Vermont farmer. [volume] (Newport, Orleans County, Vt.) 1870-1877, 1873-04-04

the heads Of the railroad hydra shall be
struck of, and the stumps scared with irons
seven times heated We call it hydra,
but perhaps the illustration in the New York
Graphic, which depicts it as an enormous
I" Devil Fish," whose numerous and powerful
arms, each inscribed with the name of some
great corporation, are represented as encircl-
ing aud crushing the fair form Of Liberty, is
more appropriate. Under either figure the
danger is in no wise exaggerated
Here at the East il has not yet appeared
quite so much matter of life and death as
il has TO our Western brethren. Yet we feel
it pinch, and are feeling il pinch every day,
more and more severely. We find every
year more and more difficulty in making
both ends meet, and our poorer farmers lin
both senses of the adjectivel are many of
them falling behind and getting into debt.
They do not see the reason quite MS plainly
as the Westerners in fact they are neither
suffering so much nor are their suferings 80
distinctly due to this one cause but it makes
a difference to them when but lille differ
ence throws the balance the wrong way
Most of us use more or less Western produce
we feed both Western bred and home bred
stock with Western grown grain, and live
ourselves upon Western -four. All these
things might be real advantage to us,--a
source of wealth in direct profits and the res
toraton of our farms to high fertility by the
increased production of manure This is the
way the West must compensate us, if it CON-
pensates us at all, for the competition we
suffer from. it in many of our old staples of
production But when of the eighty or nine
ty cents bushel we pay for Western corn,
seventy cents goes to tie railroads and only
ten or twenty to the producer we can see
that there is no fair division. The polcer is
in the hands Of the corporations, and they
are using this power to extract an undue
share of wealth from both producer and con-
sumer This power to commit injustice
should be taken away. These rich men must
not have it all their own way. Such is the
voice and such will be the vote Of every in.
teligent laboring man, be he farmer or me-
chanic, so soon as the issue can be made up
and brought to the polls for decision.
The farmers clubs have been unusually
active the past winter, and both social and
public questions have been discussed by them
with remarkable interest. The Oranges of
Patrons of Husbandry are increasing, through
the West aud South especially, with signf.
caut rapidity. As the Prairie Farmer re-
marks " the rapidity with which the work of
organization is going on is simply wonderful,
and shows how ripe the farmers were for the
movement Every Grange and Club is an
engine Of thought and progress" Iowa has
a thousand Oranges, and in Illinois, Indiana,
Missouri, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota,
Mississippi and South Carolina these bodies
are already very numerous and swiftly in.
creasing Besides these organizations, those
farmers not favorable to secret society are
organizing system Of cooperative clubs,
county and state associations, identical in
aim with the Patrons aud acting harmonious
y with that order in the effort to secure the
rights Of labor in the struggle with capital
The conflict has already begun. Vermont,
foremost as usual among all the Eastern
states in every good work, stands first in this.
with the most numerous and most active
clubs aud oranges. But we have only made
beginning.
We know as well as any one can tell us
that there should be no contest between labor
aud capital that each has its proper func-
tions, aud that one without the other is pow
erless to accomplish what is needed for the
progress of the world. 1t is not capital, but
the LaI0lesSnesS and greed Of capitalists that
is arousing this antagonsm among working
men. 1t is a war Of sef-defence. Its Sc
verify will be in proportion to the folly of
the offenders but it will 60 on, and it will
succeed. The quicker the req Tired conces-
sions are made the less of shower there is
going to be.