Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1878-10-24
TIE FARmEss' rig q rs and WRONGS.

THE fARWE ftS' rig LIS IND WRONGS.
No more iniquitous conspiracy was ever
entered into by man than that of W. D.
Washburn and his co-conspirators to rob the
farmers of the fruits of their toll. In all
ages and in all countries the foundation of
prosperity has rested upon the tillers of the
soil. AS they hourished, nations fourished;
as they were oppressed, nations began to
decay. History teens with examples where
in this lesson is inculcated. The farmer ia
the Atlas upon whose shoulders the structure
of nations and of worlds rests. Wherever
we find the agricultural classes prosperous,
intelligent, content, there we find the ma
tions strong, wealthy and influential.
Wherever we find the farmers poor, ignorant
and oppressed, there we find a ma ion effete,
involved in debt, and despotic in impulse.
The farmers of this country have been ex-
ceptionally favored in the past by good crops
and fair prices for the products of the soil,
and as consequence they have given their
children the advantages of education and
social culture, and created class of yeo-
many of which any nation may be proud.
But the time seems to have come when
the envious money sharks of the country
look upon the farmer as their legitimate
prey. That they may rob him of his sub
stance, degrade him III the social scale, de-
prive his children of the means of cultiva-
ton so as to fit them for what they consider
their natural sphere-that of serfs-they
have entered into an unholy combina-
ton. BY driving out all competition for his
wheat they have compelled the farmer to re-
ceive whatever prices these mighty lords saw
fit to pay him. BY the invention of various
swindling appliances for measuring and
weighing wheat, they have reduced the ap-
parent quality of the grain, and thus still
further defrauded him. By extending their
grasp from year to year they have drawn
more territory into their net every day, until
they now threaten to control the entire pro-
duct of the State of Minnesota, and reduce
the producing classes to state of abiect
bondage. They labor simply for the benefit
of the wheat Shylocks-that they may add
to their warehouse and their store, glad if
they can exc out scanty subsistence by the
most unremitting toll.
Against this cruel thralldom the farmers
Of Minnesota are in open rebellion to-day.
Their appeals for release arise to heaven
from every farmhouse in this great State.
They demand of those who represent them
in the State and national legislature com
plete mancipation-their god-given right
to the fruits of their industry. They de-
mand that the grasping corn Grants who are
squeezing their life-blood from them shall
be compelled to relax their hold. They cry
aloud in indignation against the robberies
perpetrated upon them by means of false
weights and measures. They insist that the
gang of public plunderers who are proving
upon them shall be broken up, and that the
swindling brass kettle through which they
have SO long perpetrated their robberies I'M
detected shall be trampled under foot and
driven from the land. Happily at this time
they have the means of release in their own
hands. The ballot,
THAT silent falls,
As snowfakes fall upon the sod,