The great West. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1889-18??, 1891-04-24
WHAT FARMERS WANT.
It Is to be Relieved from the Grind of
MOnopolies.

WHAT FARMERS WANT.
1t Is to be Relieved from the Grind of
Monopolies.
When people are prosperous and
happy they are apt to take things easy
to be content with the ssstatus quo"
politically and otherwise. But when
they are painfully cramped in spite of
their most diligent exertions, both in
laboring and practicing the most rigid
economy, they become restless and I'M
happy. The last named condition is
that of all the laboring people of this
country to-day. They are unavoidably
restless and unhappy-have been for
years, and are becoming more so every
year as the grip OF the money power
tightens upon them. They have cast
about to find the cause of their dis
tress, and the most speedy and efficient
means to remove it and give them re-
lief, for they are becoming irritated to
the last degree. And their efforts in
this have been rewarded, for they have
discovered to their horror and deep
modification that their chosen repre-
sentatives in the government have en-
| tered into the diabolical schemes of
few heartless tyrants to enslave them.
These representatives forced the
people into debt by withholding money!
and then handed them over to the ten
der mercies of a companyof shylocks
to whom they gave power to supply
the people with money on their own
terms. These men now virtually own
the whole country, for they collect
tribute from every source, from every
hand engaged in honest labor, and
from every business enterprise that re-
quires the use of money. If railroad
| is to be built heavy tribute has to be
paid to them for the necessary funds
| And after it is in operation the laborer
of the country must pay the company
this tribute back again in addition to
fair profit, to say nothing of subordin-
ate scheming whereby through the
watering process all of this tribute
levied upon the people is doubled.
Farmer Jones thinks he owns his
farm, and that he is free American
citizen. But when he buys a pillow,
the price must cover the legally ex-
acted tribute to the iron king and to
the manufacturer for their protection
in keeping foreigners from bringing
cheaper implements to his doors; like
wise the tribute these must pay for the
use of money in their respective lines
of business, plus fair profit to them
and the middlemen all around. And
| when this poor FOOLS cotton is ready
| for market he learns that money,
which has been designedly scarce all
along, is extremely tight, and his cot
ton is very low. because the buyer
must put the price down low enough
not only to enable him to realize
good profit on his transactions, but he
must also make good to himself the
heavy tribute to the money power for
the use of money wherewith to handle
cotton. And so it happens that while
Jones dreams that he is a free SOW
ereign American, the wiley politician
and the usurer are pocketing all the
proceeds of his ceaseless plans and
labors, except just enough to enable
him to keep in fair working condition
till he can gather another crop.
But Farmer Jones is now rare
type, which is easy to understand; he
lives on Owl creek, in sparsely set
tied neighborhood, too far from the
nearest sub-Alliance to attend, and
though he may 60 to town often he
carries no reform papers home with
him. On the contrary, the majority
OF farmers and laboring people gener-
ally have discovered the treachery by
which they have been enslaved, and
are now studying out the best means of
carrying into effect general emanci-
patton proclamation. These unprinci-
pied tyrants, in their mad greed for
gold, have probably over-reached
themselves. They have killed the
goose that layed the golden eggs, for
their expressions have awakened the
| people to the realities of their deplOra-
bic condition. The laboring people
have discovered the government rob-
bing them of their little property I'M
der the sanction of law, and bestowing
it upon a number of rich men, for
whose sole benefit it would seem the
! government is designed. They have
seen that they are taxed by every pos
sible means even beyond their ability
to pay and live decently, to amass vast
fortunes for these favored ones, that
they may live in luxury off the hard
earnings of the poor, and augment
with each turn of the wheel of fortune
their power to Cypress. to enforce their
despOtic exactions.
Wake Up the Brethren.