Mower County transcript. [volume] (Lansing, Minn.) 1868-1915, 1882-10-04

IL Suggest tudt encouragement anu illu
will be but partial return and not a full
farmers.
Nevertheless, as we, the farmers, are
but part of great community and large
ly interdependent, can we justify our
proposed course before our fellows and
give good and sufficient reasons for for
saking the old parties for something new
and comparatively improved. Have we
any just grievances, and if so, cannot we
look with faith for redress through old
parties.
Let us take cursory glance at the con-
dition of the farming interests in our
county. Examine the records in our
Registers office, and note how many
pleasant homes and fertile fields are cover
ed with mortgages. as with pail, telling
that death is there. What do the many
columns of your and other county papers
tell of these homes and farms on which
many worthy men have toiled early and
late, long and faithfully, being transfer
red. for partial consideration, to the
hands of those that accumulate much but
produce nothing? What tale does your
delinquent tax lists and tax sales unfold?
How many hundreds of good men here
have been obliged to leave farms by
them reclaimed from the wilderness of nat
ure and made blooming and productive,
themselves comparatively penniless, COM
PEELED to try again the hardships of
frontier life? How many farms are now
tenantless and overgrown with weeds.
because, through production, it failed to
pay expenses?
Now what is the cause of this bad state
of affairs? Undoubtedly partial failure
of crops in some case, and in others, shift
lessness and extravaganza. But these are
exceptions. Few will have the hardlh0od
to say the farmers as class, are shiftless
or extravagant, or greatly at fault, unless
under their own control. or, in other
words, neglecting their political interests,
but blindly helping to forge the chains
which now fetter them.
When we farmers haul our produce to
market we receive usually from five to
fifteen cents per bushel less than is paid
for like produce in places more remote
from the great markets, and the produce
from those favored points is carried direct
ly past our doors. When we purchase
our necessaries we are charged from five
to fifty per cent. more than similar articles
can be bought for at places more remote
from market than we are. When we pay
our taxes we are confronted with sum
from one hundred to one thousand per
cent more than property of like valuation
is taxed in eastern states, and we pay it to
officials drawing salary twice as much as
is paid in weather. states and from two to
five times what they can earn in other or
private situations where the labor is more
arduous. Ask the reason for this con-
dition of affairs, and our business men
will discourse f1uently on railroad extor
<;oro rrht op1 Tho ,,ni,,ot
nations we suffer. But as to lifting a
finger in any effort for our relief, nothing
of the kind. 1t all comes out of the pur-
chaser. The same per cent. on increased
cost adds to the profit But you Editors
write frequent squibs of fulsome flattery
of these railroad men and of railroad
management, and there is apparently no
limit to servile crouching on the part of
your boards of trade, or leading men,
when comforting with them, but pro-
test, except it may be in some individual
case, is never heard. AS to the taxes the
officials will say, 20, some other county
has bigger thieves than we are, and as to
our salaries. it costs us so much to get
elected, and then to live according to our
station, really, we can't afford to serve so
cheaplY, but you will elect us again won't
you" Please excuse the reflections l
have INDUCED in; some way they would
come out.
But to resume. I charge that extor-
tionate freight rates, the granting of re.
bates to particular friends or companies,
thus fostering monopolies and high prices,
of the peoples money, laws favoring
and the utterly abominable tariff law, are
the great impediments to our success,
and that there is little hope for relief
through the old parties. But say you,
we will soon have competing railroad,
and that will regulate and correct many
of the evils of which you complain.
Granting you get another road, there is
nothing to prevent their combining with
other companies to maintain present
rates, with q severe penalty for violation
Of compact, such as is now in force
between competing lines IN our state, or
joining with them in pool as in Iowa.
In my opinion more roads will not per-
manently benefit the farmers. The roads
we now have can easily carry all the
freight we have or are likely to have in
the next twenty years, and one road
can afford to carry for half what it
would cost if divided between two roads
and probably less than half what we now
pay. We farmers mostly have to pay
for building equipping and running all
roads, with an army of high salaried
officials to keep fat and good-natured.
The remedy is not in getting more roads,
but in properly regulating those we have
they do for those at greater distance
from market, and we could save thous-
ands every year, probably half of what we
now have tn nav
II: Now, Mr. Editor, have written more
than intended, but have not reached
the point I aimed at; viz: to show by
the record of the Republican party in
our state, and especially the course of
our members from this county, that there
is little hope we can indulge in of getting
relief through the old party. Can have
space for conclusion, in next issue3 A
word more especially to the farmers. A
prominent man and politician, at our
State Capitol, while discussing the rail-
road transportation question and our
cause of complaint, with one of our lead
ing farmers, remarked, you farmers in
the southern districts will do nothing
for yourselves, and of course we can't do
anything to relieve you, so why in HI
is all this grumbling." This, though
rather rough and profane, is hitting the
nail square on the head. The farmers, or
any other class of men, are entitled to
success just in proportion to the effort
they put forth for self-preservation and
protection, and no further.
Shall we make an effort? It must be a
united one, or it will fail. but if united,
much may be accomplished. That we
may and will succeed is the belief of one
that is not to be a candidate for any
Office. LABORER.
THE huge, drastic, gripping, sickening
pills are fast being superseded by DR..
Pierce's "Purgative Pellets" Sold by
druggists.
Court and Go0d Mannora.