Mexico weekly ledger., 1888-07-05
THE WHEELERS' COLUMN
w. e. Editor:

ohieefs Oh the County A. w. are
j.. T. Veerkamp, President, Rush
Hill, Mo-, J. w. Middleton, Sec
rotary, Rush Hill, Mo.
The Wheel has earned quite Il
little notoriety on account of it's
deal III binding Irvine; the trade
committee ordered a car load of.
Irvine to be placed on the track at
Rush Hill for 1874 cents per
pound. Twice as much could have
been disposed of if the matter had
been taken hold of sooner. In max
ing up the order, the committee
sighted no one, but ordered for
every n who wanted Irvine,
whether he vas in the Wheel or
not. The feature Of the Wheel,
which encourages combinations for
the purpose of making purchases,
does not meet with much favor in
this part of the country, because
with the exception of the farm i'm
plement and machine business,
there are no conditions demanding
a trading combination on the part
of the people, as there were in
some of the Southern States, as
the machine trade is at present, it
is a heavy tax upon the farmer,
for it is well known that American
made machinery is sold cheaper in
Europe and India than it is at
home. We believe that the Wheel
could do Il good work by looking
into this matter with Il view to pro-
vlding a remedy for this gross i'm
position. The only trouble which we
should probably meet with in this
matter, would be the different opin-
ions which farmers entertain as to
the merits of the different brands
OF the same class of machinery.
Should the Wheel attempt to do
anything in this line it would be
necessary for us to come to some
understanding and all use the same
kind OF machinery.
Bro. B. F. Wylde, Secretary of
Benton City A. W, reports his So
ciety in a hourishing condition;
one candidate initiated, two mem
bers received on transfer, and three
petitions pending. Bro. Wylde
strikes a key note when he says:
"By organizing and educating our
selves until we can look at our in
t~erests from an intelligent stand
point, we shall be thoroughly able
to protect ourselves from financial
mismanagement and legislative
stupidity, without accepting from
our manufacturing friends, and
their lobbyistsin Congress, the kind
of protection they have been fore
ing upon us for the last quarter of
a century,"
We should all be devotedly
thankful for the recently proposed
reduction Of postage; farmers and
laboring men in general, from the
very nature of their respective pur-
suits, have so large and so varied a
correspondence that they will
gratefully hail this proposed re-
duction of postage, as positive evil
dence that at last some one has had
the courage to come out bodily and
champion the cause of a long-suf-
fering but patient people.
With rights and privileges come
duties and responsibilities and in
our republic it is the imperative
duty Of every citizen to inform
himself so thoroughly concerning
matters of public interest, to the
end that he may have a full
knowledge of his rights and have
the courage to demand them. That
our people have been negligent and
careless of matters affecting the
public veal, is evidenced by the
fact that many Of our public serv-
ants have openly and defiantly
violated the trust reposed in them
by their constituents it is further
evidenced by the fact that the best
interests of our country have often
been neglected, while the few who
own or control gigantic corporate
interests have secured every favor
for which they have asked; they
have appeared before our congress
ional committees and by foul mis-
representations have saddled bur-
dens upon the people for genera
tions to m This could not be
so If every citizen had done his
duty to himself and to his fellow
citizens. Just now the question of
taxation is receiving it's full share
of attention, but why devote so
much time to a single issue? A