Kansas agitator. [volume] (Garnett, Kan.) 1890-1905, 1892-07-07

politicians" these cheats and vulgar
tricksters, have so kept up their agita-
ton that the representatives OF the peo-
pie in various states have passed laws
which railroad magnates say they will
not obey if they can help it, and to &C
complish their purpose they appeal tn
their employees to club together for the
purpose Of aiding them to intinliaate the
lawmaking powers, and the editor Of The
Railway Age applauds the proceeding.
The editor Of The Railway Age is terri
bly, in earnest He wants the farmer 10
comprehend fully how great an PISS he
is. and how that he. the editor. can res
cue him from browsing around Oh thorn
bushes and thistles. with his tail full of
burs. and lead him where clover and
bluegrass is knee deep. lie says:
To hate the demagogue-the PETERS and
Campbells and DOnnelys~is not to Cypress or
to oppose the farming community. a certain
section Of that community. it Is true, has suf-
fered itself to be beguiled and befooled by these
noisy gentlemen. But that section, compared
to the sober thinking, honest living and hard
working mass OF the agricultural class, is friv
olousy small arl lin some states. at least, and
we suspect In al, have been habitually over
estimated.
The farmers of the United States con-
troll greater interests than railroad cor
porations. They know when they are
swindled, and in choosing representa-
tives they are quite as competent as the
proprietors Of The Railway Age are TO
choose editors. and such representatives
will not suffer when compared with the
men who malign them. nor is the malig-
nifty Of the attack condoned by the latu
lent complimentary platitudes about
farms, nor the following:
It is idle to tall! of the interests of the rail
ways and the farmers as being antagonist.
1t is idle to talk of the railway employees, When
organizing for their own political protection,
as arraying themselves against the agricul-
tural classes. They are "arraying them selves"
only against d few pestiferous demagoSuCs,
who are less harmful to the farmers than they
are to the railway employee. These gentlemen
whom Mr.. Steadman addresses as I'VE OF few
socks and small understanding" 1--WE wish he
had said ''smail underclothing'o are become II
burden on the prosperity Of the land, and in
working To defeat t,em-as the rai!way ci,y-
ployees of iowa recently defeated Campbell
the employees ought TO have tie sympathy or
all the newspapers of the country, of all the
honest politicians of both parties, of all wage
workers. of all business men, and, not least, Of
the farmers themselves.
Everybody understands that the real
interests OF railroads and the farmers
are not antagonistic. In all the varied
transactions of Iife where probityi gov
erns the term antagopistic is not applica-
BILE: even il tending and borrowing in
terests may be and often are mutual; it
is only when Shylockisln is introduced
that the warfare begins. Railroads
have proceeded upon the idea that they
have chartered rights to collect Givi-
dends on water, on fraud, to do which
is "A lnonstrous outrage The farmers Go
not want to pay that sort of tribute, and
railroad employees should resolve that
they will not help on the astounding in
iuuity. The talk about railroads de-
veloping the country, as an excuse for
fraud. is alarmingly vicious, and those
who engage in it are aidcrs and abettorS
of a species Of scoundrelism which al
honest men acknowledgements Fire
mems Magazine.