Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1881-04-29
Re FARMERS, CLUE AID TIE MUS
Sci sLorGH LgAGyERs.

n,ert in the Visalia Delta. The Farmers
Climb is composed of genuine settlers IN
the BIussel Slough country men who
have boughtlor rented the lands they TIL,
bonestly. and who do not, being fully &C,
ouainted with the history of the case, be-
Geye that the Leaguers have justice on
their side, that they have been in any way
opnregsed by the railroad company. or
that they are entitled to public sympathy.
The evidence OF these farmers is undoubt-
ealy very important, for it is perfectly
apparent that from their position and loca-
ton they would have been in accord
with the Leaguers had they believed the
attitude Of the latter to be defensible.
knowing ali the facts, however, they ex-
press themselves in effect az being dis
gusted by the enormous and impudent
Misrepresentation which have been made
on behalf of tie Laaguers, and they signify
their intention to tell the truth about the
situation despite the desperate efforts OF
the Leaguers TO digeredit them by de-
uouncing them as railroad hirelings"
andfsuch like cheap and nasty epithets.
I4 their last answer to the League the
Farmers put forward some very heavy ar
gulnents against the truthfulness aud SIM
cerity of the League representations. They
make lhowings ia regard to some of these
oppressed" persons. which will open the
eyes of many credulous people who have
swallowed all their fabulous complaints
hitherto. Take, for instance, the case of Pat
terson, who recently persuaded a reporter
that when he first purchased his land it
was g barren desert, of little or no value. p"
The Farmers say Of this statement " 1t is
% not true. Some one has evidently under
50 taken to gain sympathy upon false
g statement. MIR. Patterson's land was
80 wet By the Last Chance water ditch
" company long before Mr.. P. came to the
g country, consequently was not desert
g land Land at that time, in that neigh
IS borhood, and similarly situated, was
=: worth, to say the least, $25 an acre. Now
I" for its productions. Mr.. Patterson has
" stated, time and again, that he raised
81 fifty bushels of wheat to the acre the first
80 crop: the second, tifty.fve bushels tc
g the acre and one of his crops brough.
20 him fifty dollars to the acre. A most ex
Z" cellent showing for a barren desert.
Yet this man Patterson has been held up as
an example of the rapacity and oppression
of the railroad company. He had taken
up land which did not belong to him. He
had made all the way to $50 an acre out OF
it. Yet when called upon to pay some SD
per acre he declared it to be barren des.
ert, and refused to pay anything at all.
This is the kind OF foundation upon
which the sensational representations
of the Leaguers have been based.
Listen to the deliberate opinions of then
immediate neighbors, who occupy The
same kind of land. under the same kind
Of title, and who live under the same
general conditions. The Farmers Ciut
say "The claim that the people here ara
oppressed by the railroad company, tht
Loaguers are obliged to make in order t,
IS gain sympathy. Tile oppression Is no
"real. The railroad company has no
deceired them in this n,atter. They cam
here with the full knowledge that it wa
, ''railroad land. TIE railroad compan,
told them as they told us, that whel
'the land was in market the price woul
'''be the price of unimproved land in tn
:s' immediate vicinity They have La
'the use of the land for years free OF rent
J land now refuse to purchase; while w
'had to buy, or have had TO rem
for the last three years. Some Of tn
t'Lsaguers now, while residing on decide
LAND mold, by means OF their leagu
organization, railroad land have ha
"the use Of it and cropped it for the pas
give or six years. They refuse now to bu
| cor deliver possession. Vyho would dar
q" to say that they are oppressed by tn
D railroad company
II appears therefore that the Lacquer
0 have been obtaining sympathy upo
t fiagrantly false pretenses. That in fac
e they have been practically stealing land
= and that they have made all this fuss be
/ cause they were required to pay for it at
4 fair and moderate valuation. How niue
= real " oppression there has been in thei
1 case, the facts above quoted in regard t
: Patterson's land concIusively demonstrate
= Here is a man who has been taking $50
: year off land which belongs 20 somebod
e else, vet who shrieks with horror when h
e is asked to pay Sl4 an acre for it. Thes
, Leaguers ali knew that they had no It'll
e to the land. They had become convince
OF that by process OF litigation in whic
every point was decided against then
They were wrong from the outset, an
l. they continued wrong to the end. Whe
they found that they could not hold tn
d land legally, they undertook to hold
r Illegally They and they alone are It
spousible for the loss of life that ensued
t They went out with arms in their hands
: resist the authority of the United States
and for all tina: followed they are strict
d accountable.
+ They were justly convicted and jastl
i sentenced. They were lawlsss and reyt
/ lulionary, and they had done their best t
D DEFY the Government and to confscat
: the property OF others by violence. Thel
/ never was case which less deserved I'll
= sympathy of intelligent and law. abidin
+ men, and the action of the present Legi
s lature in passing resolutions soliciting til
pardon of these Leaguers can only be cha
c acterized as piece of discreditable demi
gogism, of which every member who vote
for it ought to be very heartily ashamed.
t MARSHAL BgYEDEK.
This old Austrian soldier has fnishe
its- II