ADVANCE-Continued. copper, and gold better than silver is not an accident of history, nor an incident of modern politics. It is but the outgrowth of the fundamental law of progress, the law of the survival of the fittest. The qualities of each, combined with the accessible quantities, determine which is the most desirable to man, and therefore which is the most valuable, and neither civil law nor party necessity can reverse the law of human nature. In the present political struggle theorists and extremists are attempting to reverse the verdict of history as shown by experience. The Republican party, with its established reputation for espousing the cause of the oppressed, is once more found holding up the cause of debased money, guaranteeing to silver its full use as standard money by pledging the national faith and national honor to keep all our silver coin equal to the best coin of the most enlightened nations. No. 6. ADVANCEMENT-American. In 1892, after the census statistics of 1890 had exhibited the progress of the United States between 1880 and 1890, Mr. Mulhall, the celebrated English statistician, in his work entitled The Balance Sheet of the World, stated in a single paragraph his conclusion as to the wonderful prosperity of this country. This was just before the election of 1892, an election that decreed that the Democratic party should be given the complete control of this country. Mr. Mulhall said: "It would be impossible to find in history a parallel to the progress of the United States in the last ten years. Every day that the sun rises upon the American people it sees the addition of two and one-half millions of dollars to the accumulation of wealth in the Republic, which is one-third of the daily accumulation of all mankind outside of the United States." For thirty years this unparalleled prosperity in this land under Republican rule and protective policy had been going on, and in the ten years from 1880 to 1890, according to Mr. Mulhall, this prosperity had reached a magnitude unparalleled in the history of the world. And yet there are those who are trying to make the people believe that some legislation respecting the unlimited coinage of silver in 1873-legislation which operated from 1879 to 1892, during this period of unparalleled prosperity, precisely as it has since 1892-is the cause of the woes of the past three years. Who are the poor farmers, and where are they found? They are found in the sections of the Union where the States are given up almost wholly to agriculture; they are found in the localities where the market for the products of their farms is hundreds if not thousands of miles away from the places where they are produced. Another illustration is given by Prof. Dodge which stili further demonstrates the benefits of protective tariff legislation to the farmers of America. In the grouping of the States, he further shows the value of products per capita to the individual cultivator. His statistics show that in the first group of States, where the population engaged in farming is less than 30 per cent., the value of the products of the farm per capita to individual cultivator averages $457, in the second class it averages $394, in the third class $261, and in the fourth class $160; in other words, a man engaged in agriculture in any of the first group of States, for the same labor in the cultivation of the same number of acres, will make 185 per cent. more than the individual cultivator in the States where over 70 per cent. of the population is engaged in farming. These facts ought to satisfy even a British free trader that agriculture is more profitable where it has a market at the door of the farmer for all that he raises on his farm. AGRICULTURE in 1846, when the Democrats and Reve. nue Tariff were Blessing the Country. No. 10. The Sheriff of Muskingum County, Ohio, as stated by the Guernsey Times, in the summer of 1842 sold at auction one four-horse wagon at $5.50; ten hogs at 64 cents each; two horses (said to be worth $50 to $75 each) at $2 each; two cows at $1 each; a barrel of sugar at $1.50, and a store of goods at that rate. In Pike County, Mo., as stated by the Hannibal Journal, the Sheriff sold three horses at $1.50 each; one large ox at 122 cents; five cows, two steers, and one calf, the lot at $3.25; 20 sheep at 131⁄2 cents each; 24 hogs, the lot at 25 cents each; one eight-day clock at $2.50; lot of tobacco, seven or eight hogsheads, at $5; three stacks of hay, each at 25 cents, and one stack of fodder at 25 cents. No. 11. AGRICULTURE. [From the message of President Harrison, Dec. 6, 1892.] The report of the Secretary of Agriculture contains not only a most interesting statement of the progressive and valuable work done under the administration of Secretary Rusk, but many suggestions for the enlarged usefulness of this important Department. In the successful effort to break down the restrictions to the free introduction of our meat products in the countries of Europe, the Secretary has been untiring from the first, stimulating and aiding all other government officers, at home and abroad, whose official duties enabled them to participate in the work. The total trade in hog products with Europe in May, 1892, amounted to 82,000,000 pounds, against 46,900,000 in the same month of 1891; in June, 1892. the exports aggregated 85,700,000 pounds, against 46,500,000 pounds in the same month of the previous year; in July there was an increase of 41 per cent., and in August of 55 per cent. over the corresponding months of 1891. Over 40,000,000 pounds of inspected pork have been exported since the law was put into operation, and a comparison of the four months of May, June, July, and August. 1892, with the same months of 1891 shows an increase in the num ber of pounds of our export of pork products of 62 per cent., and an increase in value of 661⁄2 per cent. The exports of dressed beef increased from 137,900,000 pounds in 1889 to 220.500.000 pounds in 1892, or about 60 per cent. During the past year there have been exported 394,607 head of live cattle as against 205,786 exported in AGRICULTURE-Continued. 1889. This increased exportation has been largely promoted by the inspection authorized by law and the faithful efforts of the Secretary and his efficient subordinates to make that inspection thorough and to carefully exclude from all cargoes diseased or suspected cattle. Agricultural products constituted 78.1 per cent. of our unprecedented exports for the fiscal year which closed June 30, 1892, the total exports being $1,030,278,030 and the value of the agricultural products $793,717,676, which exceeds by more than $150,000,000 the shipment of agricultural products in any previous year. AGRICULTURE, No. 12. DEPARTMENT OF-Its Chief being Measured by the Farmers of the Country. If Grover Cleveland in the selection of a Secretary of Agriculture had searched this broad land over with the single purpose of finding and placing in power the worst American enemy of the American agriculturist, he could not have made surer work than in the choice of Secretary Morton, whose unrelenting hostility to the farmers of cur country has already been abundantly proved. This extremely prejudiced and amazingly self-opinionated officer has deliberately undertaken and is now earnestly prosecuting the work of breaking down the principles which have been established for half a century for the equalizatioz of our agricultural interests with those of other great industries, and which reached their full maturity under the able administration of Mr. Morton's great predecessor. The scientific investigations made for the Department and covering the available information obtainable throughout the world were a special feature of Secretary Rusk's work in so enlarging the scope of the Department that there might come to the plain every-day agriculturist the scientific and practical information that would enable him to so conduct his work as to secure the best results. Mr. Morton used his first opportunity to contract and cripple this arm of the work and rendered the great expenditure which had been wisely made, under the authority and direction of Congress in its behalf, almost useless. Another glaring instance of Mr. Morton's maladministration is seen in his curtailment of the meat inspection service. The pretense made by foreign governments that American meats were diseased and unwholesome, under which they were denied admission to the markets of Europe, was one of the great obstacles that confronted Secretary Rusk at the beginning of his term of office. The AGRICULTURE-Continued. problem was an old one, and its solution had been deemed hopeless, but through the energy of the Secretary, the system of meat inspection was so enlarged and extended that European buyers became satisfied that there was no longer a chance of their being imposed upon by the importation of unsound meat from America, and the restrictions were removed, the foreign markets opened to the products of our stock farms, and under the new impetus thus given our exportation of beef and pork was vastly increased, to our great profit. One of the first and worst acts Mr. Morton found it possible to accomplish was the curtailment of this meat inspection, and by this means he has been and is engaged in wresting from our live stock interest the protection thrown around it by General Rusk, and we are again laid open to the charge by foreign governments that we are nursing pleuro-pneumonia and other dread diseases, so that we have every reason to fear that we shall soon again be confronted by the fact that the ports of entry in France and Germany are closed against our beef and pork, which means a loss only to be estimated in millions. The farmers of the United States will soon be called upon to indorse the acts of Secretary Morton at the ballot box. AGRICULTURE, SECRETARY OF, IN 1895 '96. No. 13, The first thing that the Secretary of Agriculture did was to involve himself in a most unfortunate controversy with the agricultural associations of the United States, when he talked about the walking delegates and had in the newspapers a controversy with some of the leading farmers of the country. After the President had denounced Congress as demagogues who were using the tax money of the people to popularize themselves at home, the Secretary of Agriculture felt himself authorized and called upon to continue the assault until it has culminated now in the striking down against the intention of Congress and outside of the law, in my judgment, the objects which we had in view when we appropriated $130,000 for the purchase and distribution of seeds. But the Secretary of Agriculture shields himself behind the plea of economy. He claims that he has saved $1,350,000 to the people of this country in his administration, of which the $130,000 for seed turned back into the Treasury constitutes a part. He overlooked |