The Portland daily press., 1870-02-18
DAILY PRESS.
Friday Morning, February l8, 1870.
Letter from, the N0rihwesf.-So. XVI.
ST. ANTHONY FALLS, MINI,
Enh 10 1870
CORTLAND

| PROBABLY given too daIk shading to the cloud
That rested, and still rests, upon the business
prosperity OF this part of the country, particu-
larly the farming interests. Though YOU gave
me full credit for candor and general truth
| fulness, you could not quite accept my state
ments in their fullness. Well, don't wonder
at your incredulity, though l really endeavol
| ed to 'draw it mild" and to soften rather
than exaggerate the unpleasant facts that bear
upon the farmer and stare him in the face
Since that communication and your COM
ments were published, l have read in a Man
kato paper that the farmers of one county
alone blue Earth )-one of the best in the
State-are indebted to the merchants of that
city to the extent of togo hundred and fifth
thousand dollars, -halffor agricultural ma
chinery. When it is considered that with that
county as with other regions of the State, al
most the only product for sale is wheat, and
that this staple article has not yielded the past
season over sixty cents per bushel to the pro
ducer, your readers can see how large draft
the payment Of their Indebtedness will make
upon the farmers of Blue Earth county. Ii is
- r-'J o~ -----~---,----4, ..;lI ,;.IJ
100000 bushels of wheat, and yet the county
referred to needs more than this amount to
pay its Indebtedness to the merchants of one
city alone, besides all that is needed for home
consumption and seed for new crop.
l may mention, further, that since l wrote
you last, 1 have listened to a three hours
speech from eX-Congressman Donnely, and
the great burden of his effort was TO set forth
the utter poverty and ruin to which the farm
ing interests are being reduced. His speech
was but rehash, with emendations and i'm
provements, of his last falls address before the
agricultural society of his own county, and
which he has repeated in Hastings, st. Paul,
Red Wing, etc, and if his statements are to
be received without discount, more abjectly
poor people never occupied productive soil
than the farmers of the "Gopher State" He
proved by newspaper paragraphs, official ad-
vertsements, quotations from judicial dock
cts and municipal records, that large propor-
ton if not majority Of the farms are covered
BY mortgages for the security of notes bearing
a high rate of interest; that the mortgages are
per containing in a single issue not less than
thirty such advertisements, that the increase
of this evil is frightlul, while chattel mort
gages"-mortgages on personal property-are
becoming as common as those which attach to
the soil.
In three mortal hours it was never my mis-
fortune to listen to quite so painful ere-
miad touching the interests and prospects of
ones own State. Should stranger write
anything half as discouraging, and send it off
to his home paper in the East for publication,
the local press of this State would make COM
mon cause in pronouncing him a gross per-
verter of facts, and mendacious slanderer of
the State
If Mr.. Donnelly is to be received as author
ity, while wheat-raising will lead to the al
most inevitable ruin ofeyery one who engages
in it, there is nothing else the production of
which promises any better result. He says
he once tried hog raising, and was obliged to
sell his round hogs Tor two dollars and a half
per hundred pounds. Cattle cannot be raised
to compete with Texas in the great markets of
the country; corn is an uncertain crop, suited
to a more southern latitude; oats don't pay to
send out of the State, and so of barley, buck
wheat, dairy products, &C., while fruit raising
| has almost always proved failure. The pres.
ent tendency, says Mr.. Donnelly, Is to priug
all our farmers-who will consent to be
brought to such a condition by remaining in
the State-to condition of independence, il
is true, but independence of the most primi-
tive condition. The farmer will raise his own
pork, potatoes, bread, &C., but will raise no
surplus, and he will inevitably drift into that
primitive state in which all refinement is ig-
nored, all luxuries denied, and all progress
social, religious and material-will be at an
end!
But for ali this fearful condition of things,
Mr.. Donnelly sees single distinct cause for
the evils in prospect he proposes compre-
hensive, clearly-defined remedy-a cause and
cure equally distinct and sharply defined,
and both standing out in such bold relief
that he ridicues those who do not see and ac-
knowledge them, and bow deferentially TO
his grand panacea.
Singular as it may seem TO your readers,
Mr.. Donnelly's cause and cure may be ex-
pressed in two simple words. The cause of
all our woes is the-tari6! The cure-equal-
| ly simple-is free trade! The Northwest
must no longer submit to be severely taxed
for the benefit of New England, and to up
hold her bloated monopolsts The tax on the
farmers iron and salt are crushing him into
the ground. Mr.. d. dwelt long and lugubri
briously upon the terribly oppressive salt du
| ty, years supply for farmer, even in thi,
| far-of State, costing only three dollars and
ten cents, the duty being, on that amount
only half dollar in gold, but he omitted all
notice of the weightier matters-to the far
mer-of sugar, tea, coffee and molasses. The
one million dollars duty collected on salt ex
cited his deepest horror, and the Syracus,
salt works came in for a half hours sweepin,
condemnatlon,-thou that kind of salt i
sold twenty per cent. less at the Works thai
imported salt in your market,--while tn
$33,000,000O collected annually on sugar.
S10,O00,O00 on tea, $1000O,009 on coffee an
S5,000,O00 on molasses, did not produce a sin
gle saline drop to blur his eyesight, or excit
/
bears heavily upon every hamlet in the land
1t was singular sight to see an eloquent al
vocate of popular rights bringing all the ar
tillery of his logic, wit and eloquence to bea
against the duties levied upon articles whicl
are produced largely by the industry of ou
! own people, such as cotton and woolen man
ufactures, iron, &C., and not letting off s.
much as single gun at the exorbitant take
levied upon the grea necessaries of life, whie
we produce either not at all, or in very limit
| ed supply.
1t it charitable to believe, if Mr. Donnell
is whole-hearted and honest in his preseu
course, that he allows his political ambitio
to warp and cloud his better Judgment. ii
is ambitious to spend his winters in Washin.
ton, and to serve his people in the uppe
house OF Congress, and fear that, to gai
this pet object, he is willing to play pal
which in some other men would be consider
ed demagosuery, and by appeals to prejudc
and ignorance seek to raise a tide that wi
sweep on in the direction of his aspirations
bearing him upon its broad though turbulen
| bosom.
A clear-headed, honest man must kno'
that tariff; and free-trade can have very lit
to do with fixing the price OF wheat, and NJ
Donnelly's relief for the farmer is not to |
i &c H.