The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1895-06-12
VILLAINOUS ROBBERY
THE MIL WAUKEE d ST. PAUL
RAILROAD.
CAN THE FARMERS BUILD ELEC.
TRIO LINES.


Hastings, were worth $1,000 each: now
it would be hard to sell the best lot in
the town for 81 ,000.or, in fact, for any
thing. The merchants and business
men, and workingmen who, with their
families, have moved away from Has
tings during the past 80 years, would,
if collected together, make town big
ger than Hastings is today. There
was time when the city contained
population that for intelligence and
culture would rival any in the United
States. Now those that are left seem
bondsmen of the Chicago and Milwau-
kee Railroad Company, the vilest and
most dishonest gang of plunderers the
world has ever known. Instead of
dozen dry goods stores there is now
but one; and where there were once a
great number of grocery firms there
are now but three, and this in city
with population Of probably 1900.
Even the saloons can not survive. Go
call the roll of the business men who
have been driven out of Hastings, and
the responses will come from all parts
of the country, from the Pacific ocean
to Lake Michigan, and from Lake Su-
| perior to Los Angeles. II the town
had had fair play it would now con-
tain 10000 prosperous inhabitants.
Whose fault is it?
Were the business men who located
there less intelligent and energetic
than the business men of ST. Paul or
| Minneapolis? No-not bit.
Were they to blame? No; except in
so far as they were too cowardly to
stand up and fight the power that was
destroying them.
What was that power? The Milwau-
kee and St. Paul Railroad Company,
which holds this town and hundreds
of others, in grip of death, and, like
great vampire, has sucked the life
blood Of prosperity out of it; and will
continue to suck until it reduces it tc
a miserable little village, inhabited
by helpless paupers.
The growth of towns and cities de.
ponds upon the support given them by
the people tributary to them. Apart
from manufactures country town
produces nothing. II the people are
compelled to live on each other it is q
species of cannibalism-the few sur.
vive and the many are destroyed. The
only wealth brought into town is, as
rule, the crops raised by the ada
cent farmers. If they SOW $4,000 wortf
of seed and harvest $4,000 worth Of
crops then there are 100000 of pro-
ducts to be handled by the people Of
the town; and if $4,000 o.
this sticks in the town the towr
grows. There are the commissions or
the handling of wheat, oats, corn, bar
ley, etc.: the dry goods and groceries
purchased by the farmers; the black
smith work, the wheelwright work an6
all the rest of it. But if, for any rea-
son, the producers of these crops ar
forced to carry them elsewhere, thel
the townspeople stand, like Tantalus
neck deep in the midst of prosperity
with not a drop Of it reaching thei
parched lips. This has been the case
with Hastings and hundreds Of othe
small towns in Minnesota, because tn
interests of the people have beef
forced to yield to the interest of non
resident stock holders Of railroad com
panies, residing in New York, London
Paris, Berlin, etc.
We showed, in our issue of May Sth
1895, that these railroad discrimina
tions amounted to tremendous dill
ference between the Hastings an
Minneapolis market prices Of the fol
lowing articles, viz:
y Per Bl
} Wheat, average of................ lie
Oats, average of. ................. &c
| Corn AVERAGE Observation-Disclosures. 81