Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1873-08-23
now TO GET THE SILK DRESS OUT
OF THE dRUHOU SE


dered expensive habits among the farmers, of
winch they knew nothing before. When a
morse or mule was worth two prices, and
bubhel OF corn or of oats three, the silk dress
aohert hdrd times hare come ho,c to get il Out
Chicago, AAoa and 81. Louis Rdit,ody Of
fcidl r "a =
This is what q Chicago, Alton, and
st. Louis railway official said to CORE
spondent of the New York Tribune. 1t
IS the key to the origin of the difficulty
between the railways and the farmers.
The railway managers have come to
look upon the agriculturists as the En-
glish landed aristocracy regard the
minds" who till the soil as tenants, to
dig and toll and sweat; to be clad in the
coarsest fabrics to exist on the coarsest
fare, Ito keep {" the silk dress out of the
family" to keep the piano "out of the
family ;" to keep all the higher branches
of education, and of accomplishments
"out of the family" in order that the
surplus of earnings levied in the form
of a transportation tax may be the
larger. But "when horse or mule
was worth two prices, and a bushel of
corn or of oats three and the "silk
dress got into the family" of the farmer,
did nothing "get into the family" of the
railway official? 1t will be found upon
comparative examination that not only
did "the silk dress get into the family
of the railway manager, but rare and
costly gems as well, and the family"
itself got into an extrayagant mansion,
had its retinue of servants, its gaudy
livery, and lived on the "fat of the
land" Not alone "the silk Dress" but
stocks and bonds and millions of money
"got into the families" of Vanderbilt,
Gould, Drew, Fisk, and Tom Scott, and
lesser amounts accrued to their long list
of followers. If the silk dress SCOT
into the f,rmily.of the farmer he paid
for it with the proceeds of his mule at
two prices. Did the railway managers
do as much 1t is Il fact that vast
amounts 6fiishe stocks and bonds which
Is got. into spa. families" of the railway
kings never hest them dollar. They
were created by the fiat of boards of
directors, and paid for by the farmers
two-priced mule" Worse yet, the
present exorbitant passenger and freight
rates are based on these fraudulent is
sues of stock, and the farmer, who got
silk dress into his family" when
his horse or his mule was worth two
prices" is now forced to sell his mule
for one price to pay dividends on the
original fraud.
If "hard times" have indeed come,
as our official ssys, and "the silk
dress is to be got out of the family" of
the farmer, these fraudulent stocks and
bonds must be "got out of the families"
into which they never went by fair deal
ing. Discussing this question, Poor's
RaitVay Manual very pointedly says ::
Ono wonder the Western farmers are
getting beside themselves in the matter
OF railway transportation. They COM
plain that everything is eaten up on it's
way to market. Let them force Mr..
Vanderbilt to sdisgorge his ill-gotten
gains, andthey will have gone long
way towardrighting their wrongs"
If there is to be retrenchment it must
begin call along the line" If "the
silk dress is to be got out of the family
of the farmer" the diamonds must be
got out of the family of the manipulation
OF stock. If the farmers daughter,is to
surrender her piano, the wife of the
railway manager must give up her laces
and velvets. If the mortgages swallows
the broad domains of the farmer, the
public will replevin the plethoric list of
fraudulent stocks and bonds and blot
them out of the railway capital of the
country, of which they constitute no
legal part or parcel.
Our Chicago, Alton and St. Louis
railway official does not comprehend
the situation. He regards the farmers
as wards of the railways, to be treated
to Il silk dress" if the mule will bring
two prices, but when the mule brings
only one price to be treated to no dress
at all. He says We'll, when they
began to be short of money the farmers
looked about for somebody to blame for
it, and seeing that the railways took
percentage for the trans
portation of their grain, they naturally,
often withoutstopping to reason, jumped
to the conclusion that it must be all the
fault of the railways that they were not
more prosperous.
Ii this official had himself stopped
to reason" he would have observed that
no movement for reform was ever more
calm, more deliberate, or more entirely
under the control of the faculty of rea-
son. Notwithstanding the extortions
md abuses of many of the railways are
enormous, and weigh heavily upon both
producer and consumer notwithstand-
ing it is notorious that for years their
agents have Systematically corrupted
courts and subsidized legislatures. and
through these criminal practices per-
'erted justice and laid great burdens
upon the people, yet no act of retribu-
i've violence has been committed. No