The Iowa plain dealer. [volume] (New Oregon, Howard County, Iowa) 1867-1895, 1884-09-25
corruption, and sometimes ten times more
destructive. (Applause.l

OBSTRUCTIVE. lhpplausc.I
NOT A WAR AGAINST RAILROADS.
I do not desire TO be understood that you
gentlemen have assembled here to organize
an aggressive campaign against railroads.
Nothing Is further from your thoughts. All
you ask is fair play; and you are as ready to
protect the just rights Of the corporations as
you are to defend your own. [Applause.l
THE MILLERs' RISo.
pass to another branch Of this Monopoly
question.
Minnesota's great crop Is wheat. Climate.
a titude, soil have made 1t such. We raise
the finest quality Of wheat, capable Of max
ing the finest -four, In the world. Our flour
regularly commands higher price than any
other In the eastern markets. In Philadel-
phia this premium is 81 per barrel, equal to
nearly twenty-five cents per bushel on the
wheat Of which 1t 10 composed. Upon our
wheat crop mainly depends the growth Of
the state in population and wealth. Every
encouragement should be given by law to
our wheat growers. What are the facts OF
the easel
NOT FREE MARKET IN THE STATE.
state from center to circumference. Hence
we have not one where immense frauds are
not constantly, daily aud hourly, practiced
upon the producer. Great applause.)
Liberty means property. 1t means that
the fruits OF mans industry shall not be
taken from him without compensation.
When he is taxed he expects to receive gov
ernment, peace, order, and social safety in
exchange. The English revolution WAS In
defence Of the rights Of property, against the
cxactions Of monarchy. Our own revolution
Of l716 was In defence Of the property rights
Of the colonists against taxation levied In
parliament In which they had no voice.
Liberty means justice; justice means the
right % your own. tApplause.) When the
property Of a people Is taken from them by
any devices, without compensation, govern
ment is at fault; and the party In power can
be justly held responsible for 1t. (Appause.)
NO COMPETITION FOR orR WHEAT.
What Is our condition. The price Of wheat
in every town In Minnesota Is daily fixed
by gentleman in Minneapolis, the repre-
sentative OF a combination of mill-owncrs OF
that city. There is no competition. II CON-
pcting buyers appear they are driven of by
putting up the price far beyond what the
wheat is really worth, and as soon as the out
siders withdraw the price is lowered again to
the old standard; or even little lower to
cover the loss incurred in driving of the
competing buyers. (Applause.)
Artemus Ward long ago remarked that
''therc Is a good deal Of human nature In
"a. n VI
TALLY after the same pattern. II you, gen.
tlemen, had the power to 90 into the mills of
Minneapolis and buy their -four at your own
| price, would you pay more for 1t than IL was
| worthi Would you pay as much as it was
worthi Why shouldyou give six dollars a
barrel for flour If you could get 1t for five.
| Why five II you could get It for three. Would
you not feel, after few days of this kind of
trading, that the miller ought to be very well
satisfied If you gave him anything. laugh
ter and applause.)
1t IL an axiom that mo man can be safely
left in the unrestrained power ST any other
man. ut was on this principle that We abolish
ed slavery. To say that dozen men in Min
neapolis, BY the ticking Of telegraph, shall
fix every year and every day
l the value Of the productions Of
hundred thousand farmers, and the result
ing prosperity Of all the merchants, profess
sional men, mechanics and working people
dependant on them, is to say that gigantic
wrong mast be inflicted on the people. There
never yet existed the power to Cypress
that oppression did not follow. Man
kind is meaner than the monkeys and
cruclcr than the Wild beasts. We have only
to look back few hundred years to see the
horrible outrages which unrestrained man
inflicted on hfs fellows. In fact, we need
only cross the ocean and visit the wrctched
cabins Of Ireland, or tho mines OF Siberia,
to learn that tigers and sharks are kinder I,
their kin than that paragon of animals, y
that ''quintescence Of dust" the human
creature. 1t has passed into proyerb that
"Man's inhnmanity to man
Makes countless thousands mourn"
WHAT Is THIS MINNEAPOLIS MILLERs AssocIA.
TON FORMED FoRt
Clearly to prevent competition and keeE
down prices by pooling purchases; just Al
the railroads take another slice OF US b,
pooling their earnings, to prevent competi
plausel.
II the association did not exist what woult
the millers do. Every miller would have Il
} buy on his own hook; he would have buyel
in each town; they would fight over GU
wagons, and bid against each other, unit
they paid the utmost cent our wheat wa
worth. Would they pay more: No; but II
their eagerness to get the wheat they woul,
be content with less profits on their flour
They would have less profit, but We would hav,
more; there would be fewer millionares, bu
thousands OF farmers would be out of debt an,
living in comfort: and it Is the interest o
good government TO secure the competenc,
Of the many, not the atliuencc of the few.
THE EXCUSES.
In civilized society you cannot rob 3 mar
without making him some excuses. Onl
! the highwayman is an exception to this rule
there are no apologies in the muzzl
} Of a revolver. [Laughter.l And the miller
! have their excuses for their robberies, an,
> they are infinite.
GRADING OUR WHEAT.
) In the first place they subdiside the whea
, into numerous grades, Nos. /, ,, 3, 4, an.
! rejected and they tix price for each o
! these grades. All the scientists in the worl,
could not determine the difference In til
hour-making properties Of wheat tina
weighed 5ss. pounds per hushcl and whea
tina, weighed b pounds per the bushel. y
! either sort the miller insists on having his d
, pounds for bushel; he don't lose even tn
? 4 h., aud yet that \, Id. may make iii
. ference to the farmer Of 8, 10, or ID cent
: per bushel One year tie miliers held tlei
. council and resolved that between Nos.
! and , the difference in price should b
: i've cents; between ? and 3 fifteen cents
and between 3 and fifteen cents. Here the
there was difference Of thirty-iye cent
/ between the price Of No. aud No 1, an
: the sole judge Of the fact as to whether III
: wheat was No. or No. was the buyer
0 They took that year i've times as much froi
!, the farmers as IL required To sustain the stat