The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1891-03-06
FIDDLER's CREEK, Feb. IS, or.
No. 5.

FIDDLER's CREEK, Feb. IS, '9T,
No. S.
Editor Free Press:
When | closed my last letter I haa
got to where the Deacon was saying,
"Why should he (the farmer) allow
the price of his wheat to be fixed for,
him in Liverpool"
In this letter / will try to follow
him, giving his ideas as nearly as l can.
1t is quite out of my power to re-
peat his exact words. am not well
enough educated to do that-but I
fancy | know enough to grasp the,
ideas as they fell from his lips, clothed
in the most telling language I ever
heard.
The Deacon had arisen from his
easy chair and laid his pipe on the
mantel, at the same time glancing at
the clock, he turned his back to the
fire, and seemed to pull himself to-
gether for the purpose of giving my
alliance notions such a drubbing that
| would be glad to drop them alto
gether. If he thought so, he made a
grand mistake, for l never die easy
and am just as stubborn as the next,
man. He could see by my looks, that
did not agree with him, and he soft
ened down a little and went on to say
in his quiet off hand easy way
|
"Uncle Josh" said he, "Our lots were
cast among the farmers-I have al
ways been a farmer, and always expect
to be one. | studied law couple of
years when / was young man, but
my love for farm life was too strong
within me, to allow of my ever follow
ing law for a living. love to be on
farm, and so you can well believe me
when say that my sympathies are on
the side of the farmer, and knowing
this, you must acknowledge, that how
ever harshly may criticiseutheir pc
| litical actions, their interests are dear
to me, for am 0nesof them, and tell
you now, Uncle Josh, that it is with
pedphaa t watch vat a the faRrse Of
litical strife, for / can see that the old
straw has got to be all thrashed over
again. They will see after a little
| that their interests have not been adj
yanced by so much as hairs breadth.
| the price of our wheat will still be
fixed for us in Liverpool"
deacon" [ yentured to remark,
''you said not long ago, What has poll
tics to do with the price OF wheat OF
words to that effect, will you explain
what you meant by that" ST meant"
says the Deacon, that while our peo-
pie were running their legs off
chasing a political phantom; that
wiser men were attending strictly to
business F; they study business study
how to make money out of business;
they work, if anything, harder than
the farmer does, but they turn their
work to better advantage than the
farmer does, Tor they work with their
brains, and brains tell, in business,
Uncle Josh. Now let me tell you how
it works, and you will be compelled to
agree with me before we are done
with this discussion, that the farmers
are the biggest fools on earth.
You take load of wheat and drive
over to the village; you hitch your
team and walk along the business
street, hoping to meet some acquain-
lance that you may learn the price
paid for wheat at the station you
gather what information you can, and
finally drive up to the station, and
meekly ask the man who has charge
of the elevator, what are you paying
for wheat to-day" You hear the price
he names, and after wasting the usual
amount of time, you agree to take it,
then you 60 back on the street and
enter a store, and there you find that
if you want to buy bit of cloth, some
groceries, or little hardware, the
prices are all fixed for you. Fixed for
you when you want to buy; fixed for
you when you want to sell; you have
no voice in the fixing Of any of these
prices.
: The wheat buyer may tell you he
has instructions to pay certain prices;
instructions that come from Mime
apolis or Chicago, and these in turn
are.governed by the prices they can get
in New York: the latter gauging the
price to conform to the price they can
obtain in Liverpool, and so it comes
about, that Liverpool sets the price,
when not one bushel of American
, wheat in ten ever reach Liverpool, but
mer, and it weighs him down to the
ground. He grOans under it, and at
last concludes that it is the wicked,
selfish, soulless railroad corporations,
, that are drawing the last drop of blood
out of his veins, and he rushes into
politics for relief, the first and fore
l most object being to punish the Rail
1 road companies. Poor soul-poor far.
, mar-when will If ever dawn unOn
D him, that the Railroad companies are
his best friends. When will he ever
e see, that there isn't Railroad man in
e all this broad land, that would not re-
, joice, and hail with delight, the day
/ when farmers, like other people, have
4 brains enough to set price on theil
Q own wares, and get it too, the same as
e other people do" / will continue the
e Deacon's discourse in another letter
UNCLE JOSH.