The representative., 1894-12-26
IRON LEASES.
How Rockefeller Gathers in the
Rocks.

Rocks.
To the Editor:
one OIL the schemes of a few capitalists is
10 get possession of the state mineral lands
which they are going to try and do at this
coming session of the legislature The Pio-
heer-Press of Dec. gives the plan of work
1t says in speaking of the Oliver Mining
Company: The company is now hesitating
whether to continue operations next Year
or to suspend work, shut down and pay the
state % cents on 1900 tons. as the Law, re-
quires shall be the minimum amount of
royalty paid each year" If this mining
company is losing money in mining why
did it mine so much the past year-5O0 900
tons of ore? The Pioneer-Press SAYS they
did it at a loss, and wants the state to
throw off part of the % cents per ton or
in other words, give this rich corporation
its valuable iron mines and collect the
money for running the state government
from the farmer out of his 4O-cent wheat
But the Pioneer Press gives us a little
more light the subject. 1t saws that
''Rockafeller has Il cnch on the iron buSi-
ness. lie owns a mine and the railroad
over which the Oliver Mining Company
must ship it's ore Why don't the PIP
tell us how Rockefeller got possession of
the iron mines that he holds and how he
got out Of paying taxes to the state on his
property? 1t don't want to do anything of
that kind. 1t simply wants the state to
give away the balance of its valuable min
ing lands or lease them for q term of wears
for IL mere song and in order to do this it
admits little truth concerning the Rookie
feller syndicate. 1t says: 1.-The Oliver COM
pany paid the Rockefeller railroad $i0O 600
in freight of which at least $1,000 was net
profit to the road. There we have it,
Rockefellers stub road has made $500. 900
out of one mining company in the past
year. and now the state is asked to help
this mining company out by giving them
the ore. Where our railroad commits
soners, if the PIP. tells the truth about
the freight rate of 50 cents per ton iron
ore over that railroad which is 40 cents too
much? Why don't they cut it down where
it belongs, and not go whining around ask
ing the state to give them all she has?
Why. friends, if a poor asks for his
dinner they will put him in the bull pen to
break stone; but if rich corporation plum
ders another corpratiOn they will ask the
state to help them out, and all the great
papers will Send up pitiful howl for the
poor corporate beast. Corporate power is
in the saddle, but the Alliance may halter
them some if our people will turn out to
the state meeting. pay up their dues, give
us something to work with, appoint a COM
posted and protest against all bad meas
ures There is no time to waste. Let us
be up and doing. We have more need of
the Alliance than ever before. The twine
plant at Saltwater is in danger; our min
eral lands will be leased sold for song
the state swamp lands will be given away;
the gross earnings tax will be legslated
out Of existence, and many other great in
terests of the people will be syndicated and
given away.
But let us look a this Iron Range rail-
road from Peoples party standpoint.
That is let the state own the railroad in
stead of Rockefeller. Then let us sup
pose that the Rockefeller syndicate mined
as much iron ore as the Oliver which they
undoubtedly did, or more. That would
have given the state s52o,oOo profit out of
these two companies (or out of the bus-
ness of those two companies) and then
again, no company could freeze out the
other companies, the Rockefeller COM
pany can today. If l understand it right,
Mr.. Tawney helped get bill passed by our
legislature that taxes Mr.. Rockefeller 3
cents per ton on the iron ore that he
mines in lieu of all other taxes. If Rookie
feller wishes to freeze out the operators
on the state mining lands, all he has to
do Is to put up the freight his railroad.
He can mine or not, just as he pleases. If
ne don't mine he has no taxes; he can mine
one ton of iron ore per year and pay the