River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1905-09-28

be classed as one Of the real achieve
ments Of our time; one fit to rank with
the spread OF education in our schools
scarcely necessary that / should remind
you that the elfort Of patriotic e. men al,
d aa1rs1h in pubic cubic life. There b is no
| word more familiar, as there is none
| the word graft" 1t shoots from the
mouth like the spit of rife ball. and
| it is doing as deadly work as that
| Great commonwealth are today as com
paratively in the hands of mercenaries
as captive in the power of brigands
! holding him for ransom.
Real Men in Office.
You can have, perhaps, no higher duty
than that of stamping out every ten
dency toward this evil. Have you al
ways tested the sincerity and the honor
public support? Have you never given
your aid to a man because he was sup
posed to be smart as candidate for
place whom you would not for a
moment trust to represent you in bust
ness transaction Have you never sent
0f e ofd nan Wh9se T ha0 vow MAS ne Ver
given your representatives in state or
nation, to understand that they would
the honors they coyet by getting the
most numerous and the largest appro-
priations for unnecessary undertakings
in your city or town or district? If you
have then remember that reform must
begin at the fountain head, the people.
And as a state or a city or nation has
which is taken out of the pockets of in
diViduals through taxation, if you have
winked at or tacitly rewarded this ,prac-
tice, then you have encouraged and pro-
NOTED graft. No man and no nation
ever was or ever will be rich enough to
Withstand the continuous attack of UNI
re
individual character can be pure enough
to remain unsullied by a liberation of
low standard of honesty.
Now we come to another particular In
which it becomes you to test these
: gentlemen who serve you and to ask
every politician for his credentials. Let
us see what they have done for you.
You, by your unaided efforts, by unre-
hitting toll and saving and the brave
venture to wrest a living from nature.
, have accumulated certain resources of
which all these varied forms OF wealth
TO what extent, if any, have you been
hindered by the various measures that
will be quoted, as they have been quoted,
in evidence of the care that has been
taken your interests?
Two Main Needs.
Your main needs are two: an adequate
market in which your products may be
sold at fair price, and an opportunity
to purchase those things that n you need d
to you, and in what conditt2s. DO you
stand with reference to them?
AS far as your grain is concerned, you
must sell in the markets of the world.
There is no escape from that: The wheat
of every other country on the face of
the earth will bring to the farmer the
price that is fixed in the worlds mar
ketS. The great consuming nations,
with Great Britain at their head must
have bread. They purchase it where
they can, seeking all who have wheat
nd f10ur l.
ton of all these sellers, India and
Russia and the Argentine and Australia
as we'll as the United State, the price
is. settled. Have you been helped there?
OF truth it is impossible to help you
in any way but one, to which we. will
come presently. The average politician.
who does not give you credit for the
intelligence that you possess, will tell
that have been Se nPed ea ha t
by placing a tariff on wheat and other
products Of the farm. But you know
ports of an article which you, do not
wish to import but which you have for
sale in vast quantities, is as useless as
a steam heating plant in August. In
the year ended June 80, 1904, there were
imported into the United States just
1882 bushels of wheat in all. How did
last year there were imported 3,102,585
! bushels. Either figure is totally insig-
nificant in country dG whose lose own By wheat d0a
600 buhels. But the fuctuation itself
shows since the tariff remained .unal-
tered that the latter has nothing what
ever to do with the matter Your grain
and your dairy products and your live
stock are beyond the reach of a." such
, assistance. The market in which your
grain, cattle and hogs are sold is not
affected by them at ALL
There is one way, however, in which
you may be helped and that is by les
Sening the cost of transportation. What
you get for the yield of your farms is
the price where the consumer lives, less
ri a n nc rTx yi11C n n Iti nI XnII
to him. That cost you have to bear.
Anything that diminishes it is money
vises you that you are vitality Interested
in decreasing the cost of transportation
he is telling you the truth.
But how is this to be brought about
No one can arbitrarily send out II
proclamation that such a service shall
be performed at such and such charge.
| The business of transportation is like
all other business in this; it must be
conducted on a business basis. The cost
growing out of increased volume. So
he does most for you in this respect
who opens new markets, secures new
customers and helps to swell the vol
ume of products and of purchases. This
is the way in which the diminution of
the cost of carriage has been effected,
Cured in the price of almost any, other
commodity. The average receipts per
fSn peT ne ae %e States all a
$1.99 in 1870, $1.17 in 1880, 81 cents in
1890, IA cents in 1908, while in Great
of Europe from $40 to $40.
The Great Northern Railroad has been
reducing its rates progressively for the
last twenty-five years. The records Of
the company and of the state railway
commission show that. if it's freight tar
IFS had not been altered in that time. if
1T had charged throughout until today
the rates that were then in force. it
would have received more than $685.
100000 more than it has received dur
ing the twenty-five years. an average of
over $27.000,000, and this a reduction
as 1 am of being here with you. That
| is a measure of what has taken place
as rapidly as the growth of the bust
I need hot tell any of you who read the
papers and keep in touch with the
events of the day that this work is still
going on and that the crops raised this
veal, in the northwest will he sent to
market on the lowest freight rate ever
made in the whole history of the north
west.
Railroad Rates.
How has this been accomplished? Ty
seeking to build up the country, by
studying how to develop it's resources
and its prosperity, by inducing settlers
taking. care. of those already here. BY
careful business management and by
recognizing the essential partnership
between the man on the soil and the
railway which serves him. And I want
to ask you as you study these figures
to say whether these results, so bene-
fetal to yourselves could ever have
been reached through policy of antag
clans Will tell you that railroad rates
must be fixed by order of the govern
ment, and that this is the reason why
they must be kept in public life. 1t is
/, an easy prophecy, because it is an OBJ
viouS fact, that railroad rates in this
country would decline more slowly I'M
n 1eaRnk