The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1873-07-12
THE NEW PARTY.

ness, in the fight against the monopolIStN' 50
| long as the movement promised to be con
fined 10 a mere splurge against the railroads
To that extent the fight could only be I"cal
one, at most and as the power OF the lcgiSla'
ture over the railroads was limited and the
legislature quite ready to exert that power III
any conceivable way to be most effective, the
fight, no matter how hot it became, the fadl-
cal politicians readily saw, could DO their
friends the monopolists at its utmost no 'N-
tensive damage Their enthusiasm for the
farmers, cause to this extent, therefore, was
boundless and admirable.
But having reached this point OF success
the farmers began naturally to look AROUND
10 see if there were no more worlds that need
ed to be conquered. They had started out in Il
crusade against the monopolists, Were me
railroads the only monopolists that oppressed
them? Commissioner Wells, the highest
authority on that subject in the country ha''
told them that while the American railways
todays do their work so per cent cheaper
than any railroad system in Europe, yet
nally the cost of transportation upon ameFl-
can railways is three times greater tiiah III
Europe: and that the reason for this Is, that,
aside from all questions OF difference in
wages, the cost of building and equipplng
railroads in this country, solely on account
of the tariff, is more than double that OF Eu-
rope. A coach which costs 81 600 in Belgium
costs $4,000 here; railroad iron S2o ton
there costs from $40 to $50 here; ana so on
There were other facts that began to worry
the farmers Why did their boots and shoes
cost twice as much as formerly? Their cloth
ing, lumber, salt shovels, rakes-cverything
they had to buy, in fact, seemed greatly en-
HANGED in price as well as railroad trcights
and yet what they themselves raised and had
70 sell continued to 20 downtown. They
had traced one source Of their ills to the rail
road monopolists, but these could not begin
to account for 1.-THE of the ills that afflicted
them Like causes produce like effects they
reasoned. Railroad monopolies having
produced one class of ills; like mOnopolics
must produce the rest" 1t needed very little
reading and reflection, ana less than 'hihl'
beful of common sense, to confirm them IN
this conclusion, and to show them lha' un-
der the general head OF "tarll1 'hey hau
been surrounded Win GORDON OF mohopo-
lists that were sucking thelr plood al every
pore.
Then the farmers began 10 clehch 'hclr
fists and denounce war on All mohopoilsts
whether railroad, tariff or hnd-grab mon
opolists; and then 1t was that the republican
leaders suddenly took alarm, and ran about
among the farmers, crying "Sh-'Sh--'Sh!'
" BE careful! You're running this this thing
into politics 1ouli hurt the republican
- party. Free trade is democratic hobby
= You can't mean to defeatthe great and good
republican party and put those horrible dem
" ocrats into power"
To sensible farmers, OF course, this is all
bosh Free Trade was never hobby any
more of the democratic party than of the re
nuL};c,n In International conventions both
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