St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1884-08-30
THE MONOPOLISTS.
Ben Butler Tells the Pennsylva-
MIA Farmers Who They are
and How They Exist.
He Pays His Compliments to the Rail
roads and MilliOnaires
And Tells the People He Does not Want to be
Elected President.

HARRISON, Aug 29.-At O'Clock Gen. Butler
was escorted to the grand stand by very large
number of people, and band of music and a
squad of fifty policemen. AS he ascended the
steps of the platform he was loudly cheered, and
a few minutes later was introduced by Worthy
Master Leonard Rhone, of the State Grange.
Gen. Butler in his speech said:
Usually speech TO farmers commences in
telling them how happy they are and how much
their lot is to be desired to all others, and how
excellent thing it is to plow in the ground and
drive cows and milk them, and to make butter
and have other people eat it. l am not going TO
begin my speech in that way. A farmer boy,
brought up in my early youth On a farm-not
like these, but SO rocky when they sent me after
the COWS they could jump mile from stone to
stone and never touch ground. | know some
thing of farm life. 1t is q hard life if well fol-
lowed. 1t is stern life if well followed. 1t is
an onerous life if we'll followed. The farmer,as
rule, does not get rich, but he always has
comfortable subsistence, and if he is in
dustrious and frugal he lays up a competency
for his Children ii he has taught them to work
with him, and not let them get the foolish idea
that the highest vocation can have is to
measure off calico with a yard stick behind
counter. Never do that. Stay at home, boys, on
the farm. Let me tell you one or two things,
and this is politics, only you don't know it.
Ninety nine out of every hundred men that go
into the city and go into business do not succeed
in a high degree, and more than ninety out of
every hundred fail utterly. Successes you hear
of, but failures sink away into obscurity; and
your sons who are gone into the city find their
place at last in the poorhouse, where
history does not deal with them to any consider
able extent, and it is much worse for girls, as
you can think. | speak like an old man to young
men and women and mothers and fathers. Find
good honest farmer or mechanic in your neigh
borhood, and marry the girls to them, and let
them be happy parents of fine children, again,
to marry with that class upon which the very
foundation of the government rests.
Now, | say farm life is hard life; but why is
it hard life! Because you don't get a fair share
of the profits Of what you produce. Look at the
agricultural implements see here. How much
has the power Of the farmer
been increased by this improved ma
chinery? How much has production been
increased? More than two hundred fold. You
can produce two hundred fold as much in the
same time. Now, why is not the condition OF
the farmer two hundred fold better now than it
was before the good gifts of God, in the shape
of machinery, were given him to make produc-
ton? He either ought to get two hundred times
richer, or he ought to work two hundred times
easier, or he ought to work two hundred times
less than formerly. But he don't. Where has
this money gone to? Who has got it? "A voice
in the crowd: 1.-The monopolist.") Not always
the monopolist, but he gets most of it. The
farmer hasn't got it, He has got his land little
better little worse, but all this great produc-
ton has gone somewhere. 1t has not been eaten
up. 1t has not been burned. 1t has not taken
wings and flown away. You will see it in these
immense fortunes which have been acquired. l
am not here to arraign the laws of the country
which allow them to so accumulate wages of
honest labor and honest production. Ap-
pause. L am here to say the laws and egisla-
tOrc hat ha rnnpi u1ota To he
rich richer and the poor poorer, ought to be
changed.
There are fifty billion dollars of property in
the country Farmers own more than one
fourth. Well, why have they not got
rich. Because, first, riches don't flow
in piles to them 1t is steady stream, and then
you pay all the taxes substantially. Why do l
say thatg Why, if we could get all this fifty bill
lion dollars of property taxed, taxes would be
nothing at all. They woud not be a flea bite.
But Mr. Vanderbilt swears that under the law
he is not taxable at all for national and other Sc
curities; and yet by your laws he had at that
time S252, 900 of the national debt and other Sc
curities, and the law would allow him to escape
taxation. Do you say word about those laws?
Oh, no: you get up all manner of quarrels over
state rights, and old matters of any kind that
were matters Of Importance long ago; and one
will call himself Republican and another a
Democrat, and get vexed and angry and make
while you are quarrelling. Nothing
more or nothing less. Why does
the farmer pay so much? 1t is because all his
property lies where it can be seen, and the tax
gatherer can't miss it; whereas, my bonds, if |
have any, and my stock, and my notes, and my
securities lie away in my safe, and assessor
can't find them. The farmer is worse off than
the working man, because he has got something
TO be taxed that can be seen. The working man
has got his capitol which is his capabilty of doing
u days work, that is not taxed. But the farmer
having one fourth of the property OF this
country pays three fourths of the taxes.
The general then considered the subject of
transportation, and said:
Railroad companies league together and make
discriminating rates Of freight; and now without
going into this matter at length, let me sketch
you thing Chicago beef is and has been
cheaper in Liverpool, England, than in Boston;
and the beef has been taken through Boston. You
say that is very remarkable. Not at all. II ia
effected by the discrimination in rates against
the Boston purchaser. ! only want to call that
one thing to your mind to show you how
those great corporations of necessity almost act
against the farmer. The corporation leaves
the individual manager entirely re-
lieved from all responsibility. You
go to railroad corporation and
complain to the manager. 'Oh,'' says he, II
wond relieve You if l could, but the company
have voted so and so, and such is the order"
And who is the company? You can't find them
The company has neither conscience nor soul
and the individual is relieved from the response
bility, and that is the worst thing have against
corporations
Corporations are necessary, but what are they?
They are agents of the people, created by the
law of the people tapplause) to be restrained by
the people, and they are to act only for the good
of the people, and they are allowed to take
tolls and fares and freight for the pur-
pose of a just and fair remuneration,
and il they do that, and that alone, they become
friends of the working man and friends of the
farmer, as means of communication and inter
change OF freights and passengers. But If they
transcend these limits. then your legislature
should have full power. II has, in theory, con-
stitutiOnal right TO restrain them: but now how
is it in PENNSYLVANIA Do you believe hon.
estly there is power in any Democratic or Repub-
lican Legislature i'll this state to restrain and
control the Pennsylvania railroads? There is
not man of you believes this. 1t is tried every
year-missed fire every time.
The general then addressed himself TO his
Democratic hearers, who have been throwing
away his vote, and to his Republican hearers, who
has been doing worse, by sustaining a party
that has brought about these things. Il didn't
hst sfr. II.