The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1894-06-20
GOLD BUGS DEVOUR ALL.
Houses, Barns and Crops, as Well ms
Body and Mind.

Wendell Phillips, speaking about the at
titude of the Boston press toward pro-slav-
cry mobs. exclaimed, But such a press.
What tool o, what a despicable tool! We
may today repeat Mr.. Phillips words with
regard to the Twin City press and their at
titude toward the white slavocracy and the
white slave The Minneapolis Trib-
une has been hitherto the most humane
of the plupcratic mouthpieces of the cit
ies but she Is wearing off her modesty
fast I see. In The Tribune Of June 10
there is an editorial headed Compare
tive" 1t exemplifies the old trick of telling
a modicum of truth in such a way that it
conveys an enormous lie 1 wonder if bust
ness men are really deceived by such bare
faced garbling? If intelligent people can be
imposed upon by such clap trap what use
is it to appeal to human reason? The ar
ticle above referred to conveys the idea
that low wheat prices have not been much
of a hardship to the farmer because sugar,
barbed wire, nails. clothing, calico, ETC.,
has gone down in price proportionally. Now
it is not true that the retail prices of these
goods--except sugar. due to tariff changes,
and twice one to S. P. labor-has gone
down since 1889 or 80 or 81, or even last
year in country towns. The Tribune's
| figures must be based on bankrupt sales.
But ordinary farmers seldom go off to
| Chicago New York to buy a. wholesale
stock of groceries or hardware at bank
| rupt auction. When The Tribune editor
speaks about farmers he must refer to
| Farmer J. ]. Hill, Farmer w. d. Wash
| burn, Farmer Knute Nelson and such like
| from whom he evidently got his informa-
7 wi learned
| editor that such farmers have not suffered
| "much actual hardship from low wheat
| prices. But how about the one hundred
| thousand that other class of farmers, that
| lives the prairies and in the brush
| throughout the state and their four hum
| dred thousand dependants-wives and chill
| dren? Has the gray matter under the
| learned Tribune editors scalp evolved
| 50 far as to be able to comprehend that
| no matter how cheap goods may be that
| is offered for cash, it does not help the man
| without the cash? Or, is he laboring under
| the hallucination that every farmer out in
| the country has a railroad or an office TO
| furnish him the cash to buy cheap goods
| for? Or what is the matter with his mental
| machinery anyway? Or has j. j. Hill ct
| al forgot to inform him of the actual con-
| dtion of the Minnesota farmers, to Wit:
| That after figuring expenses for raising ms
| crops for the last two years, ana ngurlng
| taxes and paying the real estate agent a
| good bonus for extending interest on loan,
| not only was nary dollar LETT to BUY
| goods for, but he had to put in most all
| of his personal property III chattel mort
| gage to get the absolute necessarles OF LIE
| for himself and family? l notice that in
| spite of the fact that your granaries are
| bursting with wheat for sale at half what
| it cost to produce, thousands of your popu-
| lation are starving for want OF 1t. Stafv-
ing in sight of it! suppose this brainy ed
| itor is congratulating these starving people
| of Minneapolis on the low price of wheat
| and that this editorial wind is satisfying
| the cravings of their empty stomachs! we
| out in the country are getting DUBIOUS
| about this wind food Is it going to displace
| bread? Does Mr.. Donnelly or Erik Olsor
| know anything about this new substitute
| for our cereal? Can't that brainy editor OF
| the great Minneapolis Tribune evolve
| some warm stuff that will fill the hungry
| stomachs Of the loan agent? the chatte
| mortgage sharper? the tax gatherer? then
| the farmer might have some dollars left
| over to get some Of his cheap goods. l be-
| lieve Mr.. Editor Of the Representative
| that you live somewhere near the sanctum
| sanctorum of this high priest of this
| new philosophy of physical and economic
science. Can't you call in and see his holt
| ness about the rapaclous appetites of the
| stomach of the gold-bug? He seems to be
| ignorant about the gold-bug pest. I pre-
| sumo it would be an insult to hand him a
| copy of The Representative because Mr.
| Donnelly and other cranks write for it.
And reading The Representative might
disarrange his mental gearing. Tell him II
| Won get an audience that we farmers out
| in the country are not now worrying about
| potato bugs or bed bugs or such trifing
| vermin; that it is the gold bugs that are
| devouring us now; they are eating up not
| only crops Of all kinds, but cattle ano
| horses houses and barns, and people as
| well; not only the bodies of young and old
! but even their minds, and that soon this
| fair state will be dreary waste-cleaned
| out by gold bugs. Yours very truly,
| CHRISTIAN JOHNSON.
| New London, MINI.