The anti-monopolist. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1874-1878, 1875-11-18
represents perchance the entire profits Of
a year Of hard labor?
But let the Pioneer-Press explain how
this robbery" is accomplished:

canals have been open, the cost Of transport
ing wheat from St. Paul to New York has been
eighteen cents bushel. Navigation being
virtually suspended on Lake Superior, it now
costs as much to send . bushel of wheat By
rail to MillcaHkee or Chicago as It cost .feac
days ago to send it the 1choIe distunce BY rail
and ,outer to Nesr York, and when navigation
closes. the freight on bushel of wheat from
st. Paul to Chicago will be advanced to 81
cents per bushel, while from Chicago to New
York the rate, which has been from six to eight
cents per bushel, is to be advanced on all the
four great eastern railway lines to 36 cents per
bushel; SO that in a few days the farmers Of
Minnesota will have to pay 81 cents per bushel
on the transportation Of their wheat to New
York as against Is cents during the season of
navigation, or more than three times what they
have been paying during the season, OF course
it is not pretended that wheat can BE- carried by
rail anything like as cheaply as by water. It
need not be said that the railroad cannot COM
pete with the great water r-routes in the trans
portation of grain or other bulky products and
cannot afford to carry at any approximation to
water-rates. But they could we'll afford to car
ry grain at less than one-half the rates they
have resolved to charge from st. Paul to New
York, and at least thirty cents Of the enormous
rate they haze conspired to impose on the car
riagc Of tcheat is pure ertortion. is bold
and rascally scheme to rob the farmers OF the
pulous railroad sharks as Ton Scott and Van
darbilt; and we are sorry to have to add the
managers of the Baltimore and Ohio to THIS
PACK OF HUNGRY BEASTS OF PREY.
Artemus Ward said that when the re-
bells coniscated his .wax-works and Iiv-
ing wild beasts of prey" lively and
healthy young tiger escaped among the
people, and was seen the next day ram
paging aroung with his mouth full OF
the seats OF pants ;"-and, said Artemus,
'sthe site maize my very sole larff." 1t
makes our very sole larff to hear the
Pioneer, Press talking about "greedy and
unscrupulous railroad sharks and
''packs Of hungry beasts Of prey!" l.
has got into our overcoat.
And then the Pioneer. Press continues
But this tyrannical combination of the rail-
road nabobs to plunder the farmers Of the west
will have one good effect, 1t will arouse the
country to the vital importance Of so improv-
| ing and extending the great national water
routes which connect the Mississippi valley
| with the seaboard rs to.emancipate the COM
merce and agriculture OF the country from tht
| grasping and despotic domination OF the rail.
road obligarchy. The difference between Il
cents from ST. Paul to New York in the season o
navigation n-even with l6O miles Of rail to con.
meet with the lake -system-and 81 cents in th'
winter months, when the railroads enjoy mo-
nopoiy of the means of transportation, repre-
sents only portion Of the vast benefits tha
| would be conferred on the whole country b!
such an improvement Of the great water route
as would give the west uninterrupted naviga
ton from the Mississippi river to the ocean,
Now does the Phone, r-Press soberl,
mean all this? Or is it only part Of tn
millers plan to get cheap transportation
on their -four and then leave the farmer
TO suffer? Would to God the farmer
had the same capacity for combined &C
ton possessed by the other great in
dustries. The millers are now discrim
mated against, and forthwith the.
make Rome how'll and they will sooI
hold q convention in Chicago to brin,
the railroad companies to terms; ant
these Pioneer Press articles are, we fear
simply threat to the companies that
they don't come to the millers' term
thev, the millers, will anloose the will
beasts of communism and stir up tn
farmers with long pole. Poor farmer
incapable OF self defence they are use
alternately as the spoil or the tools Of a
other interests.