Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1873-08-27
Gbe fireman.
MONTPELIER, VT,
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 27, 1873.
Anti-NOnODOIiStS.

ket. The trouble is to iud out how much G
this power is welded by men who eontrc
transportation and manufactures, and hoy
much of it lies still farther back and is in
herent in the nature of things So far p
their demand shall be that capitalists shall
content themselves with small profits, tina
goods which the agriculturist needs to pur
chase shall come to his doors at REASONABLE,
advance on first cost, and that goods which b,
offers as the product of his farm shall be COD.
veyed without unjust discrimi ton and at
simply paying rates upon railways which
exist only by virtue of being highways o.
the nation-to this will they command
the sympathy and cooperation of all inter
ested in justice and fair dealing.
The oranges in their first organization
were perhaps more for tine immediate pur
pose of avoiding the payment of exorbitan,
profits to others than for any other object
Agricultural implements were sold by the
manufacturers to the middlemen at enor-
nous advances over the cost of making; the
statesmen again received wonderfully large
percentage so that what the farmer bought
came into his hands at a price certainly quad
ripple the cost of making. This same rule
held true in every thing in the nature of a
machine whether it was for sewing or for
reaping. Organized effort soon brought many
things at the doors of the grangers at great
Iy IT duced prices.
There was an Irresistible tendency to carry
their efforts from cheapening what they
bought to increasing the price of what they
sold. The com plants in regard to railroad
transportation were originated by the evils
of the system : the outcry agai INST them was
increased I Y the new found power which be-
gan to be felt throughout the West. This
outcry,-it is well for all concerned to take
note, is that of the strong and not of the
weak. Orators may declsim before the
masses of the power of corporations but all,
not blind. can zee that 10 any truly just de-
mand the agricuturists of the United States
are not to be resisted. When they carry
themselves they carry the nation. They OUT
number and out-vOte all other callings They
need no secret organization to assert their
power, and the ultimate danger to their
movement is that by allowing it to take the
semblance OF something which needs man
sgement." it will fall into the hands OF
tricksters who will make the worst kind of a
monopoly of that which is to break down
moDOpolIes.
There will be, no doubt, in many parts O.
the Union, if not in all, a contest between
what I" 49, and what g ought to be-" be-
tween " vested rights and the % sovereign
power Of the people .; aud it may be e.
dicted that large number of wrongs Of such
long standing that they have assumed the
name and appearance of vested rights y
will go to the wall.
Those " ho are dong the talking for the
grangers are making good many foolish
speeches, demanding more than they ought
to have and more than they will get or ask
for when they get out of this stage of agita-
ton into that of action. Till then we lcok
to see statements overdrawn and appeals to
passion as well as reason; and these will not |
more than make the warfare even, for the |
corrupt corporations. the unjust ones, the
ones that the farmers are after, will fight |
them with money and with deceit. We do |
not fear that railroads which do the business |
Of the public at fair rates, that make no un-
49, 4
business men, that do not 60 into politics,
that fulfill their duties as common carriers |
upon the great national highways and do !
their business as an honorable man does his. |
will be interfered with. Others uss take |
care of themselves and can do so in no So
good way as forsakin their evil courses.
On the Pacific coast there is a contest
more bitter than that of which we have
spoken, but one which in its essential par |
ticulars is the same; the wrongs being more |
glaring and the classes interested against the |
railroad being the general body of citizens
rather than the farming commu ,ity alone.
While the classes engaged in the Calilor-
MIA movement embrace a larger variety of
interests than those immediately concerned |
in the Iowa and Illinois agitation, their |
Efforts seem to be more directly concentrated |
against the railroads. The speech of Gov.
Newton Booth, made two weeks ago in San |
Francisco, gives voice to the growing hostility |
and is valuable as note of warning if not a.
4 calm guide to results that should be reached |
The sharp criticism which this speech con-
aims OF methods of building railroads with
public money, of their disregard, when once
of the rights of the people by
whose grace they were constructed, of their |
the few by means of Contract and |
finance companies, and of their corruptipg |
and ever meddling course in politics, NAV |
have been justified by the management of the |
Central Pacific directors. In SO far as that
road has been guilty of these things will it |
receive harsh treatment in due time from the
people who will at length sit in Judgment |
lpon it. The governor hints at the taking
Of the railroads by government to protect ,
itself but we tbink the solution of the ones.
lion will be reached without such radical
means, His conclusion that reform or revo-
luton is impending is correct one. The
will not come, however, for in this
country when the people demand reform it
slll be had, for they control the legislative
me executive and, in the end, the judicial
branches of the government. 1t is not long
'ince all these three departments in our ma
ion were for slavery. The onward course of
he people was changing them and the rebel
ion in vain attempt to arrest this course
y arms only brought quickly on what would
AVE been reached by the ballot. So the
wills that have grown to great magnitude
inee the war, the system of wrongful control