The anti-monopolist. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1874-1878, 1874-07-30
THE ISSUE CLEARLY PRESENT.
Ed.

it tries to charge the bankruptcy OF the
railroads of the United States, upon
the agitation among the people in favor
of legislative regulation Of railroads;
and inferentially it tries to antagonist
the workmen Of the towns with the
farmers. It perceives clearly that the
power of the republican party with the
agricultural population is gone forever:
but it hopes to retain the towns and
cities by making the tradesmen, me-
chanics, and laboring men believe that
the farmers are their enemies. The
whole article is worthy Of the devilish
intelligence which has so long presided
over the republican party Of Minneso-
ia, through the columns of that paper.
But ''see how plain a tale will set
them down.
Our financial revulsion commenced
more than year ago in Europe, when
over thirty American railroad compa-
MES allowed their bonds to 20 to pro-
test for want Of money to pay the in
terest on them.
Thence followed European distrrst :;
a withdrawal of investments; refusal
to make new ones; thence came the
failure of Jay Cooke, and then the
whole row Of bricks fell together
At the time these thirty railroads
went to protest in Europe the Grange
movement was just beginning to attract
attention. Only the most sagacio'ls
saw its power; the average politicians
sneered at and derided it. It's existence,
therefore, did not produce that want of
confidence in American railroads which
brought on the panic.
This want of confidence was pro-
duced by an act of bankruptcy on
the part of those thirty companies. to-
wit the failure to pay their debts.
If a wholesale merchant trusts a re-
tail merchant, and the latter promptly
pays all his bills and notes, the former
continues to believe in him, no matter
what his neighbors may say of him..
But if the retail merchant lets his
paper go to protest, that is the end Of
his credit, even though ten thousand
should praise him.
So with the railroads. The German,
Belgian and English bankers cared little
for the faint rumors which reached
them Of an association among the West
ern farmers for self-proteccion, but
they found, staring them in the face,
the pregnant fact that the railroads did
not pay them the money they had
promised. That was enough.
No one but shabby tool of the mo-
nopolists, like Whcelock, would dare to
charge upon the farmers this failure Of
the railroads to pay their interest.
1t was the result of pernicious sys-
tenn long continued system whereby
railroads were built far in advance of
the demands Of settlement system
whereby road which cost really $780,
900 was bonded for $50, 900; whereby the
interest for few years was raised, not
from the earnings of the road, but from
bonds sold for that purpose; system.
whereby the officers of roads stole them
selves rich while the roads suffered.
The bubble had to break. 1t would
have broken if there had not been a
Grange in the United States.
Would Englishmen or Germans or
Hollanders shrink from American rail-
road securities because the people CLAIM
ed the right to control railroad fares
and freights? Do they not claim and
exercise that right in England, Germany
and Holland Is there any civilized
country on earth where the millions of
the people will permit few capitalists
to say how much they shall annually
derive for their own Industry The
Sublime Porte or the Car of Russia
would not dare to set up such claim.
In Germany an increase Of tax Of one
cent gallon on beer will breed IN in
surrection at any time. 1t is a pity
they have not Wheelock there, to con-
vince them that the railroads have a
right to add one hundred cents a gal
Ion to the beer by additional cost Of
transportation in fact, that the rail-
roads have perfect right, if they
choose, to take the beer and
the keg, hoops and all, and leave the
people an undisputed title to the bung-
hole.
But if an act of bankruptcy on the
part of thirty railroad companies pro-
duced the panic. what was the immedi-
ate cause of this bankruptcy; simply a
lack of money; that is they did not
earn enough; or it was stolen.
Was this produced by any Grange
legislation Not a bit. There was