The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1906-01-03
FORTY YEARS AGO.
Excerpts Taken From St. Paul Papers of
Forty Years Ago.

freight rates which are imposed up
on our farmers by the avaricious
and tyrannical monopoly which seems
to own the upper Mississippi river,
as well as the various railroads con-
Meeting with it for eastern points,
have aroused our farmers. One Da-
kota county farmer figures that
fifteen out of every one hundred
bushels of wheat that he takes to
Hastings is appropriated by these
vultures without any consideration
whatever. But monstrous as the
extortion practiced by the monopo-
lists upon the farmers living upon
the borders of the upper Mississippi,
their burdens are light compared to
the grinding and ruinous exactions
imposed by the same iniquitous COM
bination upon the farmers of the
Minnesota valley. The Dakota coun-
ty farmer gets 80 cents for his wheat
when he should get at least $1.15,
while the Blue Earth county farmer
gets but 45 or so cents per bushel,
when he should get at least 81, and
he would get it but for the shackles
which these Shylocks of the river
have thrown over the wheat trade of
that vicinity.
We have thrown down the gauntlet
to the monopolists, and understand
very wellsthat in so doing we have
arrayed against us combination of
ill-gotten wealth and despotic power
and INSCRIPTIONS craft, which will
neglect no means to punish us for
daring to assert the rights of the
people against the irresponsible junta
of steamboatmen but we, neverthe-
less, propose to fight it out on this
line" till the Mississippi river is
emancipated from the chains of
monopoly-until the rights of COM
merce and industry are indicated
by free, open and unrestricted
competition in all the channels of
transit, and until all the farmers Of
Minnesota are secured in the we'll
earned fruits of their honest toll
against systematized robbery.
The question has been asked how
has it been possible to increase the
rates per bushel from St. Paul to
Chicago from 9 cents to p cents
inside of five years, when there are
plenty of boats on the river willing
to carry it at a much less rate. The
answer is very simple. If an Gin
dependent boat We're to take load
Of wheat from any point north of La
Crosse, the connecting railroads Gall
of whom are in the combine) would
refuse to take the freight. But it is
never allowed to get this far. The
steamer officials are simply notified
that they cannot do business on the
upper Mississippi, and they at once
retire.
The preliminary movement for ;
convention to consider this question
should be made by the farmers, fol
it is they who are the chief sufferer
by this iniquitous monopoly. Mer
chants and shippers are so completely
in the power of monopoly that the,
dare not incur it's resentment By
taking the lead. County mass meet
ings of farmers should be called ant
delegates appointed to meet tn,
merchants and shippers, and thu
unite the whole people in the effor
to break down the monstrous com
bination of freight monopolists VIII,
now lord it, with arrogance Of I'm
limited power over all avenues O
commerce, and we shall be able t,
settle definitely whether the fruit
of their industry and of the soil AM
waters of the northwest belong to
few robber barons or to the people
Henry. Hawkins, the colored ma
whose shanty on Eighth street wa
destroyed by mob recently, ha
been allowed S95 from the city treas
ury as compensation.
Hon. Ignatius Donnelly has intro
duced bill in congress for a dons
ton of a portion of the Fol-
Smelling military reserve to the stat
of Minnesota, to be used by the stat
as home for disabled soldiers an