The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1895-08-28
RAISE POTATOES.
THE CURE FOR ALL ILLS.


A car load OF potatoes was shipped
from Colorado to Chicago, and upon
arrival there the railroad companies
contiscated the whole load for trans
portation, then went after the shipper
for SIS more. But what are you going
to do about it?-IndianapOlis NOncOn-
IOrmiSt.
t is amusing to see the way in
which the corporations and the mon
empower slosh around in their efforts
to find all kinds of quack remedies for
the diseases which aff1ict the body
polite. Every now and then they
burst out in new spot. Instead of
admitting that the patient has con-
sumption they go to treating his corns
in some new and elaborate fashion.
Last spring president Stickney of
the Great Western r. r. Co., a pretty
decent man in some respects, inaugu-
rated a potatoe campaign, and went
around making speeches, in Iowa and
Minnesota. urging all hands to raise
potatoes -potatoes-nothing but pota-
toes! We saw what was coming, and
smaller area to potatoes than ever be-
fore; and in this paper we showed that
an immense potatoe crop would re-
duce the price to almost nothing.
The result has justified our prophecy.
Potatoes are down to fifteen cents a
bushel; and if it we're not for the fact
that drought has afflicted large part
of the United States they would not
be worth five cents a bushel.
Within certain limits diversified
ton Of crops is wise policy. Our
farmers should raise on their lands
all things necessary for their own use,
with small surplus of everything to
sell. But, -admitting all this-wheat
is, and must remain, our great staple.
because it is a sporld crop,-the de-
mand comes from the whole human
family. It ought to be worth, year by
year, one dollar per bushel:-for there
is only a limited area of the earth's
surface that will prod it profitably;
and yet it furnishes the food Of civil
lied man; the great brain food, rich in
phOsphates. But the interest Of agri-
culture in this country have been
sacrificed to the interests of manufac-
turing, and slaughtered for the profit
of the money-lending class; and thus
it comes to pass that W heat in these
United States, an appanage of Great
Britain, is worth about fifty cents a
bushel, while in the silver standard
countries, like India, Mexico, ETC., it
is still worth one dollar a bushel. And
then when the collapse brushes the
people, the corporations,-who are
the slaves OF Great Britain, because
they must borrow from her, and to
borrow from her they must peach her
doctrines, turn around and recon-
mend all sorts of Quack remedies for
the sickness Of the country. The last
of these has been, -raise potatoes!
Understand one thing clearly,
brethren. the interests of the cOrpO-
ration are not your interests. They
will pursue you into poverty and de-
YOUR you while there is shred of
flesh left. And the interests of the
money-lenders are horribly hostile to
your prosperity. You produce every
thing and they can have nothing unless
they strip it from you that create it.
Shut your ears to their sophistries. In
stead of raising more potatoes raise
less potatoes and more hill. Sow
the seed this fall and winter and
harvest, it in November 1896