St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1891-03-06
THE EsTERY CONGRESS-.

The much-talked-0f commercial con-
gfess of the Western states. 1t is now
announced. will convene at Kansas City
on the 18th of April. 1t is expected
that delegates from good many of the
commonwealth beyond the Mississippi
will be present, and the general plan is
to have them confer on questions of
general interest to the section and to
formulate the prevailing views in
the shape of a report to the pub
lie and TO their respective con-
StituenCieS. The engrOSsing subject
will probably be the grievances of the
farmers and what relief can be afforded
them by legislation. The Western hus-
bandmen stand before the world to-day
prepared to prove that the purchasing
power OF their labor and capital is only
two-thirds of what it was ten years
ago, and they claim that a portion
of this shrinkage is due to abuses
which can be obviated if the proper
laws are enacted. In national affairs
they require removal of the tariff bur
den and an Increase of the circulating
medium, and in the state domain thew
insist that they can be helped by more
stringent regulation of the railroads.
the passage and enforcement of usury
laws, and by economy in governmental
expenditures which will diminish the
eXactionS of the taXgatherer.
The GLOBE preSumeS that at the con-
gress to be held at Kansas City such
evils as exist will be thoroughly ven
ulated, aud if the more moderate opin-
ions secure the ascendency, its recon-
mendatOns will be along the lines here
suggested. 1t will be very Interesting
occasion. and if nothing more than an
Interchange of views and manifesto is
intended, there is nothing to be criti-
ciSed in the idea. Amy part of our peo-
pie have the light to assemble ana to
talk over subjects which concern them.
There is 10 faint of treason and
disloyalty i'll such movement. The
states are the political units in our
system, but they are readily classifable
into groups according to their commu-
nifty of interests, and commercial con-
crosses of one kind and another have
been popular and effective agencies for
reform in our country from the begin
ming of its history. 1t is the glory of
our institutions that every one with a
grievance, however unreasonable it
may be. is given an opportunity to air
1t and to suggest a remedy, however
qulXotic it may be. The public press in
America has grown to be so valuable a
piece of property that it instinctivelv
ranges itself for the most part OH the
side Of capital. because il needs and de-
ponds on capital in large sums for its
support. The sorrows of the working
man and the Door are often assuaeed
only by useless tears, because they have
no proper medium for their expression
and translation into action. The GLOBE
believes that every form of interest in
our land should be assertive and
loud in its demands for its own tri-
umph. In the clash of divergent and
opposing claims all fighting Justify for
the topmost place, will be born those
intelligent compromises which ill our
national life with its fairest fruits. The
way to secure tariff reform is for one
side 10 shout tor free trade and the
other to stand, trowel in hand, ready to
add another tier to our Chinese wall.