The great West. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1889-18??, 1889-10-18

OuU Ouc CIuuc SOSpcI- 1COOC
hog or de-" But here we have
a superior breed of swine, and
the cry goes outcome, bring
your corn and your wheat, and your
milk and your butter, and give unto
them, lest this precious breed of hogs
perish, and leave the world desc
1ate"
A precious breed of hogs indeed.
that do nothing but devour-and
yield neither meat nor fat, nor milk,
nor hide nor wool-not even bristles.
THE CONDITION OF THE FARMERS.
The tendency of the world in these
latter days has been two-fold-one
an upward movement, which has car
ried the non-producing classes to
great heights of luxury and power;
the other a downward movement,
which steadily tends to depress the
producing classes to lower and lower
levels of life. 1t is true that this
latter tendency has been in part coun-
teracted by the vast increase in the
powers of mankind, conferred upon
them by the great inventions, which
make the last two hundred years the
most marked in the history of the
human race. But for those advan-
tages the condition of the producing
classes in England and America
would to-day be as bad as that of
the ryots of India or the poems OF
Mexico.
In Minnesota the producers were
able to secure possession of the land
from a paternal national govern
ment. No such opportunity ever oc-
CURED before, on so gigantic scale,
in the history of the world, or ever
will again. No landlords were able
to step between the occupation Of
the land and the ownership of the
land, to levy tribute amine-rents,"
''rack-rents"- those whose indus
try and enterprise made it produc-
tive. But the cunning of men does
not end with one device.
1.-THE rat that only trusts to one poor hole,
Must surely be a rat of very little SOUL
Unable to collect rent from the
homesteaders and pre-emptors, thous-
ands of sharp fellows were determined
how; and they have done so. have
pointed out one "direful spring of
woes unnumbered, ''the watered-
stock of the railroad companies;
but there have been a score of other
robberies :-extortionate rates of in
terest for the use ofmoney; extortion-
ate prices for farm machinery, pro-
tected and made a monopoly by the
Patent Laws of the United States;
combinations that took possession
of the grain markets of an empire
vaster than the Caesars vergoverned
and determined every day how
much would be taken from the farm
er and how much would be left to
him. In addition to all this, swindling
tricks were practiced that insulted
the intelligence of the people while
they robbed them. "Brass kettles"
that could be made, like magician's
bUttle, to yield any grade of wheat
the operator desired; while between
three different grades, substantially
alike for four-producing purposes, a
difference OF as much as thirty-fve
cents a bushel was established Ele-
vatOr agents were forced to grade
No. as No. 3, and rob the producer
of IS cents a bushel, as was done in
my own county, or lose their places.
False weights, were used, which left
in the warehouse at the end of sea-
sons purchases, wheat enough to
pay the entire original cost of the
house, all stolen-by tricks which de-
served the penitentiary. Combina-
tiOns to depress the price of wheat,
while the bulk of it was in the hands
OF the producers, and to raise it as
soon as the necessities of the farmers
had forced them to part with it. Alb
solute, wholesale, and long-continued
frauds in the grading of wheat. For
instance, raised wheat for several
years in Stevens County, which is
really part of the famous Red River
Valley. / was never able to sell a
bushel of wheat as "No. 1 hard" l
continually complained; but l was
told that "No. 1 hard' could not be
produced in Stevens Co.; that it was
only raised along the line of the
Northern Pacific railroad. 1 urged
that there were only about sixty
miles of distance between the two
sections; and that the Topographic
cal features, the character of the soil,
the climatic conditions-were, in ev-
cry respect, the same. But it was
no use. ''No No. hard in Stevens
Co." was the cry! One day CHANGED
to be visiting the mill Of my friend,
Chas. Espenschied, at the Falls of
the Vermillion, in Hastings, Dakota
County, (south of St. Paul. 1 OBJ
served two cars of wheat standing in
front of the mill. 1 looked at the
grain.
''That is good looking wheat"
said, "what do you call it?"