The anti-monopolist. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1874-1878, 1874-10-15
THE HARD TIMES.

u
We like to take texts and make run.
ming commentaries upon them. This
may not be very dlgnifed style of ed
itorials, but We think it is to the point
and effective, and we do not believe
much in the Turveydrop style of liter
ature.
We met the other day. under date
Oct. Sd, in Philadelphia paper. an ar
ticle in the money column, which inter-
ested US. "Children and fools,' they
say, "speak the truth they speak at
least what they believe. This money
editor probably revealed the current
sentiment Of the business men around
him.
He says:
In commercial circles the week has not
witnessed any notable improvements. There
has been an increase in the near by trade
but that must, in justice, be regarded d as
matter of course Everybody expected that
line Of business, and no one is being disap-
pointed; but the great Northwest and the
uneasy South they are not buying largely,
because our merchants refuse to trust them
recklessly, and the first owners Of the goods
have the best of the deadlock. Whenever
the self-sacrifcing and totally disinterested
Grangels of the West refuse to send their
crops to Eastern markets and the sea-board,
preierring to hoard the life-sustaining cere-
ais in the mercenary hopes of obtaining
higher prices later in the season, then it is
but practical illustration of the first law of
| nature-sell- preservation n--that the ner-
chauts of Market and Third streets should
insist on retaining .heir valuable merchan-
disc in their own hands.
Mark the sneer, "the self-sacrifcing
and totally disnterested Changers of
the West That means, that We
should be both self-sacrificing and to-
tally disinterestedl Of course they
are! Don't they make and sell goods
for pure love of us good people, and
should we not give away our wheat for
the same reasoni OF course we should !
And it seems we are actuated by a
''mercenary hope Of obtaining higher
prices !" Horrible-most horrible To
think that we should compel these wor.
thy merchants and manufactures to fall
back on the first law Of nature, self
preservation. by our refusal to practice
tie lofty gospel of self-sacrifice
And they will insist on retaining
their goods ie we refuse to buy the n.
This is like the excellent reason why
Jack wouldn't eat his supper;-he
couldn't get It. If they can't sell
their goods they are heroically resolved
to keep them.
Again, he says:
Mean while, the resulting stagnation has.
i'll turn, induced the manufacturers of tex
lies to lessen their production, thereby cur
ploye@.
Why should they do this Ifwages
have fallen. and materials have fallen,
and food has fallen, why should net
textile fabrics fall Why keep them
up by starving the very laborers for
whose benefit the High Tariff was os-
tensibly established! Would it not be
better to hire one hundred workmen at
one dollar and half day, than to pay
fifty of them three dollars day and
leave the other fifty to starve!
But he continues
Therefore the toilers of the mills and fac
tories, and all those engaged in the carving
trade must, tor the hard times they are now
experiencing, return thanks to the Gran
gers. The men who obtained strength and
popularity under the always taking pretense
OF protecting Labor against Capital-these
agricultural retormers have placed big STUN
bling blocks in the paths OF the latter They
are forcing the former into undeserved indi-
genoe. Yeta little while, and our own labor
reformers will turn their artillery, not on
capital in the Eastern cities, but on the agri-
cultural monopolists OF the Northwest.
Hurrah! This is splendid. It is
like the old Quaker, who. when he was
kissing the hired girl in the kitchen,
saw his wife peeping in at the door;
"Now, Deborah said the worthy old
man, ''if thee does not stop peeping,
thee viii breed trouble in this family"
If the farmers will not throw away their
wheat, at price fixed by the specula-
tors. they will breed trouble in the
family; and the capitalists will hiss
the laborers on the farmers, aud let
them pull each Others hair out.
IL other words. if the farmers
will work for nothing and find
themselves, the wheels of COM
mercial prosperity can be kept re-
volSing at their old rate; but if they
insist aa self-protection, as the first law
of nature. then the bottom is out of the
tub.
But, canxinues this winter:
Honest thinkers in all deps1ments are
coming to the conclusion that resumption
which means Falncturing the bubble of in
haied values that have so long been blown
by the unscrupulous-will put an end to all
emburasments, and wipe out of existence
the shaIS that the war rendered possible
with the aid OF money.
Sound doctrine that; but it does not
60 far enough. If it is right to pune