Mower County transcript. [volume] (Lansing, Minn.) 1868-1915, 1882-09-20
Merrick Takes the Stand,

EDITOR TRANscR1Pr:-In your report
last week of the meeting of the Farmers
Alliance, held on the 9th inst, both in
the headlines and in the body of the re-
port, there appears to have been studied
effort by inuendo and otherwise to ridi-
Guile and belittle the movement the
Alliance has entered upon. Now am not
farmer, have never attended the meet
ings of the Alliance, and have no know
ledge of what has been done by it or what
is intended, further than I am able to
gather from your paper and other reports.
For these reasons I should, perhaps, hest
tate to reply to the insinuations contained
in the report, did it not, in effect, deny
every other class of citizens, as we'll as
farmers, the right to organize and band
together for their mutual benefit and pro-
lection. I recognize the right of all
classes of people, and by your conduct,
you seem to, with the exception of farm
ers, to form societies for their mutual
advantage. But while organizations of
Railway corporations, and eastern manu-
facturers, and farm machine makers, and
owners of coal mines, and Locomotive
engineers, and Railway conductors, and
doctors, and editors, and even lawyers,
have existed for years, and still exist with
out objection from you, is it not singu-
lar fact that there is no shaft of ridicule
ever directed toward their meetings, no
inuendos or filings ever aimed at them2 In
the language of the poet, "why is this
thus'" Did farmers never have political
rights that other classes were bound to
respect, or have they, by SO long permit
ting others to manipulate the politics of
the country, surrendered up the rights
they originally possessed? Surely, Mr..
Editor, in gathering matter for your paper
you cannot have been so blind as not to dis
cover that very great abuses exist in the
working OF governmental and other affairs
and that in the west, particularly, these
abuses bear much more heavily upon
farmers than any other class. When
Railway companies so arrange their
freight tariff as to make the producer in
one locality pay twice as much to trans.
port his produce to eastern markets as is
charged at points hundred miles farther
distant, or when four times as much
freight is charged on merchandise to one
locality as IS asked of points many miles
further from market, or when railway
companies grant drawbacks to certain
dealers in grain and refuse to allow others
to buy on any terms, when the whole
tendency of legislation is to support
monied corporations and monopolies as
against the producing and laboring
classes, and to build up large centers at
the expense of the rural districts, and
when, as result of these unjust dis
ordinations by private corporations and
t1agrant abuses and protligacy by public
slduous attention to business and exercis-
ing the most rigid economy, at the end of
each succeeding year, finds that he is
scarcely better, if 50 well off, as at the
beginning, has he no right to raise voice
or cry out against such wrongs; or, when
he is smarting under this feeling of in
justice done him, and he seeks, by meet
ing with his fellows, to bring about a
reform, is it right, is it fair, tor you, by
the use OF ridicule, that most effective of
weapons, or by any ether means, to at
tempt to weaken the effect of his en-
deavors2 Further than those mentioned
in your paper, | am ignorant of the names
OF the 20 persons who composed the
meeting in question, but if those named
are fair sample of the others, the meet
ing must have been a very respectable
gathering, and if there were any present
whose political paths are slightly crooked,
remember, '.Wise men change their minds,
fools never" the thought Of which great
truth ought to act as healing balm on
you as well as them. Yours truly,
W. II, MERRICK.