New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1873-04-05
THE FARMRRS MEETING.

The second day of the Farmers Meeting at
Springfield was characterized by some confu-
sion and disorder not unnatural perhaps in an
assemblage of persons unused to such gather
ings and possibly unacquainted with parla-
mentary forms. The delegates, having met
for distinct practical purpose, were in no
humor for long speeches or debate, and many
Of them went back to their farms as soon as
they had expressed their sentiments in the for
nal resolutions. Fortunately the unwise de-
claration respecting the tariff on railway ma
terials was recOnsidered, the vote of the day
before being reversed. The resolution censur-
ing the back-pay theft was expunged as irrel-
cvant to the questions before the meeting.
No ono doubts the sentiment of the farming
community on this subject, and the COnven-
ton was wise to restrict itself to its immedi-
ate business.
The solution Of the railway problem Is now
left to the State Legislatures. That they will
completely solve it we do not anticipate. 1t
taxes the ingenuity of the abest politicians
and economists of both henispheres. II is
agitating Great Britain, where the plan of
State ownership is again becoming prominent.
10 is by no means settled even in Belgium,
whose example Is so often referred to by the
advocates of government Interference. No.
where indeed. have the numerous difficulties
Of tho question been fairly met and con-
qucred. In this country the case is compli-
Gated with a great variety of conditions-in
one State, perhaps, by the enormous wealth
of the railroads in another by their extreme
poverty. Here the directors may be squander-
ing the earnings Of the company in legislative
corruption; there the stockholders may be
staggering under load of debt transmitted to
them from dishonest or improvident predeccs-
sors. Who shall decide what is Il fair tariff
of charges on bankrupt road I Who shall
say what q prosperous corporation may reason
ably demandY A carload of wheat is moved,
let us say, from Central Illinois to Boston at
a uniform rate per mile, passing over several
distinct roads before il reaches its destinations
TO one Of these roads perhaps the rate affords
q handsome profit; to the next, which has q
heavier debt, it yields littlo or nothing; to
tho third il again becomes profitable. Ought
the tariff, in such cases, TO vary with tho
liabilities of the different cOmpauicsR These
are serious questions, and in attempting to
find u remedy for tho suilcriHgs of the farm
ers we must he careful to be just to the other
side.
After all has been said however, the fact
remnins that the grain of the West must come
to the seaboard, and that the cost of bringing
il now il too great to pay the expenses of the
producers, to say nothing of interest on the
capital invested in their farms. A committee
of the United States Senate was appointed Mt
the last session to investigate this subject,
and it il understood that Mr.. Window of
Minnesota purposes dcvoting the recess to II
careful study of it. He could not engage in
more useful work, and the whole country
will watch with curiosity for tho result of his
researches. Unjust determinations and grossly
extorionate charges, of which the Illinois
farmers chiefly complain. will DO reached by
local legislation; but when these have been,