The sun. [volume] (Morris, Stevens County, Minn.) 1882-1895, 1892-10-27

From 1860, or since the republican
party came into power, there has been
taken from the people of the q. S.,
donated and coded to the railroad
corporations as many acres of land
called land grants) as the following
states contain: Minnesota, the two
Dakotas, Wisconsin, Indiana, Iowa
and Illinois. Think what vast en-
pire the people have been deprived of
by this great, socalled, republican
party; what an immense amount Of
wealth these millions upon millions
of acres of land contain9 Is it any
wonder, ask, that we have r. r.
kings at the present day, who can
count their wealth by the hundreds
of millions; dictators who tells you
who shall be your governor Or even
your president. Go with me along
the line of any Western railroad, and
what shall we find-from 10 to 40
miles on either side of the track, we
are told that every other section be- |
longs to and is owned by the railroad
company. We ask in establishment,
how did the railroad company come
in possession of all this land, by pur-
chase? Mo- we are told they were
donated to the company by gener-
Gus American congress. The repub-
lean party, whose only policy for
tho past quarter of a century, seems
to have been to rob the poor that
they might give to the rich, to make
the rich richer and the poor poorer;
hence the trampoand the millionaire.
Now in order to make the public
ledger balance, these wise statesmen
put their heads together, and say we
will enact law compelling the poor
settlers to pay double price for the
remaining every other section, yet
remaining in the hands of the gov
eminent. Wise craftsmanship this.
During Pierce and Buchannan's adj
ministrations, when Illinois and Wis
consin were the frontiers, there was
no such thing as railroad lands. The
settlers had no trouble about dis
puted railroad lands, but land was
anywhere and everywhere obtainable
from the government at S1.25 per acre;
but since the republican party came
into power, the price has been raised
to $3.50 per acre for reasons, men
toned, that is for the government
lands; but what about the railroad
land, how much must the settler pay
| for it? We will take our own county
for an example; we will take look
at the situation here at home; we
will see how republican protection to
the laboring man works here in
Stevens county. | suppose we can
class farmers as laboring men. The
government land in this county is
now pretty generally occupied and
being improved by hard working
farmers, many of whom have been
here upwards of score of years.
You have raised crops, you have pro-
duced wealth for the non-producer
who possess it; you have made
roads; you have built bridges and
school houses; you haye paid taxes
for the support of the government,
which are necessarily double what
they should have been by reason of
the non taxable railroad land. You
have raised families; you have now
grown up sons and daughters; your
farm is now too small, you look
around to see where you can get an
additional quarter for your oldest
son. Right beside yours lies a va
cant section belonging to the railroad
company, that you have paid the
taxes on and made valuable by the
improvements you have made on
your own. You make haste to King
! Hills railroad commission, or his
local agent in town, to see what you
can now buy!back from this king what
originally belonged to you in COM
mon with the people of the U. S.
You are sharply informed that this
land is now worth SIS per acre, for
which you can have it. Who has
made this land worth SIS per acre
the hard toiling surrounding settlers;
and this is the way the great and
glorious republican party protects
the working man here in the West.
In this county one powerful railroad
1 corporation owns vast amount of
land, which cost the company moth
ing, and which they pay no tax on.
Another powerful railroad corpo-
ration we are bonded to to the amount
of $4,000. So much for the republi-
can rule, which, if you desire to
maintain, you will of course vote the
same old party ticket. If you wish a
change for the better, vote the peo-
pies party ticket from top to bottom.
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