The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1895-05-08

MARKET, q LHCFGIUfe we OGOLcbO one
fourth Of the above. ($aS4, 375) and we
have left s s,9ss. 125; levied unon three
fourths OF the farmers Of Dakota
County in twenty-five years past.
We have no table showing the num-.
Der OF farmers in Dakota county, but
the "Blue Book" OF 1895, (pags 2s6l,
states that there are 95, 7S5 farms in
q whole state, with a cultivated
area Of 6,54S,027 acres; this makes the
farms average nearly 50 acres each.
The Commissioner of Statistics re-
port, 1882, p. &C.,, shows that Dakota
county had, in 1883, 157, 303 cultivated
acres; il we divide this by 50 the aver
| age farm of the states we find there
are in Dakota county 2,287 farmers.
II We deduct one-fourth for those liy
ing near enough to Minneapolis and
st. Paul to make those towns their
natural market, and we have left LIS
farmers. Now let US divide the ST.
9o3, l23 stealage among these l7l6
farmers and We find that FAC FARM
Err IN DAKOTA COUNTY. WHOSE MAR
KET is THE SMALLER TOWNS, HAS, IN
H PAST 25 YEARS, BEEN SWINDLED
OUT OF 81, 720.Sl by H DIFFERENCES
IN PRICES IN THE MARKETS OF DAkO-
ia COUNTY, AS COMPARED WITH THE
MINNEAPOLIS MARKET!
But that is not all. If this money
had not been taken out Of the farni-
ers' packets they would have made
| CON- ~, re - kl,C< ru~,1I V.;>1l,I
them l.gal interest, 10 per cent per
annum; either by paying their debts
and stopping interest; or lending it
u to others for interest; or making
Improvements or Investments that
would have yielded interest. Let US
then average it by calling it 5 per
cent per annum, on 81, 72O.S1 for %
years, and We have as a result s., 131.
Add this to the ST., 720.Sl AND WE
HAVE S3,S51.S1 FOR EACH FAKMHR.
And this, be it remembered, is exc!u-
sive OF the increased railroad charges,
on all they buy and all they sell,
which are made to meet the interest
on the bogus capital OF the railroad
companies, called "watered stock"
This we will discuss hereafter.
But just think what that $3,851, 81
would do!
1t wouid pay Off every farm mortgage IN
the county! And leave enough to build
a J;ps house and barn, fence the farmers
fields, send his boys to college and lay awoy
oJeac hundred dollars for q rainy day!H
Who has got it? Who made and
who makes today this tremendous diff
ference between the prices in the
primary markets and the prices at
the terminal market?:.
The railroad companles-principally
the Milwaukee and St. Paul Railway
Company.
How? They charge extortionate
rates to st. Paul and Minneapolis so
as to force the trade of Dakota coun-
ty away from our own cities thirty
miles distant,-to the city of Chicago,
over their "long haul,"-four hun
dred miles away.
They are stripping and have strip
ped our people of their substance; but
worse than all, to preserve their rob-
berries they reach in and control our
public affairs. No convention of
either of the old parties has been held
in Dakota county for fifteen or twenty
years. that their tools and agents, like
Johnny Newton, have not been pres
ent, sometimes on the very floor as
members, to dictate their action and
name their nominees. In this way
they make the politicians their
terrified slaves; and in this way
they hope to keep the plundered peo-
pie in subsection. They have at their
head men of the most abandoned and
~disgraceful private lives, and who are
paid in proportion to their capacity to
corrupt the Legislature of the state
in the interest of robbery. The bust
ness men of our towns are at their
mercy, and dare not say their souls
are their own, lest they be discrimin-
ated against and ruined. Instead of
trying to fight the monster, who is de-
strOying their towns and crushing
their business, they seek to turn the
people aside by eXpedients as hollow
and as rotten as Dead-sea apples.
Recently they saddled $4,000 on the
tax-ridden people Of Hastings, to
build a bridge across the Mississippi
river, to be paid for by taxation dur
ing the lifetime Of a generation.
How can they expect the farmers OF
Washington county, to haul their
wheat to Hastings when, by going a
little farther, (~perhaps no farther),
they can get ten or twelve cents a
bushel more for it? 1t is a well-known
fact that the farmers of Ravenna and
Marshan and Douglas, ten and twenty
miles south of Hastings, drive
through Hastings. and go to Mime
apolis and St. Paul, for the increased
! price they can obtain for the pro-
ducts. Is it any wonder that their
town does not grow; or that the Twin
cities do grow?
But their cowardly leaders do not
dare to tell people these things; keep
them in ignorance, and quiet them, at
the cost Of SAC. 900, by hopes that will
never materialize. The bridge is to
make them all rich! And yet they
have a free ice-bridge half the year
and it does them no good. They
might just as we'll try to make water
III up hill, as attempt to induce
forp,orc RI <roIn with %bopo ~ lo.a