The Neihart herald. [volume] (Neihart, Mont.) 1890-1901, 1899-03-04
FARMING IN MONTANA.

| Alter reduinp Oo'. oHlth hleS
sage and pondering upon his admiss-
ion of one great truth, namely, that
the farmers are the only class of
people in Montana that bears its
Just share of taxation. | felt i'm
PEELED to ask through your columns
why "the Drawn and sinew of the
land'' are proverbially short sighted,
and the prey of almost all other
classes of people. Farmers are
shrewd Tor think they are) in dealing
with each other. 1t is we'll known
that one farmer can hardly buy of or
sell to another. There are more lit
tleness and petty jealousy notic"a-
BILE between farmers than between
men of any other calling, and in
stead of banding together making
the success of all the interest of
each, they work in mean underhand-
ed ways to gain advantages OF their
neighbors.
The city votes elect the officers )
they are the majority; they dictate
the policy of the officials. And
there has never been an assessor in
Cascade County who dared assess
city property at figure near its val
ue. | am woman. | pay taxes,
but | can't vote. | can have no
voice in deciding who shall exer-
else authority over me. But | can
pay, and if every dollars worth of
property in Cascade county was
taxed in like proportion there would
be surplus of million dollars in
the treasury. The business men of
the city clique together and prevent
anything like just assessment.
They are the power behind the
throne and they have it their own
way. The farmers of Cascade coun
ty are nonentity. They are worse
than that; they are conglomeration
of selfshness, every man for him
self and trying to beat everybody
he can. Every neighborhood is full
of factions, where each seems to hate
everyone else. They run off each
others cattle. They tear down each
others fences. They injure their
own interests for the sake of oppos
ing any good measure another may
suggest. Some Of them carry re-
volvers at their work in the field
They fence up the roads, compel
travel to go over the toughest
grades and hills, and laugh and rub
their hands in glee because they can
make trouble for others. The COM
missioners don't interfere because
they don't have to travel that way.
Poverty makes criminals of men
and these men are digging their
own pauper graves. They are the
victims of dealers everywhere, and
will be until they learn few less
ons in humanitarianism. When they
are willing to see their neighbors
prosper, willing to help them get
along, realizing that the greatest
good to all reflects back upon each
individual, they will combine their
forces, their capital, their brains, and
become power in themselves.
Instead Of sending their wheat to
Great Falls at net price of 45 cents
bushel, and paying S2.75 a hun
dred for their second grade flour,
thus giving the mill a clean profit of
over 100 per cent besides the bran
ETC., they will combine and ship in
their own flour and stop raising
wheat. The Great Falls Milling
Co. today sells flour cheaper to the
people of Helena than to our farm
ers at home. Let them combine to-
gether and buy all their supplies.
Every Lilliputian dealer in the coun-
, try is getting rich, making more in
, actual gain than all the farmers gut
together. Why? Because he has
the farmer at his mercy. He sets
the price upon his produce, starva-
ton prices too, and charges them
three times as much for the goods
he sells as they cost.
The farmers family must live, and
all he can raise on his quarter sect
ion does not go far toward paying
three prices for everything he con-
sumes.
Let the farmers combine if they
want to be respected. Let them
purchase their supplies in large