it not be quite as much within the scope
of reason, as the efforts which are being put forth to
stimulate the growth of many of her highly protected
manufactures ?
Sydney Smith's description of the tax system which
prevailed in England at the end of the French war, pre-
sents a picture of an ideal condition of universal taxa-
tion, which as well might serve the purpose of an ideal
of universal protection : " Taxes upon every article
which enters the mouth, or covers the back, or is placed
under the feet. Taxes upon every thing which it is
pleasant to see, hear, feel, smell, or taste. Taxes upon
warmth, locomotion, light, and every thing that comes
from abroad or is grown at home. Taxes on every thing
on earth or under the earth. Taxes on the raw material,
taxes on every fresh value that is added to it by the in-
THE FARMER'S INTEREST. 203
dustry of man." Certainly, with such a system, few
would be able to escape the privilege of at least paying
taxes.
The great difficulty, however, in the way of a fair deal
in a policy of protection, or of monopoly, was pointed
out by Mr. Stanley Jevons. " There would," remarked
he, "be a certain fairness in the establishment of monop-
olies if all trades were equally able to combine and tax
each other. The result, of course, would be very absurd
and very pernicious, but it would be equal ; as a matter
of fact, however, those who most need combination to
better their fortunes are just those who are the least able
to carry it out." This is true enough, and the farmers
of Canada, as those of the United States, are among
those who cannot combine either under free trade or
protection as protection is administered. After all,
what do wool duties amount to in protecting the United
States farmer ? Measured by the trade and navigation
returns, they amount annually to about $1.70 per farmer
(his whole protection amounting to not more than $3.00
per capita). Measured in the same way, the average
manufacturer gets not far from $100. With the best
that can be done for him, the United States farmer can
get but the merest trifle through such means.
That protection to the Canadian farmer can accom-
plish little, unless each province or, in fact, each county
could be made a protected unit, is shown by the fact
that even with the slight duties she imposes against the
import of farm produce, the import of this line of goods
is only about $1 to $50 produced, while she is able to
export %\ to every %\2 produced. So slight is the ad-
vantage which the Canadian farmer takes of the little
protection allowed him, that the foreign producer makes
204 AMERICAN FARMS.
but slight efforts to jump over it. On the other hand,
notwithstanding the high-tariff wall placed against foreign
manufactures, $i is imported to each $7 produced, while
the home market for manufactures is made so profitable
to the home producer, by reason of forced tributes from
the home consumers, that less than ^i finds its way from
the country to the $100 produced.'
In fact, since it is requisite that a protected area be
even more than world-wide in extent, to save the farmer
from the avarice of the manufacturing combines, and
extremely small to be of any service in enabling farmers
to combine for their advantage, the question of what would
be a just and equal system of protection seems a difficult
problem to solve. And yet, if protection is to be the
order of the day, it is the protectionist legislators' duty
to devise some scheme that will give the farmer his full
share of advantages.^
The miller wants %\ or $1.50 per barrel duty on flour.
His right is just as good to 20 per cent, protection as
that of the manufacturer of shovels to 35 per cent, and
free raw materials. The pork-packer wants $4 per
barrel duty on pork. He has as good a right to it as the
manufacturer of scythes to 50 per cent., and so has the
apple producer to $1 per barrel. Only, in these changes,
the farmers should see that an undoubted portion of the
legalized plunder really comes into their hands. ^
' Measured by Canada's trade and navigation returns in terms of
money, the farmers of Canada get less than $1.10 protection per
capita, the manufacturers more than $130 per capita.
^ When an effort is made to apply protection equitably, it is then
seen what a fribble, a burlesque, a farce, it really is.
^ Not a few, of even those who pass for free traders, contend that
only articles of luxury should bear taxes, but we must remember that
great aggregates of capital produced through a whisky or a cigar-
THE FARMER'S INTEREST. 20$
If free trade is the watchword, then let it be for free
trade all round, the only true policy — a watchword for
reform that means the extermination of a vicious system
on all sides.
When England, in the famous free-trade struggle,
removed or lessened the duties on articles of food, the
same was done by foreign manufactured goods. Sir
Robert Peel, in the onset of the great parliamentary
struggle of 1846, sounded no rallying call to selfish inter-
ests. " In the confidence," said he, " that the principle
for which I contend is a just and wise one, I ask all
protected interests to make the sacrifice, if it be a
sacrifice, which the application of that principle will
render necessary."
Yet there are in England to-day, as there always will
be, manufacturers who would have duties put upon im-
ported manufactures ; but the farmers will not let them.
So should it be with the farmers of America.
So long as free trade goes no further than free trade in
"natural products only," so long will the blight to the
farming interests of America spread and increase — so
long will the farmer continue to be the victim of the
politician and the manufacturer.
manufacturing monopoly, fostered by indirect taxation, may be a far
greater menace to the general good, than any advantage that the
farmers can possibly gain by protection from the consumers of their
products.
CHAPTER III.
FREE TRADE MAY BE SELFISH AS WELL AS PRO-
TECTION ; OR, THE INEFFICIENCY OF
FREE-TRADE MOVEMENTS.
In working out our ideas of justice to the farmers of
America, in reference to the matters treated of in the
chapters on taxation, and on free trade in natural products
only, we arrived at the conclusion that it is quite within
the range of possibility for what passes for free trade to
be altogether selfish in its aims ; that it is within the
scope of probability that compromises will any day be
made, as they have been in the past, between the manu-
facturers and their political friends, and those interested
in commerce and their friends, by which free trade will
appear to have scored a triumph for the people, though
the very opposite is the actual result. By these com-
promises the evils of protection may not be lessened one
iota, or the load of taxation be removed in the slightest
degree ; may, in fact, be increased.
Free-trade movements, to be successes, must take
higher grounds than they have done hitherto ; they must
aim at justice to all ; equality in the benefits of the
greater freedom, and equality in the bearings of taxation.
These are the matters of vital interest to the great
majority of the people. The commercial questions in-
volved are of great importance ; little, however, com-
206
INEFFICIENC V OF FREE- TRADE MO VEMENTS. 20/
pared with the others just named. Look where you may
over America to-day, and where is party to be found
standing by the people as it should in this particular ?
Is there a political policy working which offers a shadow
of hope to the farmers for the future ? All that is before
them appears little else than the selfish outgrowth of
moneyed and partisan interests, and, as such, must be
barren of results favorable to the people.
BOOK VII.
THE PHYSICAL, MENTAL, SOCIAL, AND MORAL
CONSIDERATIONS INVOLVED.
But the wealth of a nation depends in the long run upon the con-
ditions, mental and bodily, of the people of whom it consists, and the
experience of all mankind declares that a race of men sound in soul
and limb can be bred and reared only in the exercise of plough and
spade, in the free air and sunshine, with country enjoyments and
amusements, never amidst foul drains and smoke blacks and the
eternal clank of machinery. — James Anthony Froude.
CHAPTER I.
THE DIVERGENCE OF INTELLECTUAL DEVELOPMENT
FROM A BASIS OF PHYSICAL STAMINA,
AND ITS CONSEQUENCES.
The men who figured prominently in laying the
foundation of America's political, social, and industrial
structure were no weaklings. They were men of nerve,
muscle, and vitality. Their habits and exercises were
such as to stimulate the growth of these most desirable
functions. The claim is now frequently made that the
majority are becoming more and more mental, emotional,
nerveless, and effeminate. The whole tendency of the
country's varied national life is undoubtedly in the
direction of increasing in the characteristics of its people
these most undesirable changes. " Functional nervous
disorders " are increasingly frequent among the in-door
classes of our civilization everywhere, " and specially so
in all the Northern and Eastern States of America, where
the sufferers may be found in nearly every brain-working
household." ' It may indicate a future far from happy.
Much as we may differ as to the nature of mental
faculties, we can, with a considerable degree of reliability,
gather data from which to prove that physical perfection
in man means also corresponding completeness of brain
power ; that when there is a retrogression in the first
^ Dr. George W. Beard.
212 AMERICAN FARMS.
particular eventually there must also be one in the
second. In all great movements of the world, in the
growth of nations, or in great crises, it has been the men
of well-developed physique who have triumphed. The
men of Greece took sufficient interest in the tilling of the
soil to make it a first medium for fostering the growth
of muscle and sinew. They practised also such manly
exercises as made them the admiration of the world, as
well as fitted them to be, as they were, the rulers of their
time. We may say more than this of the Roman, whose
national industry, in their palmy days, was husbandry.
The brawny, deep-chested Englishman and the sinewy
Scotchman have made themselves masters wherever they
have planted themselves.
As a rule, just in proportion as a people have become
effeminate in their habits and exercises, so have they
degenerated in mental capacity. Observations have
proved that the great man is more likely to be greater
in stature, more symmetrically proportioned, and of more
pleasing physical appearance than his contemporaries ;
while such a one will be governed by a brain of full
physical development.' Science also claims, with good
reason, that wherever a proper equilibrium has been
maintained through a due exercise of the physical and
mental functions, there the tendency has been towards a
constant improvement in the types of men. And when
the reverse has been the case, there has been experi-
enced a marked deterioration. Says Herbert Spencer :
" Each function has some relation, direct or indirect, to
the needs of life. Then the complete life is one in which
all functions are exercised to their normal capacity, and
this can only take place in the physically developed man."
' Dr. Woods Hutchinson.
INTELLECTUAL DEVELOPMENT. 213
It follows that, as few, if any, occupations are better
calculated to develop the physical structure than work
upon the soil, and at the same time offer a limitless field
for the most useful as well as the most pleasurable
mental training, we must conclude that the farmer, of all
others, should have a healthy, enduring brain. In fact,
his occupation should offer the medium through which
the highest development of the physical and mental may
be united in force for the production of the perfectly
developed man.
" Once let the human race be cut off from personal
contact with the soil ; once let the conventionalities and
artificial restrictions of so-called civilization interfere
with the healthful simplicity of nature, and decay is
certain." '
Consequently, how immensely important may be our
dependence upon rural life — the farmer's well-developed
brain — for supplying whatever may be true and satisfying
in our present condition, and also for the continuance of
civilization itself !
Therefore, since science and the history of the growth
and development of nations testify to the vast importance
of physical completeness as a basis of brain power, and
that farm life is most conducive to this end, we require a
numerous body of tillers of the soil to supply our
national brain capacity.
The fable of " Tellus, the Giant Son of the Earth," in
his valiant struggle with Hercules, and his final defeat
when deprived of contact with his " mother earth," is
certainly a striking parable of the condition of the human
family when the vast majority take no part in rural pur-
suits and the manly exercises. The Prince of Darkness
' Dr. Woods Hutchinson.
214 AMERICAN FARMS.
could take no better course to defeat man's progress and
subdue the earth to himself, than by depriving one after
another of intimate contact with their mother, the earth.
If it be health that is desired for the people (taking
another view of the subject), compare a procession of
cotton operatives pouring out of a cotton-mill in Law-
rence and Lowell, with an equal number of farmers' sons
and daughters as they are found in our country, and
we will see nothing in the former of physical appearance
to cause us to wish that the rural classes may become
manufacturers.
In 1886, there was published in Massachusetts an in-
teresting collection of facts relative to the average dura-
tion of life among the several occupations, covering a
period of more than thirty years. The average farmer
died at dd years of age, the judge at 64, lawyers at 56,
physicians at 55, sheriffs and policemen at 52, while
milliners and factory girls died at 39, clerks and book-
keepers at 36, and plumbers and carvers at 35. In
the same year (1886), Dr. C. W. Chancoles, in a paper
read before the American Public-Health Association,
stated that stone-cutters, both in Europe and America,
on an average, do not live beyond id years, while knife
and file grinders die at 35, edge-tool grinders at 32, razor
grinders at 31, and grinders of forks at 29. Of the 100
sick, of the various manufacturing industries, the pro-
portion of consumptives is quite suggestive : carpenters
14, cigarmakers 36, stone-cutters ^d, steel grinders 40,
brush-makers 49, cotton, hemp, and flax Aveavers 60 ; file-
makers 62, needle-makers 70.
With such facts as these for guidance, both statesmen
and people should pause before tempting the young of
the rural classes to the manufacturing occupations. A
INTELLECTUAL DEVELOPMENT. 21 5
week in the year does not pass that the remains of human
beings, below the meridian of life, are not conveyed from
the great manufacturing centres to their early homes in
the rural districts ; stricken down just as they should be
entering on the most useful efforts of their lives. While
one after another is guided back to the country settle-
ments in the United States, others go to their sorrowing
relatives in the Provinces, some to Quebec, others to
Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, and not a few to the
little Island of the Gulf. Many of these leave behind
them children in tender years, to become, perhaps, a
burden upon the old grandparents ; or worse, to drift
into the slums of the cities, to be lost in vice. Go into a
careful analysis of the causes which have tempted the
young country people away from their rural homes in
Canada, to seek new ones in the Great Republic (a popu-
lar subject for discussion), and in the majority of cases
it will be found that it has not been from a desire to
change their political allegiance, or because of the laws
of their country, that they have fled from it, so much as
from a desire to change their occupation. The effects of
the false politico-economic teachings of the time had
reached them, and had rendered them incapable of
appreciating the merits of their occupation. From the
politician, the manufacturer, and even the college pro-
fessor, they were told that an agricultural people could
never become great, and this poisoned their minds and
unsettled them. They learned from these authorities
that it was beneath a people of spirit to cultivate pota-
toes, and to tend the dairy, especially with a view of
supplying foreign customers with the productions from
them ; and they took the most speedy way of casting off
such an occupation.
2l6 AMERICAN FARMS.
Though our city cousins may still be a good deal prone
to look upon their rustic relations as rather stupid and
unintellectual, it is well for them to know that natural
conditions are all on the side of the countryman. And
certainly the countryman should realize more fully what
are his possibilities. The feeling which generally pre-
vails, however, makes it preposterous for even the lead-
ing farmers of America to think of taking a place in
society with the equally prosperous of other classes.
In business concerns we have regular meetings of our
Board of Trade, in all our great commercial centres, to
which it is not at all uncommon for lawyers, doctors,
manufacturers, and newspaper editors to be invited to
take part in debating questions that may affect the rural
classes most deeply. But when are farmers requested
to become members of these societies, or to give their
views on the matters discussed ? It is true, that the
Grange organizations — societies which should have a
welcome in every rural district — are beginning to give
the farmer some prominence ; through this medium, he
should voice his sentiments and desires with effect. Yet
the farmer is considered rather out of his senses, when
he presumes to match his intellectual faculties with
others ; and, in fact, his want of success is frequently
attributed to his lack of ability.
Have not the majority of our most able and useful
public men, in all the walks of life, been bred on the farm ?
Are not our most advanced institutions of learning pro-
vided with their brightest intellects from the country
families ? We think few will undertake to deny this
claim for the country. Said Emerson : " The great men
are not in the halls triumphing, but in the fields work-
ing. . . . The city is recruited from the country. . . .
INTELLECTUAL DEVELOPMENT. ZIJ
The city would have died out, rotted, and exploded long
ago, unless it were recruited from the country." The
city of to-day was the country of yesterday.
The tendency of the time is evidently in the direction
of constantly decreasing the number of those who have
effectual contact with the soil, and increasing the num-
ber who would be mere parasites upon those who re-
main, reducing the worst victimized to the mere exercise
of their animal powers. It is quite frequently contended
by students of ethnology, that slavery was a necessity of
early times, in order that a few might be enabled to have
the leisure necessary for thought and for mental growth.
To-day, all kinds of devices are set on foot to tempt the
tillers of the soil into permitting others to do their
thinking for them. They, in effect say : " You work
and I think."
While the farmer's income is not increased, most other
classes combine and force an increase of theirs. They
tell us that mental giants must not be forced to do man-
ual labor, and that mental workers must have all the edu-
cating influences possible at their disposal, and if their
services are procured, the recompense must be com-
mensurate with a satisfaction of these conditions ; which
amounts to this, that those who in most cases have to
meet these conditions must work a little harder, with the
hope that eventually an indirect benefit will follow. For
instance, our governments in effect are great armies of
parasites, which are continually creating some new plan
for making places for additions to their numbers. That
these new ones may be supported, the supporting class
must work a little harder, and have, for satisfaction, the
consoling assurance that a new batch has been created
to do their thinking.
2l8 AMERICAN FARMS.
Granted that there may have been a necessity in prim-
itive times for a portion of the human family to gain
opportunities for thought, have not the conditions
changed, when cunning must be resorted to to effect
this object ? Is it true that workers cannot think, and
that thinkers cannot work ? Is not the outcome of sucli a
condition to create, on one side, indolent, enervated
thinkers ; and on the other side, only working machines,
who have bartered away their right to think — they who
should be in mind, as well as in body, as great as any of
God's creatures ?
It is well that we should have our mental giants ; but
those who have become the greatest in this way have
been self-supporting, self-sacrificing men. There is
danger in the sweeping away of the grand opportunities
for a union of the mental and physical forces which rural
life offers. Shall our cities, like the rotted-out civiliza-
tions of old, swell to overflowing with the indigent, the
idle, and the voluptuous ? Shall the edict again go forth
— " You kill while I eat ; you work while I think," — and
the freemen again depend upon martial exercise and the
slaughtering of men for the stimulation of physical de-
velopment ?
With all that is being done through inventions for the
saving of labor and the utilization of natural forces, there
should be an ever increasing margin for mental exercise.
It is only a true condition which favors this, and it is
only a true condition which finds these necessary proofs
of progress dispersed through the whole people ; and it
is only a true condition where all who are able bear some-
thing of labor for their physical benefit, if for no other.
Emerson thought the ideal condition one in which man
was enabled to have the detachment and the individuality
INTELLECTUAL DEVELOPMENT. 219
which is only possible in the country, with the intel-
lectual stimulus which is only possible in the city. But
this union of forces can only have healthy and enduring
development where a basis of physical stamina is in-
sured, and this basis is in the country. Then we must
come to the conclusion that whatever tends to make one
great division of the human family exclusively brain-
workers, and another great division exclusively manual
laborers, is producing a false and dangerous condition.
It is a grave mistake for the farmers of America to
concede to the idea that the rural classes are peculiar for
lack of ability, or to allow the results of their industry
to be valued merely as the product of so much animal
exertion ; but, on the contrary, they should emphatically
maintain that they represent an intelligent, a dignified
occupation.
It is an error to permit, as we do, the curricula of our
institutions of learning, especially of those where the
majority of the pupils attending are supposed to become
agriculturists, to be almost void of branches which are
calculated to create an interest in agriculture, and to
ennoble the calling in the minds of the young.
" As it is at present, in thousands of our country
schools, the instruction is wholly apart from the actual
life of the scholars. The teaching is a weary round of
book studies, and the wealth of practical instruction that
is to be gained by a proper consideration of the every-
day life and natural surroundings of children is entirely
missed. Besides turning the young mind in the direction
of agriculture, such instruction in the common schools
would tend to increase the inborn love of the soil, and sow
the germs of State and national pride and patriotism." '
' American Agriculturist, October, 1889.
220 AMERICAN FARMS.
It is also very far from wise for farmers themselves,
as it is also for the general safety, to allow the opinion
to prevail that they are unfit to grace our legislative
halls or to put character into our laws. Mr. Gladstone
saySvOf the statesmen of the early history of the United
States : " It is no extravagance to say that, although
there were only three millions of people in the thirteen
States at the time of the Revolution, the group of states-
men that proceeded from them were a match for any in
the whole history of the world, and were superior to
those of any one epoch. Their fortunate appearance was
undoubtedly due to well-regulated muscular freedom."
It is a calamity for society to be governed by physical
weaklings, with less and less brain capacity, who may
become finally, as the monarchs of Europe were said to
have been at the beginning of the century — imbecile.
CHAPTER II.
THE FARMERS' INTEREST IN THE SOCIAL OUTLOOK.
We may disinter the vanished draperies, we may revive the
stately minuet, we may rehabilitate the old scenes, but the march of a
century cannot be halted or reversed, and the enormous change in
the situation can neither be disguised nor ignored. Then we were,
though not all of us, sprung from one nationality, practically one
people. Now that steadily deteriorating process, against whose
dangers a great thinker of our own generation warned his country-
men just fifty years ago, goes on on every hand apace."
— Bishop Potter.
Probably, the most far-reaching problem before the
public mind in America to-day is the vexed question of
social rights. Whether we have presented to our con-
sideration the difficulties existing between labor and
capital, the distribution of land, the matter of public
instruction, or the formation of fiscal policies, we have
in some measure to deal with an important phase of the
social question. Nearly every important movement in
industrial and social life has much to do with this truly
great matter ; and it might be stated, with little proba-
bility of contradiction, that at few former periods has
this problem been subjected to such varied and urgent
notice as it is now receiving. America is not now very
much behind the rest of the world in furnishing material
for the study of these matters ; and the old maritime
States of the northeast of the Union, in a marked de-
222 AMERICAN FARMS.
gree, furnish a history of social changes of very great
interest, especially as it relates to the rural classes.
If we look for a locality where the development of
industrial progress, with all the attendant social con-
sequences which industrial progress implies, should, in
its growth, correspond with the ideal of at least one
great 'school, and, in fact, in line with the general trend
of the economic thought of the day in America, we
instinctively turn to those old maritime States. Their
social history will, in relation to political economy, serve
to a great extent as an index to the whole question in
America. Is it satisfactory to any thoughtful mind ?
While it will be generally admitted that half a century
ago the average ruralist of New England was an enviable
type of citizen, that his social, financial, and political
influence was a power in his country, that he was ac-
knowledged on all sides to be a reliable, intelligent, and
weighty authority on all political, economic, and social
questions, and that his influence extended even to other
countries, few make this claim for him to-day. The
opinion that in character, ability, and enterprising spirit,
the farmer of New England is losing ground, is expressed
in the works of nearly every writer upon the condition
of the farmers of those States.
One writer very pertinently remarks : " There was a
time when New England was looked upon as a sort
of reservoir of the true American spirit ; when she sent
her sons and her daughters out from the towns to be
teachers to the rest of the hation, and to found new
towns in the West ; when New England spirit seemed
to be a leaven, leavening all the national life. . . . All
this is changed." ' Certainly it is not in the farmers alone,
' Mr. Geoffrey Chaplin, in the North American Review.
THE FARMERS' SOCIAL OUTLOOK. 223
there is to be noticed the loss of Puritan character and
true American spirit, though in them, in the fullest meas-
ure, dwelt these characteristics. And they were teachers
to the rest of the nation, because in them rested a posi-
tive realization of the fact that it devolved upon them to
infuse their spirit into all measures for the political,
moral, intellectual, and industrial progress of their coun-
try. It was their country, their land, and they esteemed
their privileges and their achievements, as became an
independent and truly sovereign people. They honored
and highly valued the result of honest labor, and of rural
labor above all others. The " country squire " could
talk politics with lively interest to the best man in the
community, and the best man was very likely to be his
near neighbor, because the politics of his time were
to him of practical significance. He was sensible of
a perceptible result in his efforts to influence the fashion-
ing of laws and the course of law-makers. They had
not reached out, as now, beyond him.'
' Since my monograph was placed in the hands of its publishers,
the following interesting editorial remarks upon an article of Judge
Nott's has appeared in the New York Evening Post : " No other
such body of cultivators of the soil as the New England colonists
were, down to our own day, has ever been seen. No other men who
tilled the ground with their own hands have had such an acute and
active intelligence, such intense preoccupation \\ith religious and
moral problems, such a keen sense of the superior importance of
spiritual things, such reverence for learning, such familiarity with
and appreciation of literature, and such capacity for government by
discussion. Puritanism, as has often been said, missed its mark
in England ; but it came as near realizing its ideal as human nature
would permit on American soil. No student of politics or sociology
will, in all probability, for ages to come, light on an experiment in
all respects so interesting and so successful as Massachusetts and
Connecticut were and continued to be down to the 'tjutbreak of the
224 AMERICAN FARMS.
It is, notwithstanding, a great mistake that the farmers
of New England do not compare well with the average
citizen in all that goes to make up the invaluable portion
of the commonwealth. Especially is this the case, as we
look at the matter from the standpoints of morality, re-
ligion, or social order. Social safety is with the citizen
who possesses a desire to preserve his country's institu-
tions and her political integrity. The farmers, sprung
from the loins of the stock which shaped their country's
early life, must, of all, be her truest patriots ; whereas
the ignorant, shifting, migrating classes, of which the
American cities are becoming largely composed, have
cast off their patriotic sentiments, if they ever had any.
In them is danger, now and always. Forty-seven per
cent, of the population of the cities and factory towns
of Massachusetts in 1885 were foreign-born ; while
civil war. The only important point in the catastrophe, which Judge
Nott does not attempt to explain, or even to touch upon, is the
equanimity, and even rejoicing, with which the New England
farmers have witnessed the disappearance of the social edifice which
they had passed two centuries in building up, and cementing with an
enormous amount of religious zeal and self-sacrifice. For more than
a quarter of a century New Englanders have, through their organs,
in politics, in literature, and oratory, eagerly supported the policy
which was visibly and rapidly changing the character of their popula-
tion and the structure of their society. The most ardent advocates
and promoters of ' the factory at your doors,' with its swarm of
foreign-born voters, have been New England men. They have seen
it rapidly and surely converting Connecticut and Massachusetts into
foreign, and even into Catholic States, ousting the natives of the
Puritan stock from all real influence in the government, and consign-
ing to the lumber-room of history the old Puritan traditions of public
spirit and public duty, and have seen it sending all their boys and
girls flying into the cities and to the West, without a protest or even
a word of complaint." December 5, 1889.
THE FARMERS' SOCIAL OUTLOOK. 22$
only 23 per cent, of the agriculturists of the State were
so born.
In the older provinces of Canada the farmers compose
as fine a class of men as are to be found anywhere. They
form the best law-abiding, industrious, moral forces of
the confederacy.
Yet, with the decline of American agriculture, and
the diminution of the number of the small land pro-
prietors, dangers to the social order and the security
of the state must be more and more augmented as the
evil goes on. The first impetus towards social insecurity
may now be seen in the dissatisfaction which is growing
among farmers because of their relative disadvantages.
The second is rapidly approached when legislators begin
to consider favorably the policy of repeopling the old
country towns with foreign stock, in place #f removing
the difficulties which are driving the old families away.
The third danger is the relative decline in the number of
those who should have direct interest in preserving the
institutions of the country.
It is no doubt too true, that the farms and the villages
of New England are no longer the nurseries of the type
of " earnest thinkers and patient workers " that they
once were ; while it is true that there is a growing unrest
among the rural classes, because of the changes which
oppress them. It is also conspicuously apparent that it
is the exception to find farmers who look forward with
pride to fitting their sons for an occupation which, as
they must believe, is every day losing ground in social
rank. New England, being the oldest English commu-
nity in America, or the one most ripened in development,
shows these changes more conspicuously than other
parts. But is it not a disease which is spreading rapidly ?
226 AMERICAN FARMS.
The merest glance at the subject is sufficient to show
that the whole world is growing gregarious with alarming
rapidity ; that the rural life is viewed with more and
more aversion. The cities of France — an old country —
in 1S48 represented 34 per cent, of the entire popula-
tion ; a proportion, however, which grew to ^y^ per cent,
in 1886. Beautiful rural France, with all its charms,
then, fails to retain its due proportion of the people.
Germany, since 1867, has increased her urban popula-
tion at the rate of a little over i| per cent, per annum ;
the rural population in the same period increased at the
rate of only \ per cent, per annum. In parts of rural-
Italy, every means is being devised by the farmer to ex-
change country for city life. But of all the world this
tendency is more marked in America than elsewhere.
Had the in^ease of persons engaged in agriculture, in
the decade ending with 1880, been equal to the average
entire increase of population, there would have been
42,341 more engaged in this pursuit than were so found.
In the same period, 1,147,977 represented the propor-
tional increase of those in the professional services,
trade, transportation, mining, manufacturing, and me-
chanical pursuits. The same movements are taking
place in Canada. Of the province of Nova Scotia, we
find that in the period 1861-81, the agricultural class
fell behind the professional and trading classes, in pro-
portional increase, over 20,000.
The cities and city occupations are evidently drawing
the people to themselves. In 1790, the urban population
of the United States was only 'i.'^ per cent, of the total ;
in 1850, 12.5 per cent. ; but in 18S0 it had reached 22.5
per cent. The Canadian census returns for 1881 re-
ported an increase of 33.0 per cent, in the growth of the
THE FARMERS' SOCIAL OUTLOOK. 22/
urban population during the decade of which it treated ;
while the growth of the rural population had only been
15.6 per cent. The cities of the United States having
over 8,000 inhabitants in 1790 contained but one thir-
tieth of the population ; in 1880 they contained one
fourth. In the State of Massachusetts, with all her
markets created by a manufacturing population, her rural
denizens decreased by 37,000 in the years 1860-85. In
the first-named year, she had a rural population of 698,-
261 ; in 1870, 677,601 ; in 1880, 672,462 ; while in 1885
it had fallen to 661,588. In 1789 the cities of this State
contained 5 per cent, of the population ; in 1885, 66f
per cent.
Recently the Toronto Empire (Conservative) spoke,
through its columns devoted to agricultural matters, to
this effect : " Everywhere on the continent, east of the
Mississippi at any rate, the drift during the past ten to
thirty years has been from the country to the towns and
cities . . . This continent is rapidly approaching the
condition of Europe, where the city populations are far
too large for the rural populations that sustain them."
Yes, sustain them ! Our cities fill up with unnecessary
government officials, or those who, by combinations, are
enabled to increase their numbers through gathering
to themselves a margin between service rendered and
service received. Two perform a service that should
require but one. The victim who receives it has double
service to perform in return. Why should he not make
his escape from such enslavement, if possible ? Prior to
the fall of the Roman and Grecian republics, the cities
were filled to overflowing, and nearly every free citizen
had fled from the country. " The cities increased i^
splendor from day to day, and from age to age. Temples
228 AMERICAN FARMS.
were ever being erected of greater magnificence than any
heretofore. Theatres were made still more and more
attractive for the free exhibition of gladiatorial and other
depraving f.ghts. With all this, depopulation and poverty
went on in the country, until disease spread throughout
all the vital organs of society, and then the whole system
collapsed." ' What course will our rural classes take
when they come to feel that all escape from this enslave-
ment may be cut off ?
The New World, as well as the Old, echoes and re-
echoes with the threatenings of the social revolutionist ;
and we are not alone in the opinion that republics and
democracies may not be, under certain conditions, any
more safe than monarchies from the machinations of the
socialist.^ He reasons : What abiding profit is the
proclamation that all are equal, when gross inequality is
allowed to go on gathering new elements of oppression ?
"What can be expected, when the sole aim of government
is to foster such institutions as promise solely to increase
riches and population ? To give stability to law and
national life, the social ideal should be character." ' The
governments of America lend their influence to building
up populous industrial centres, the citizens of which are
a danger to the social fabric. Lord Macaulay's predic-
' Henry C. Carey.
"^ As this chapter is being prepared for publication, news comes
from Chicago of the doings of a mass-meeting (October 13, i88g), at
which, in the presence of one thousand people, of whom, the account
says, over one half hissed at the Stars and Stripes, while the banner
of Anarchy was greeted with cheers. One speaker said he was proud
of the city in which the execution of anarchists occurred, because
he felt that one day it would be the Paris — the city of revolutions —
(^m^merica.
* Bishop Spalding.
THE FARMERS' SOCIAL OUTLOOK. 229
tion, that the American Republic may yet be "ravaged by
Huns and Vandals, engendered within itself and by its
own laws, and by its own institutions," has not lost its
significance.
It seems imperative, for the safety of a democratic coun-
try, that all its people take a direct interest in preserving
its institutions. As matters are going in America, the
proportion of those who are not so interested is rapidly
increasing. While we extend political rights to all, in
some communities, and propose to extend them in others,
we increase the effectiveness of systems which are caus-
ing continual accessions to the ranks of those who at any
time may become a revolutionary force. How long un-
der such circumstances before the rule of the despot will
become a necessity ? It was a direct interest in protect-
ing their own, which stimulated the hardy farmers of the
Revolution to fight so well for their land. They fought
not only to make it a '' land of liberty," but their land of
liberty. "The shocks of corn," said Xenophon, " inspire
those who have raised them, to defend them."
It will be well, however, not to nurse the delusion that
socialistic sentiments are destined to obtain lodgment in
the breasts of only the laborers in our towns and manu-
facturing centres. They are, in some sort of shape, rap-
idly spreading to the rural districts.' All are aware of
Mt is a striking coincidence, that while the first President of the
United States made stronger claims than any of his successors for the
interests of agriculture, and for its value in civilization, the President
who leaves office in the centennial year of the inauguration of the first,
should feel called upon in his last message to Congress, to sound an
alarm at the unsatisfactory position of agriculture in this latter day.
Mr. Cleveland looks with apprehension to the time when the farmers,
among others, will, realizing the inequality and injustice under which
they labor, breed a discontent dangerous to the lieneficent operation of
230 AMERICAN FARMS.
the agitations in Ireland, and other parts of Great Britain,
over the land question. In Germany, Bismarck's social-
istic measures for the assumed benefit of the working
classes have failed to satisfy the farmers. In France,
these sentiments gain ground in the rural districts. The
peasantry of Russia, Spain, and Italy are on the verge of
revolt. In parts of Italy they have already shown their
hand. In 1882, and again in 1888 Lombardy was the
scene of serious disturbances among the rural classes ;
buildings were burned, and various crimes committed.
Official reports state that " it will require energetic
measures to combat these fermentations."
Collectivism, land nationalization, and other socialistic
schemes are proposed to remedy all our social ills. These
grow in favor as capital continues to rob the small hold-
ers of their land. In Mantua, a province in Italy, between
187 1 and 1879, land proprietors had decreased from 39,-
868 to 35,535. The peasant in many cases holds on to his
land with a death-like grip, with all the harrowing anxiety
which its ownership entails ; and it is only when its load
of debt devours it, that he gives it up. He is then found
low and servile, or the bitter enemy to the existing order.
The three millions of so-called pauper land proprietors
government. He says : " Communism is a hateful thing, and a men-
ace to peace and organized government. But the communism of com-
bined wealth and capital, the outgrowth of overweening cupidity and
selfishness, which insidiously undermines the justice and integrity of
free institutions, is no less dangerous than the communism of oppressed
poverty and toil, which, exasperated by injustice and discontent, attacks
with wild disorders the citadel of rule." This is not the disturbing
utterance of a mere demagogue, or the hallucination of a disordered
crank, but the timely warning of the true patriot, who would avert a
calamity terrible to contemplate.
THE FARMERS' SOCIAL OUTLOOK. 23 1
of France, inheriting from their ancestors a load of injus-
tices, are hardly responsible even for what their own exer-
tions might remedy. Circumstances may make men but
little removed from the brute.
However, all socialistic schemes as continuous policies
mean slavery. It is only when the evils which prompt
retaliation by combination are removed, that freedom is
real. Socialism is in direct antagonism with the true
interests of agriculture. Under a general regime of one
socialistic scheme against another, the game is against
the best condition of agriculture. Freedom ! Freedom !
Individuality ! must be the watchwords of the husband-
man. The present state of land ownership in Great
Britain is admitted on most sides to be unsatisfactory, —
in proof of which is the endeavor of successive govern-
ments to remedy the evil legislation of centuries past.
There, as in other parts of Europe, the disease having,
in a certain sense, become chronic, a return to a better
state of land ownership is most difficult. In America,
the acute stage is approaching rapidly, through a some-
what different channel from that by which England's
farmers lost their lands ; but I trust it is not too late, in
most localities at least, for the application of a salutary
remedy.
I believe*in a numerous land-holding class ; small land
proprietors have been the backbone of nearly all real
progress in America ; and the outlook is dark indeed
if their power and influence is gradually to disappear.
Sismondi says : " Wherever we find peasant proprietors,
we find comfort, security, confidence in the future, and
that which assures at once happiness and virtue." This
independence certainly should be the desired condition.
232 AMERICAN FARMS.
The Belgian economist De Laveleye's opinion is, that
" in England, large farming and large properties have
killed this class of free and brave peasant proprietors, the
yeomen who won the battles of Poitiers, Crecy, and
Agincourt. . . . Never to be forgotten is Pliny's cry of
grief, which echoes like a warning note through economic
history. Overgrown estates ruined Italy and the prov-
inces. Large properties produce everywhere excessive
inequality, depopulation, class divisions, and decay.
Countries inhabited by peasant proprietors have with-
stood all these crises." If we compare country with
country, period with period, we will find that where the
land has been well divided among the people, other things
being equal, there prosperity will be the more generally
apparent.
It is the Abbe St. Pierre's decision, that the infraction
of the Roman laws limiting the size of the Roman
citizen's estates to small dimensions, hastened rapidly
the ruin of the republic.
All through the history of Greece we are impressed by
the idea, that, notwithstanding her growth towards per-
fection in literature, science, and politics, she carried
along with it the seeds of her own destruction. The
depravity of the masses resulted largely from, depriving
them of the reasonable use of the lands. The history
of the rise and progress, decay, and final downfall of
these old civilizations, showing that the general features
of each progressive stage were an index to the condition
and importance of the agricultural classes, and of the
manner in which the land was held by them, is of very
great practical interest to us.
Dr. Bowen, an American authority of some note on
these matters, believes that " every farmer should own
THE FARMERS' SOCIAL OUTLOOK. 233
the soil he tills " ; that " it makes him a better farmer, a
better citizen, and a more patriotic one."
Collectivism would be no remedy for the abnormal
state of things toward which we are now tending ; it
would be a cure more to be dreaded than the disease ;
and the same may be said of land nationalization. Ex-
tinguish that impulse which prompts our farmers to cul-
tivate with energy, and beautify the lands of their fore-
fathers, and you have stricken that land with a blight ;
cause the farmer to view the orchards and gardens which
have been his childhood's delight, as the property of the
highest bidder, and his interest in them fails ; deprive
him of the stimulus to work, which sole ownership and
management of an estate freed from all encumbrances
naturally gives him, and make a collectivate or govern-
ment agent sole manager of his individual industries, and
you have robbed him of the best incentives toward true
progress. There is nothing original in all this. They
are but the views of our ablest economists. Adam
Smith's observations led him to the conclusion, that
" the small proprietor who tills every part of his little
territory, who views it with all the affection which prop-
erty (especially small property) inspires, and who, on
that account, takes pleasure not only in cultivating but
in adorning it, is generally of all improvers the most
industrious, the most intelligent, and the most success-
ful." Arthur Young makes this striking and enthusiastic
remark : " Give a man secure possession of a bleak
rock, and he will turn it into a garden."
Nothing can be more conducive to the success of the
farmer's enterprise than the confidence that his labors
may secure him thorough independence. With increas-
234 AMERICAN FARMS.
ing faith in his opportunities to become an individual
owner, his chances to become something of a capitalist
are increased. As he gathers capital, he gathers power to
defy the land-grabber or the usurer. But this is not the
tendency in America to-day, and the consequence must
be fewer and fewer men on whom to depend for social
security — a most momentous matter.
CHAPTER III.
DANGER TO MORALS.
Everywhere we find political centralization counteracting the in-
fluence of that social decentralization which looks to elevating the
condition of all the people of the state, whether male < r female.
— Henry C. Carey.
In an opening chapter I made the claim in behalf of
the rural classes, that they, in addition to their many
other valuable characteristics, were peculiarly the moral
safeguards of society. Especially is this so in reference
to the use of intoxicants.
Regrettable though it be, we are, in some particulars,
becoming more susceptible to the acquirement of this
habit than heretofore. We have already learned that
nervous disorders are increasing. This is not only the
case in the United States, but in Canada as well. " When
the nervous system loses, through any cause, much of
its nervous force, so that it cannot stand upright with
ease and comfort, it leans on the nearest and most con-
venient artificial support that is capable of temporarily
propping up the enfeebled frame. Any thing which
gives ease, sedation, oblivion, such as chloral, chloro-
form, opium, or alcohol, may be resorted to, first as an
incident, and finally as a habit." '
' Dr. George M. Beard.
235
236 AMERICAN FARMS.
The Rev. Josiah Strong, commenting on the above, in
dealing with this subject in his book, " Our Country,"
says : " Men of nervous organizations are not only more
likely than others to use alcohol, and to use it to excess,
but its effects in their case are worse and more rapid.
The wide difference between a nervous and a phlegmatic
temperament accounts for the fact that one man will kill
himself with drink in four or five years, and another in
forty or fifty."
The annual expenditure of the United States for
foreign and domestic liquors is now estimated at one
thousand millions of dollars. " This is more than is ex-
pended for beef, pork, and flour, and nearly equals the
amount paid for wages in all the manufacturing estab-
lishments of every description." ' Official statistics show
that beer has largely taken the place of spirits, but
though in 1840, the United States consumed four gallons
of liquor per capita, in 1888 she consumed over twelve
gallons per capita.
As the people gather more into the cities, a larger pro-
portion of the nation becomes more subject to nervous
disorders, and a consequent susceptibility to intemper-
ance, a habit which further impairs the moral, the men-
tal, and the physical capacities of men, — which fills jails
with criminals, poorhouses with paupers, and makes
many homes of wretchedness. The increased exposure
to the vice of intemperance is one grave objection to
change from country to city life. Especially is this the
case with those who become engaged in the very unhealthy
occupations — occupations which are on the increase.
Higher wages are paid to those who are likely to be soon
cut down by the deadly effects of their peculiar industry.
' Senator John J. Ingalls, North American Review, August, 1889.
DANGER TO MORALS, 237
Consequently a greater opportunity is afforded for holi-
days. Indeed, it is claimed that the drinkers live the
longest, owing to their more frequent absence from work.
We might wish that Ebenezer Elliott's character of the
grinder applied better to that class in his time than now :
" There draws the grinder his laborious breath ;
There, coughing, at his deadly trade, he bends ;
Born to die young, he fears nor man, nor death ;
Scorning the future, what he earns, he spends ;
Debauch and riot are his bosom friends."
As our young men drift into the cities, they come into
contact, not with the once denounced and degraded bar-
room, but with the respectable " beer palace," where
every thing is made as attractive and entertaining as
possible. To-day, as compared with twenty years ago,
the selling of intoxicating liquors is an eminently re-
spectable occupation, and consequently the tendency is
to make the habit of drinking equally so. These " beer
palaces " are gilded traps for our country boys, when
they come to change country for city life. The city of
New York alone has seven thousand of these legalized
life- and soul-destroying dispensaries of sin and ruin,
some of them being most costly and gorgeous in their
appointments.
That the cities contain a larger proportion of excessive
drinkers than the country, is proved by the much larger
ratio of deaths in them from this cause, as compared with
the country. In the city of London, one to 12,800 of
the population dies from the use of alcohol, while of the
whole kingdom, only one to 26,000 dies from its use.
In fact, the ruralists of our country can hardly realize
how much the cause of temperance depends upon them
238 AMERICAN FARMS.
for its life and vigor ; though it is not difficult to obtain
data to prove that the backbone of organized temperance
reform is with the rural classes, while it is little less
difficult to discover that organized opposition to this
work has its chief strength with the urban classes.
To-day with the vast city vote against the country, the
country majority is handicapped by the city majority,
whatever it may wish to do in order to stay the tide of
intemperance. The great temperance reforms of the
past have been principally fought out in the country
towns. To carry on this warfare successfully must
become more and more difficult, as the cities grow while
the country stands still.
Remarks Mr. Strong : "Our cities are growing much
more rapidly than the whole population, as is the liquor
power also." After which he propounds the query : "If
this power continues to keep the cities under its heel,
what of the nation, when the city dominates the country ? "
New York is now practically ruled by the liquor inter-
ests, but New York is not alone in this by any means.
There are no more active workers in our political
caucuses than the city and town dealers, manufacturers
and promoters of this degrading and destructive traffic.
These men spend vast amounts at every election to
corrupt voters. And thousands of dollars are put up at
every session of our legislatures, to buy up legislators for
the purpose of keeping open this highway to destruction.
It is not the farmers of America who desire the growth
of this evil, or who crave its exhilarating effects. And,
be they prohibitionists or moral-suasionists, they have
little desire to see the accumulation of revenue through
the sale of privileges to import, to manufacture, or dis-
pense that which debases, enslaves, and pauperizes so
DAA'GER TO MORALS. 239
many of the people. Neither can prohibitionists nor
moral-suasionists anywhere permit, without heartfelt
regret, the continuous change of conditions which tend
to nourish proclivities towards the drinking habit, and
to see those who are engaged in this trade the rulers of
the land.
It was to some a startling statement, recently made
by a prominent clergyman, that, unless a substitute be
found, the liquor saloon supplies an absolute necessity in
our great cities such as New York, with their " hundreds
of thousands of homeless boarding-house and lodging-
house population." ' This condition has assumed gigan-
tic proportions, apparently unnoticed. But now we must
ask : As matters are drifting, will a substitute be found ?
Every new day sees a larger proportion of American
people than hitherto, of the boarding- and lodging-house
stamp. It follows, that we are rapidly increasing the
proportion of our citizens to whom the beer saloon or a
substitute is a necessity. The country of small farmers
such as has been the pride of America in the past, requires
nothing of the kind. To such the beer saloon, instead of
being a necessity, is always a curse when established.
But, whether the sale of intoxicants for the purpose of
being used as a beverage should be prohibited or limited
by law, or its control be left to the influences of moral
forces, there is no question as to the imperative necessity
for the human family to avoid, by all means, that condi-
tion which must constantly increase their chances to be
the victims of this increasing peril.
Another most serious phase of the question of the
drift from the old farms to other occupations in the
towns and cities — the dispersion of the old families from
' The Rev. Dr. Bacon.
240 AMERICAN FARMS.
the homes of their fathers — is in the diminution of per-
manent homes just where permanent homes should be
increased. There is a safety to the state and to truest
aims of life in the multiplicity of complete family circles.
I once heard the Rev. Henry Ward Beecher say, that
he had no fear for the people who must build cellars
under their homes ; for, in a climate where such were
necessary, the father would be found at home when the
day's work was over. Mr. Beecher was right. The
home life is of the most desirable character, where the
husband and father looks to his own fireside, himself to
become the central figure in the family group, when he
seeks rest and recreation from his toil ; the life where
the wife and mother is least likely to have occasion
to carry a heavy heart, because of the marriage vow
having become shorn of the virtue it should possess ; the
home where the round of household duties, though
perhaps rough and laborious, may be performed with
cheerfulness, because it is a work in which a family's
interests and sympathies share in promoting their accom-
plishment ; the home where the children may view with
pleasure and with profit a harmony of purpose in all the
details of the varied efforts which are being put forth to
further the interests of the individual, the family, and the
state.
Every new contingent which leaves the old farms for
city or factory-town life, goes to swell the ranks of the
classes which are doing least to preserve, in its full sig-
nificance, the sovereign value of the family compact. We
cannot give too much heed to the danger which must
befall us, through thus following in the track of the
civilizations which have gone down. With the people
flocking to cities, and the corresponding moral dangers
DANGER TO MORALS. 24 1
therefrom, a growing disregard of the sanctity and indis-
sohible character and purpose of the marriage vow — the
family compact, — we endanger the whole fabric of society.
"Any reflecting person, considering these questions from
the point of view of public policy and in the interests of
civilization, without any prepossessions upon the subject
that can be called religious, must see that the institution
of the family is at the base of all our civilization, and it
is the duty of every good citizen to repel all assaults
upon it."
Notwithstanding our great accumulations of wealth,
our palatial residences with their varied attractions and
appointments to make the average city home luxurious
and comfortable, the father and husband, as a rule, is
less at home than in the ruder days of the early Pilgrims
and Puritans. With our development, the modern club-
house and the fashionable restaurant have come — a
menace to the permanency and nobility of the family.
They take the heart out of the family circle, and leave it
cold and purposeless. These institutions are growing
in America out of all proportion to the increase of
population.
Of the poorer classes, it is becoming strikingly appar-
ent, that the number of married women looking for em-
ployment at the stores, offices, and factories is alarmingly
on the increase. It is said by those who have given this
matter attention, that the married who are thus striving
for situations in our cities are not fewer in numbers than
the unmarried ; that of these the majority are women
whose husbands have either left them, or who are com-
pelled to assist the husband in procuring a subsistence for
the family ; that a vast proportion are wives of perfidious
husbands. There was once a time when the young wife
242 AMERICAN FARMS.
of the man of small income was enabled to join by the
side of the husband in the labors of his calling, as in the
small retail stores — now almost extinct in our large cities.
But of all, the country, under the regime of the small
farmer, has afforded the best chances for this most
desirable of partnerships.
The state wherein is destroyed the permanent home
life must expect moral degeneracy, and the state which
depends upon the great capitalists, and hired labor, and
mechanics to supply it with the fruits of the earth must
one day see its homes become devoid of character or
honor — its mothers forced down from the high and
rightful place which they should occupy.
Of the fallen Grecian Republic, says Mr. Henry C.
Carey : " Wisdom, love, chastity, poetry, history, the
liberal arts, and even Athens herself, were typified by
female figures — Minerva, Venus, Diana, and the Muses
having been the objects of divine worship among the
people who looked to Solon for their instructions and
their laws. When, however, we look to the interior of the
Athenian family, we find, as in all cases of semi-barbarism,
the home to have no real existence, the wife having been
a mere drudge, whose sphere of action was limited to the
perpetuation of the family and the superintendence of the
household — the husband meanwhile finding the best so-
ciety the city could supply in the dwelling of his mistress.
Neglected as she was, chastity was then, nevertheless, the
characteristic of the Athenian matron. When, however,
Athens had become mistress of one thousand cities, when
centralization had been fully carried out, when trade, war,
and politics had become the sole pursuit of the Athenian
men, we find Socrates lending his wife to his friend,
while Pericles scarcely surprises his fellow-citizens when
DANGER TO MORALS. 243
presenting to them Aspasia, his own mistress, and the
mistress of so many others, as his legitimate wife — the
class of hetcBrce then constituting the most distinguished
feature in the highly civilized society which had Attica
for its home." '
'* The tendency of legislation in this country has been
to a relaxation of the matrimonial tie, and this is a ten-
dency that there is urgent need of resisting." " It indi-
cates a general relaxation of moral forces. We are creating
a state which is the least likely to resist this tendency,
and legislators as well as others are participating in it.
Says Cardinal Gibbons : '' In Rome adulteries in-
creased as divorces were multiplied."
After speaking of the facility and frequency of
divorce among the Romans, Gibbons adds : " A
specious theory is confuted by this free and perfect
experiment, which demonstrates that the liberty of
divorce does not contribute to happiness and virtue.
This facility of separation would destroy all mutual con-
fidence and inflame every trifling dispute. The minute
difference between a husband and a stranger which
might so easily be removed, might still more easily be
forgotten."
How apropos in this connection are the words of
Professor Woolsey : " Nothing is more startling than
to pass from the first part of the eighteenth to the latter
part of the nineteenth century, and to observe how law
has changed and opinion has altered in regard to mar-
riage— the great foundation of society — and to divorce ;
and how, almost pari passu, various offences against
chastity, such as concubinage, prostitution, illegitimate
' " Social Science," vol. iii., p. 370.
' New York Times, October 25, i88q.
^44 AMERICAN FARMS.
births, abortion, disinclination to family life, have in-
creased also, not indeed at the same pace everywhere,
or all of them equally in all countries, yet have decidedly
increased on the whole. Surely in few parts of the
wide world is the truth of these strong words more
evident than in those parts of our country where loose
divorce laws have long prevailed." '
From a total of 9,937 divorces granted in the United
States in 1867, they increased to 25,535 in 1886 : an in-
crease double the increase of population. Near to every
tenth family is broken up through difficulties between
husbands and wives resulting in divorces. In fact, in
some cities of America it is the exception to find a
family that is not in some way afflicted by this growing
evil. While this is the case in the cities, the separation
of husband and wife is of infrequent occurrence in the
country.
Woman — whose history, until a very recent period has
been one of subordination, shame, and suffering, from
the hands of her lord and master ; who looks forward
to the days of equal rights and greater freedom ; who
would sit enthroned in her proper sphere, honored, re-
spected, and deferred to as an equal in intelligence and
in worth, — has every thing to fear from the breaking up
of the small land proprietories.
Every consideration, however, pales before the last
that we shall mention — our tendencies towards those
conditions least likely to preserve or increase Christian
characteristics. Statistics bearing upon this subject are
to the effect, that the country people have been greater
church-goers than the city people, and that these pro-
clivities have become in the past more and more marked.
* North American Review, November, 1889.
DANGER TO MORALS. 245
In 1880, one of the chief cities of America, Chicago, had
only one church to each 2,081 of the people, whereas the
country had more than one to every 516. In 1840,
Chicago had one to every 747 of its people. The change
has been more noticeable in this city than with most
others, but the whole tendency has been in the direction
thus indicated. The cities of America are being filled
with those who have no desire for Christian worship.
Indeed the extreme socialist declares himself the direct
opponent of religion of any sort. The city is his home,
and it is there that his contaminating influence is exercised.
Corresponding to the weakening of the desires of the
people for religious worship, has crime increased. The
ratio of prison population to each million of the inhab-
itants of the United States was 290 in 1850 ; 607 in
i860 ; 853 in 1870 ; and 1,169 in 1880. These figures
show that crime in America is increasing out of all pro-
portion to increase of population. It is in the great
cities that the increase of crime is chiefly taking place.
But it seems a time does come when, the country hav-
ing lost its economic, political, and social vitality, it may
fail in moral and religious character. It has been so with
the fallen civilizations. In its appearance we see that
which may be the beginning of the end. What a pure,
noble, and grand development, in high religious purpose,
has been that worked out on the farms and in the coun-
try towns of New England ! How sad that the scenes of
these religious activities should cease to see perpetuated
the Christian traditions marked so indelibly upon the
history of the pioneer life of this interesting portion of
the New World !
The Rev. Mr. Henry Fairbanks stated recently, before
the Evangelical Alliance of America, that in Vermont
246 AMERICAN FARMS.
there were but 150,000 of the population of the State
who now attend any place of worship, whereas there are
183,000 who never go at all. Another says that a gen-
eration of infidels has been reared upon the hillsides of
New England, and that they are the worst heathen that
he has ever met with.'
The Rev. Mr. J. S. Buckminster, in the first years of the
present century, or when the typical American farmer was
a most prominent figure in the affairs of that early period,
saw in those farmers the greatest spiritual hope of the
Commonwealth. He said : " No situation in life is so favor-
able to the establishment of habits of virtue, and powerful
sentiments of devotion, as a residence in the country, and
rural occupations. I am not speaking of a condition of
peasantry (of which, in this country, we know little) who
are mere vassals of an absent lord, or hired laborers of
an intendant, and who are therefore interested in nothing
but the regular receipt of their daily wages ; but I refer
to the honorable character of the owner of the soil, whose
comforts, whose weight in the community, and Avhose
very exist&nce depends upon his personal labors, and the
regular returns of the abundance from the soil he cul-
tivates. No man, one would think, would feel so sensibly
his immediate dependence upon God, as the husband-
man." In the American farmer of his day, he saw the
ideal farmer, in fact ; he saw in him the one in whom
religious character was of the most likely development
from the circumstance among others, that the nature of
agricultural pursuits, as he saw them in his time, " does
not completely engross the attention as other occupa-
tions. Even then he saw the necessity of entreating the
city classes, few as they were then by comparison, to
' Rev. Mr. Haynes.
DANGER TO MORALS. 247
" avoid the practice of any thing which might impair the
vigor of rural virtues, simplicity and morality, and espe-
cially of the institution of the Sabbath."
Coming down to the middle of our century, we find
the Rev. Mr. Beecher sounding a note of warning : " If
we neglect our duty and suffer our laws and institutions
to go down, we give them up forever. It is easy to
relax, easy to retreat, but impossible, when the abomina-
tion of desolation has passed over New England, to rear
again the thrown down altars, and gather again the frag-
ments, and build up the ruins of demolished institutions.
Another New England nor we, nor our children shall
ever see, if this be destroyed. All is lost irretrievably
when the landmarks are once removed and the bands
which now hold us are broken. Such institutions and
such a state of society can be established only by such
men as our fathers were, and in such circumstances as
they were in. . . . The hand that overthrows our
laws and temples is the hand of death unbarring the
gate of Pandemonium, and letting loose upon our land
ihe crimes and miseries of Hell."
Robbed of that link of hope and reverence which
l)rompts to aims and actions which are true and eter-
nal in their influence upon character, the people thus
divested must become as all nations that forget God. It
matters not what the method employed to break down our
best of institutions, — the direct or the indirect, — the result
must be the same in the end, and the responsibility upon
those instrumental in bringing it about, will be in propor-
tion to the knowledge they possess of the drift and pur-
pose of our social and national undertakings. The catas-
trophe in New England, should be an instruction and a
warning to the rest of America.
THE CONCLUSION, IN WHICH THE REMEDY IS FOUND.
" Morality is stronger than a Majority."
n*
THE CONCLUSION.
The first step towards a remedy for the decline of
American agriculture, and an escape from the dangers
it foreshadows, must be in a proper and more general
realization of the imperative necessity for a larger propor-
tion of the people to be engaged in tilling the soil than at
present ; a realization that agriculture must be made
prosperous, and rank first among the great industries.
A further step may be taken in the farmers of America
making themselves a political force, uniting for this pur-
pose, and securing, wherever and whenever possible, the
return of an intelligent farmer to Parliament ; then, in
the legislative halls bending their energies, not to further
the schemes of the communist, nor those of the socialist,
but the projects of the true social reformer — not seeking
more laws, but better laws, and the liberty of a true
equality. Buckle was no doubt correct in his remark :
" The best laws which have been passed have been those
by which some former laws were repealed."
We can abolish all laws which tend to engender
national strife, the destructive results of which must be
borne by our toiling people ; all laws which are barriers
between supply and demand, preventing production — that
is, man's labor — from enjoying its natural and true value ;
all laws which tend to prevent the reduction of taxes
to the actual needs of the government, and the reduction
351
252 AMERICAN FARMS.
of government to the actual needs of the people ; all
laws which prevent the placing of taxes where they
should be placed ; and all laws which force labor to give
unfair support to capital or to monopoly, creating in-
equality, sacrificing the true ethical spirit, which should
prevail, to the wiles of scheming politicians. This would
do much, very, very much, to correct that greatly neg-
lected division of political economy — the distribution of
wealth. Then the farmers, both large and small, would be
upon an equal footing with all others in the community.
With the powers which prosperity gives, well diffused
among the small estates, dangerous socialistic movements
can make little headway. Individual ownership incites
to individual responsibility. Thus an effectual security
is given to the prevention of social disturbances. In
this greater diffusion of an augmented prosperity among
the rural classes, is also to be found an escape from
the dangers to morals, intellect, and the physical stamina
of men, which now threaten the human family.
But, however true all this is, as conditions now exist,
it may well be questioned if the farmers of America,
with all the forces they may gather in our parliamentary
assemblies, would alone be able to combat the forces
which we see are pitted against them ; able to meet the
argument that, though admitting a policy of universal
economic freedom to be an " immense blessing to the
world," yet since the nations and so many individuals
have given themselves over to a '* general scramble for
wealth and commercial supremacy," it would be puerile
and absurd for us to take the lead, or even to follow in
an effort to gain for the world these immense blessings,
but instead should take part in the scramble ourselves ;
that it is a practical age, which has little room for visiona-
THE CONCLUSION. 253
ries ; and that the "practical politician " decides against
visionaries, while majorities support the "practical poli-
tician." This reasoning, though conspicuously false in
fact, has many supporters. It is false in the assumption
that others go farther than we in America in false eco-
nomic systems. We represent the civilized portion of one
of the five continents. Surely this makes us responsible
for much. Second, to assume that the people of America
are incapable of appreciating the advantages of a course
which, if adopted, would undoubtedly lead to " immense
blessings," is far from flattering to their intellectual
capacities. Third, it puts a terribly low estimate on the
power of moral purpose ; this is where the great mistake
is made, when the would-be reformer allows it to deter
him from action in behalf of the right. And yet it does
deter.
Men of character, of the noblest purpose, see that dan-
gerous conditions are settling in upon us, and that every
good citizen is required to stand for that which is true
and right, and that only. Bishop Cleveland Coxe tells
us in America, that " we are confronted by the terrible
fact that we are undergoing changes similar to those
which have been the ruin of ancient peoples in many
examples."
Bishop Benjamin Whipple says : "Awful problems
stare us in the face — the centralization of swarms of
souls in the cities, the wealth of the nation in fewer
hands, competition making a life-and-death struggle."
Bishop Spalding points to dangers which already hover
over and around the great American Republic : " If we
have been able to found a durable state with what else-
where and hitherto has been the least stable kind of
government, our success is to be ascribed to causes,
254 AMERICAN FARMS.
some of which have ceased to exist, while others are
disappearing."
Says Prof. Austin Phelps : '' Turn whichever way we
will — South, West, North, East — we are confronted by
the same element of crisis in the outlook upon the future.
Every thing seems, to human view, to depend on pres-
ent and dissolving chances. Whatever can be done at
all must be done with speed."
Every thing warns us that this is no time for trifling
with principles. It is a time for great victories or great
failures. To whom and to what, then, are we to look for
deliverance ?
Says the scholarly Mr. George William Curtis : " They
are called visionaries who hold that morality is stronger
than a majority." " But," says he, " the educated re-
former of America has faith enough in the people to
appeal to them against themselves, for he knows that the
cardinal principle of popular government is the ability
of the people to correct their own errors."
It is true that the men who have led in great reforms,
as a rule, have been educated men ; but, they have been
men who have always stood out conspicously in their
precepts, and examples as independent self-sustaining
characters. They have been no parasites, but men of
moral courage : men who could give to the world more
than they expected to receive from it. We have such
to-day scattered all over our land — in our colleges, in
our school-rooms, in our editorial chairs, in our pulpits,
and in our courts of justice. But it is not with such only
that loyalty to high principles is recognized as the true
monitor in the decision of matters pertaining to family,
to society, to the state. It is found strong in the rank
and file, and nowhere stronger than with our rural
THE CONCLUSION. 255
classes, however they may have stood aloof from any
practical part in the settlement of public questions, or
however they may have appeared merely as partisans.
Knowledge is power, and it is a greater power for
good than for evil ; but is a mighty power for evil.
Knowledge, though, is a greater "power for good when
in possession of those whose occupations, habits, and
surroundings are calculated to develop morality and
virtue. Good knowledge and morality are correlatives.
In the rural classes, then, we may look for good knowl-
edge to be most extensively disseminated, and in the
greatest volume in the aggregate.
In America, in our day, that education which should
render men capable of doing valuable service for most
reforms is within the grasp of the average rural voter. It
is only required, in addition, that he become inspired by
real convictions. It has not been through men of profound
speech, or of brilliant oratory alone that reforms have
been wrought, but by all who are, to use an expression of
Emerson, " appointed by Almighty God to stand for a
fact." " Him who has the facts and can and will state
them people will listen to, though he is otherwise igno-
rant." It is this standing for facts that finally tells.
Reform's best weapon is the plain, unvarnished truth,
which strikes home to the heart of the humblest. Rich-
ard Cobden, when urging on his fellow leaguers in the
great reform to which he had pledged his life's best
efforts, said to them : " This is the work which requires
no gifts of oratory, or powerful public appeals ; it is a
labor in which men can be useful privately and without
ostentation." The same can be said of all great reforms
in which the people are interested. Yes ! the most of us
are eligible for service in the cause of truth.
256 AMERICAN FARMS.
A belief in " the ability of the people to correct their
own errors " also implies a belief in their ability to see
their own errors. This awakening may be the hardest
part of reform. If the citizens of the Roman Republic
had been able, at some turning-point in its history,
to see their own errors in their true light, that civili-
zation might have gone on in its own development. We
may say the same of the Grecian, or any other of our
past civilizations. The lack of a proper realization of
error is a continual stumbling-block in itself, and is
ceaselessly working the downfall of men. Notwithstand-
ing, we have faith in the people of America, not only to
eventually see the right, but to act in its behalf.
When with such vexed social and political problems as
the difificulties now existing between labor and capital,
the distribution of land, the threatening power of combi-
nations of wealth, and reforms in our governing methods,
we affirm that we have faith in the people to solve them,
we also imply a belief in the sovereignty of the people.
Certainly in this we mean not merely a passive sover-
eignty, not only in the people being represented here
and there through an unpledged and uninstructed
leader, but a sovereignty in v/hich the individual citizen
acts the part of the true sovereign, and becomes respon-
sible for the welfare of his subjects. Therefore, with
such as we in America, where the people are empowered
to be the chief rulers, safety is always in the timely
action of the people, alive to a requisite appreciation of
truth, and realizing their responsibilities as sovereigns.
That portion of the people by whom error should be
the more easily recognized is composed of those in whom
morality and virtue more largely predominate. It follows
that all, be they clergymen, statesmen, judges, teachers,
THE CONCLUSION. 257
merchants, fishermen, or mechanics, who believe in the
abstract right as the true expedient, and who believe in the
principles of liberty, justice, harmony, righteousness, and
peace, as the true element in forming the base on which
to found social and political systems, are natural allies
with our farmers in all reforms having this end in view.
Should they not be their natural allies in resisting the
forces which are now weaving the network of illiberal,
unjust, unchristian, soul-enslaving laws around the peo-
ple of America ?
Our paternal governments have sought for and formed
their alliances with wealth and the parts of society, social-
istic in their tendencies. They are plutocracies, made
powerful by sucking the blood of the state ; in league
with that part of the state which seeks relief from its
burdens by throwing them on the remainder.
Are not these really the two great parties about to en-
gage in a struggle which is not very far off ? The latter
party is already a consolidated, disciplined force, as we
have shown ; and it has the wealth of the country and
the greater number on its side. The former has yet to
bring its forces together. But are not thousands of our
own people willing to enter into the contest for reform ?
Will some only wait the rallying cry, while others are
waiting the command to march ? They are in the minor-
ity, but "morality is stronger than a majority."
We have long since come to the conclusion that we
have not been dealing, in this work, with an economic
question only, but a far-reaching moral question ; and that
when the moral question is settled, the economic question
will, necessarily, in a great measure, be of easy adjust-
ment. We must keep in view the fact that, nearly nineteen
hundred years ago, Christ came into the world to teach
258 AMERICAN FARMS.
men a new morality ' ; to give men a higher conception
of human responsibility than they had hitherto known ;
a new, startling realization of the all-important truth that
the whole human race is one great brotherhood ; that
their rights are essentially equal ; that all through the
centuries that had gone before, an abnormal condition
had existed in the alienation of these rights from the great
majority of mankind ; that principles have no bounds.
It is indubitably correct that the human family have
been far too slow in grasping these truths, with even a
rudimentary conception of their immense importance to
man, or of the responsibilities they call upon him to
assume. We have much to assure us, however, that they
do sink into men's hearts, and influence their actions.
From the light they now furnish, error should be more
easily distinguished. Had it shone around men and
pierced their hearts in the earlier civilizations, who can
say that, notwithstanding, they would still have fallen ?
To this same morality we must look to shed a light
over those difficulties which now seem insurmountable.
Morality is stronger than a majority.
Men must one day scorn the thought of seeking priv-
ileges through legislation at the expense of others. The
day must come when all men will look upon the whole
system of protection as a mean, selfish, un-Christian bar-
barism of the past ; when free trade will not mean merely
liberty for particular interests, but justice to all ; when
no man will dare insult his fellow-men by insinuating
that they do not so far value liberty as to submit to a direct
burden as its cost, rather than to be cheated into it by
an indirect one ; when men will put no bounds to recti-
tude or justice ; when statesmen must look upon it as
' Geikie.
THE CONCLUSION. 259
childish and undignified in the extreme to be guided in
their policies in these matters by false systems of foreign
countries.
It was for no small purpose that our Saviour, when on
earth, taught men : " Whatsoever ye would that men
should do unto you, do ye even unto them."
We are no pessimists, no fatalists. We believe that
man is a being of high measures of perfectibility, not
only individually, but that he is one day to see his fellows
harmoniously and unitedly working out the great prob-
lems of social and industrial life with their brothers.
That principles shall grow and finally prevail in grand
triumph, we have implicit faith. Strip us of this pro-
spective faith, and life would be a delusion.
But while we feel all this, we are not blind to the fact
that many years vtay pass before we have reached that
happy state ; many years of hard, unflinching labor for
reform on the part of those who represent the true moral
forces of our country. After years of strife between
nations, engendered and quickened by their irrational,
irritating fiscal policies ; after the communistic elements
of society, which our state socialisms have fostered into
active being, have joined the forces of ''the Universal
Revolution " ; after myriads of our small land-holdings
have ceased to be, as such ; when the typical American
farmer will be known only in history ; and, after years,
perhaps ages, of efforts to adjust all the abnormal con-
ditions which our unwise laws have occasioned, the truth
may finally prevail.
Can we permit this delay ? Shall we not strike for
reforms now, and by so doing save years of suffering,
sorrow, and desolation in our land ? Shall not the moral
forces be concentrated for a mighty effort to purge our
26o AMERICAN FARMS.
Western world from the disease which has fastened itself
upon it ? Surely we will not let the sun go down upon
our days without the consoling thought that we, in this
respect, have done something to make the world fairer,
brighter, happier, and better.
It is unwise for any citizen who desires the best good
for his country to shun the study ; or evade a part, in a
practical solution of these vexed political, economic, and
social problems. It is not reasonable for us to complain
of our evil laws, or of our law-makers, if we take no
responsibility in improving them, or do nothing in the
way of giving a moral backing to those who do. Plato's
remark that " the wise are punished for taking no part
in government, by being governed by worse people than
themselves," still holds good.
While from our pulpits and platforms proceed loud and
emphatic denunciations of the evils of selfishness, greed,
injustice, robbery, duplicity, fraud, and corruption ; the
people should know that some of the false systems which
engender these evils can, and will, be swept away, and
that they must take part in its accomplishment. And
while it is necessary that we place in our governing
bodies, men of genuine integrity, of wise foresight, and
strong purpose, to represent our views and to carry them
into the statute-books ; it should not be forgotten, that
it is necessary, that all who represent these sentiments
among the people become an active part of an organized
body of reformers.
It is the people's great question, and it is needless to
spend time trying to convert politicians. When the spirit
of reform sinks deep into the hearts of the people, and a
determination is shown to bring it about, the politician
is powerless to stay its progress.
THE CONCLUSION. 26 1
The Cobdens, the Brights, the Peels, and the Glad-
stones are rare ; yet, when men of purpose do appear,
they should be borne up by the people.
If all who are heart and soul in sympathy with reform
will unite, and stand by the principles involved, they will
carry them through, in spite of parties. If they be ani-
mated by the spirit and determination which impelled
Cobden and his colleagues in their great work of freeing
the commerce of England, political parties cannot stand
in the way. Said Cobden : " We have nothing to do
with Whigs or Tories ; we are stronger than either of
them ; if we stick to our principles, we can, of necessity,
beat both." Speaking of himself, he said : " I seek no
alliance with parties, and I will take none ; but having
the feeling, I have the sacredness of the principle, and
I can never agree to tamper with it." So may it be with
the people who desire the true freedom of America —
freedom from false systems. May they rise and go be-
yond party ! May there be with them no compromising
of principles ! If defeat comes, let it come, once, twice,
thrice, or more ; but may there be no surrender ! May
they hold out as Abraham Lincoln did when facing the
great crisis in his party, and as expressed in his exclama-
tion, " If I must go down, then let me go down linked to
truth — die in the advocacy of what is right and just ! "
" Morality is stronger than a majority."
And now we have accomplished our part of what we
have considered to be a duty — in some respects a cheer-
ful, and in some respects an onerous, duty ; but in all
respects a conscientious one ; a duty to our country ; a
duty to ourselves, and to others who are suffering.
We leave the question, for the present, to the good
people of Canada and of the United States. It is of in-
262 AMERICAN FARMS.
tense importance to each, and especially to the farmers.
May they put forth new energy in the cause of rectify-
ing this great mistake of our day : that of legislating the
annihilation of the Typical American Farm and the
Typical American Farmer — a wrong to the best interests
of their country, a wrong to the universal brotherhood,
a wrong to themselves especially, and a grievous wrong
to their children, who are soon to take their places in the
battle of life.
The century which has seen in America freedom
gained for the slave, in what may -well be called " The
Last Crusade," is drawing to a close ; but there is space
left in it yet to win one more holy war ; a victory which
will confer upon all, the blessings of that equality in
economic rights, without which, they can scarcely be
called freemen.
THE END.
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QUESTIONS OF THE DAY
44 — The Present Condition of Economic Science, and the Demand
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