The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1873-05-03
Won't Admit It.

The editor of the Ottawa RepUblicah labors
with great earncstness this week, through n
whole column, to prove that he is not Il fool
and considering the violence of the effort, il
is a pity he succeeds so poorly. When we
tell him that not only the farmers Of Illinois,
in state convention, but the farmers of Wis
consin, Minnesota and Kansas, have formally
resolved, and placed it in their platform rs a
plank, that in their fight against monopoics
they mean not only railroad monOpolicS, but
the transportation, lumber salt iron, and
all other monopolics that Cypress and rob the
farmers the RepuJlicda gives lis an idiotic
stare and pokcs at Us the conundrum, how
fighting tariff monopolics is going to " force
the Illinois railroads into a position Of ODE
dence to the laws" In blank establishment
at the absurdity of the question, We give it
up. We don't know We never heard that
anybody ever pretended that even the com.
pletc overthrow of the tariff monopOlicS
would have the slightest effect on changing
the propensity of the Illinois railroad man
ayers to become cXtortiOncrs wherever they
have good chance or TO disobcy the laws Of
the state when they can do so with impunity
"Ah but" yclls the RepuJlicoa editor in
great glcc; Now I've cot you. You said so
yourself" And he quotes from Il former
number of the FREE TRADER, as follows:
"Glve us tree trade cheap ships and loco.
motives aad there will be no longer need to |
worry about cheap transportation IL
And again: Il
Remove the internal tariff restrictions on S
rade; cmancipatc ship building and give us -
rec trade with Canada, and the grand grIcv- .,
nee Of the West will disappear as if by II
magic" )
Well, though we said this last January, we il
cvoutly think 50 stil. Suppose the three
T. four hundred miIcs of narrow guagc
ailroads proposed to be built in Illinois
ext summer, at $4,000 mile could, by the c,
cmOyal Of the iron monopoly, be built for p
5000 mile, as they then could be, and grain G
lould be transported from Chicago to Buff W
10 for s cts bushcl, as it would be if the ci
Ike monopoly was broken up, instead of for II
cts. bushcl as now, how long would "thc pa
and grievance of the west" Chigh frcighSJ on
apt TO survive? Of
But what has this to do with changing an
G hearts or improving the morals, or re- COZ
rming the evil propcnsiics Of the railroad
anagcrs in Illinois, SO as to make them pei
asc making unjust and yillanous discrm- OOC
ations where they get chance, or setting atl'
laws at defiance, like common nov
icycs and burglars? tim
The RlpuJlicau wants the farmers to con cot
q their efforts to tli, moral reform bust '"o
IS and let the bigmonopoicS alone When quI
y strike at other and higher objects, the non
,yJiic1l, like fine Massachusetts, and Pam the
vania monopolists tells the farmers of the MS
st that "thcy don't know what they want, S"i'
ought not to have it if they did" as the llou
ton AdcerSjser puts it, Like that paper, IloI
}, and the Philadelphia Press, the ReD,sJ- con
II cntrcats the farmers "to have nothing to cut
with the destructive doctrine Of free trade. Jon
any of them fondly imagine that if the i'In'
les on iron and steel were removed, the yea
roads would carry their grain at lower Inc
50" able
hcSe are exactly the questions the Rpu5- say
" is asking from week to week. The ed cqu
should go to Massachusetts or Pcnnsvl. couI
ia to live, where he could be nearer TO clat
Sc with whom he is in sympathy
A