New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1875-03-20
An jNDEPENDFNT STATE.

IF the Western farmers hold somewhat wild
notions in regard to questions intimately IN
voving their own welfare they are hardly so
much TO blame for 1t "a are those who make
living by misleading them. The subject OF
their alleged grievances is one upon which
scarcely any politician in the West dares to
exprcss himself fully and clearly. The most
of them in making platforms and speeches
exert themselves to evade every issue put
forward by the agitatOrs. They think that to
agree with the Changers will hurt them with
other classes, and they fear on the other hand
to offend tho rural lodges. They generally
cOnfne themselves therefore to two resolu-
tons, facing both ways, saving the rights OF
property and the rights OF producers,
the sacredness of vested interests and
the right of the State TO supervise it's
chartered corporations. Sometimes q states
man. too anxious for Office. goes the length of
saying, as Mr. Carpenter said, that State
Legislature has the control of n corporation
even to forfeiture and then before election
he goes to railway companies, as Mr.. Carpen-
ter is rumored to have done, and asks their
help to carry him through a wavering Legis-
lature. But very few men are found in any
of the Granger States who will run the risk
of q year or two Of private life, and of earn
ing their own living, by telling the farmers
the unpalatable truths which The TRIBUNE
has from time to time told them for their own
good such as that their grain will always be
cheap in years when it is not wanted for ex-
port, and that it is becoming more and more
an exceptional case that will make it possible
IL &c fnttp and loo
and sell it Sc as to give fair profit to pro-
Queer and carrier.
1t is perhaps because Ohio is not, strictly
speaking, one of the Granger States that we
occasionally hear from there word of truth
and soberness on this subject. The Hon.
George NJ. Parsons recently delivered an adj
dress in Columbus, in which he took special
pans to show why Ohio was not suffering
from the same troubles which had driven
some of the Northwestern States into such
eccentric and injurious legislation. The rea-
son Is that Ohio. to a greater extent than any
other Western State, had devoted itself to
using up its raw material as far rs possible
within Its own borders. While in the twenty
years from 1859 to 1870 the increase in the
population of the State was about 33l per
cent, tho increase in cereal produc-
tons was about 80 per cent, and that in
wool one hundred per cent. The number of
hands employed in manufactures had increased
147 per cent. The increase in population had
been 1891, and of hands employed IN man
ufactures S5,7l1. When we consider how
large proportion of these were heads of
families, we see how considerably they are
represented in the increased population of the
State. The position of Ohio IN relation to
variety of production may be seen by com
parison with Illinois. In 1870 the State of
Illinois had population of 2,580,s9l Ohio,
2665,2eO. The area of Illinois WAS 55,4lO square
niles. of Ohio, 3s.sA square miles. Tho cereal
productions Of Illinois were sO1J35, 4Di bushels