The farmers' union., 1891-04-02
FINANCE DISCUSSED.
THE RESULTS OF THE MONEY
POWERS CONTROL.
Past, Present and Future--Cause and Eff
f.ct-Great Work OF the Farmers ALL
ance-CoI. G. 4. Post Reviews tho Situa-
tion Ably and Mt Length.

At a recent mass meeting of the farm
crs in Georgia. Col. G.. {. Post. formerly
editor of the Chicago ErpTcss delivered
an excellent address, of which we give a
synopsis:
1t is not necessary that l take much
of my time or of yours with efforts to
show you the condition Of the country.
Iii general way at least the facts are
pretty we'll known to yon already. We
are near the close of the 10Th century in
Il country rich i'll all the natural elements
from which la Dor can create wealth. a
country so large and a climate so diver
sied that somewhere within its borders
can be produced almost every fruit and
flower, almost every vegetable and grain
known to civilized men. Abundant tim
Der. rich soil, limitlcSs stores of metal,
long lines of sea coast, great lakes, broad
bays, mighty rivers, the natural high
ways of coinmcrcc-thcse are IL part of
the heritage.
The genius of the race has made SER
want Of steam. a slave of electricity. a
companion of the waves of sound. Over
all the known forces ot nature We are
SuNercignS-m
century ago the continent from the
Blue ridge of hills whose outlines can be
seen from the upper windows OF this
building clear on to the kaw river was
an uubrolen wilderness, the home of the
panther and the bear, the deer, the wolf
and the Indian From the kaW to the
Rocky mountains was prairie nnbroken
by single plow share. y country so
little known that for the first half of the
century and even considerably later it
was represented upon oil the
maps as barren desert of
worthless sand while from
the Rocky mountains on the Pacific
ocean i'll all that vast country from
which we have since carved Il half dozen
mighty states and territories, no white
man had ever set foot save only u few
Spanish monks who had built missions
in what Is now southern California.
III century the continent has been
conquered. The lear. the deer. the
wolf. the buffalo and the Indian are
virtually extinct. The forests have
been cut down. The prairie put under
cultivation. The streams hridsed. The
mountains tunneed, the lightning that
played about the mountain tops has been
tanned. Steam has been iarncsSed TO
the car of progress and every portion OF
our continent bound to every other por-
tion with bands of iron and steel. Towns
and cities have been built ard on every
hand IS heard the clatter and jar Of
machinery that with iron fingers and
nerves Of steel and feet that never tire
transforms into thousand different
forms of wealth, the products of the
forest. the plantation and the mine
do not know what the man power
of all the machinery III the United States
- ,J,,r ~, = In ,.,r
Of all the men themselves. There are
perhaps 25,000,0 600 men and women, the
heads of families. in the country, and
these, with some aid from the children,
produce all the wealth there is. What
the power of the machinery which they
bring to their aids | have no way Of esti-
mating. One might guess it to be 100 or
600 times the power of all the men and
women themselves and still be below
rather than above the limit OF the truth.
Think of it. How many men would it
require to draw loaded freight train
across the continent? How many to
draw al! the trains that go? Supposing
600 men could draw loaced freight
train up grade and down grade across the
continent 1t used TO be a SIX months
journey by OK team from s.. Louis to
San Francisco, but suppose 1000 men
could draw freight train from New
York to San Francisco in sir months.
Then in order that a single tl'ain mlght
enter San Francisco from New York
daily aud another start on its :cturn trip
would require the labor of 3G5,25u men.
or one-thirtieth or thirty-fiftlt of all the
abic-bOdied men in the nation. Now,
how many trains enter San Francisco
daily? How many enter or leave New
York. Bostin. Philadelphia, Washing
ton, Cincinnati, Detroit, Chicago, st.
Louis, Kansas City, New Orleans, Mo
bile, Atlanta and all other cities and
towns of the country? How many men
would i, take to draw all these trains
and enough more trains so that The DIFF,
ference III speed between man power and
steam would be made up'
What | am at is All cndcavor to con
Fey some idea or the increased power
of production due to machinery. want
to approx innate in some slight degree tC
the added power Of the people to pro.
ducc wealth derived from their inven.
tions and machinery SO that we may gain
some better idcr of how wealthy the
wealth producers ought to be-
our mothers carded the cotton and the
wool by hand, aud walked back and
forth and turned the wheel with the
hand drew out Il single thread at time
and then sitting at the loom and fur
nished the power to run it with their
feet they wOvc the thread into cloth.
How many women would it take to card
and spin and weave by hand all the cot
ton and wool manufactured into cloth in
| the country? How many would it take
to pick by hand all tho seed out of all
| the cotton raised and ginned in Douglas
county, IN the state, in the south? How
many men and women to run by hand
| all the machinery Of all kinds in all the
cities in all the country?
What becomes of all the wealth ere
| ated by use of all this machinery? Who
| has got it? How did they come by it3
What are they doing with it? These are
the questions the people have right to
| ask and also to have answered.
Jay Gould is said to have $500, 900, 200
| of it. Seven thousand other men and
are said to have 81 900, 600 or more each.
| How much have you got?
| know that If you begin 10 ask ques-
| tions you will be told that these things
We're necessary for the development OF
| the country and that you had better no,
mcddle with politics, but just stick to
| your farms, as you can't understand
| political economy anyway, and if that
| don't stop you you will be called com
munists or any other insulting epithets
that it is thought may frighten you into
keeping still, but reckon the time has
! come when you can stand some abuse
| and Misrepresentation better than you
| can stand the present unfair distribu-
| ton of the wealth you help to create.
! 1.-The manipulations of stock, corners
in the necessities of life, the gift or pur-
chase from congress of special privileges
| and immense bodies of land, the wreck.
| ing of railroads, watering of stocks,
| freight and passenger rates based upon
| fictitious values-these, and then the use
| of the money and power thus gained tc
elect men to Office who will grant them
still further privileges and immunities-
this is the way in which the millions
have been gotten into the hands Of the
few, and this is the use they are being