Mower County transcript., 1906-09-26

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COL LUlMN|
How do us farmers like the fake pri-
mary law now? I'll be jiggered if
can find one single farmer on the whole
county ticket from coroner down to
senator. The whole cheese is taken by
the centres just as Farmer Ben has all
wus said. It was the Same in other.
places. Over in Dodge county my pal
per says that the two centres got all the
candydates. / tell you It's 9 dog gone
shame and outrage that the farmers
should be the tail Of the dog whom
they've got the majority in votes and
and let the towns do the
Vaughn of the tail. That's just what
the bosses put up for 'em but it amt
what it ought to be. But there's 70
use tryin' to win out so long as farm
ers will stay at home from the primar-
les when important matters are up to
be settled. Look how this agricultural
county is represented in the .legislatur
today. Not one single one that ever
saw farm or knows duck from a
goslin'. So it goes. The time is COM
in agen in the sweet by and by when
therell be chance to turn out and
rectify the slack politix of US farmers
but if it's the same old story it'll be the
same old result. Meanwhile the bosses
up to Austin grin complacently at
what easy victims farmers are when it
comes to politix.
1t actually would make horse laff
at some of the wonderful discoveries
chat are bein' made. One of the grain
buyers before the interstate commerce
commission testified that the farmer
alwus pays the freight when he sells
grain. Just as if us farmers hadn't
known this for forty years. This grain
buyer says that the price paid at any
point is the price at the point of con-
sumption less the charges necessary to
get it there, To be sure. A pin head
knows that. Yet when it comes to
knockin' for reduced railroad rates on
grain and square deal lots of folks
say it wouldn't help any. I know it
would unless the local grain buyers. and
their bosses just combined to put more
profit on their buyin' SO as to absorb
the reduction of freight rates. It's a
hard old prop any way you fgger. The
farmer pays the freight you bet You
take your wheat to the miller and
he takes out what he chooses for toll
and givs you lot of empty sacks to
take home. You sell your oats to the
elevator and you get back what's left
after all the expenses of handliu' and
carryin' it are literally estimated and
taken out. The middle man gets the,
lions share of the total and the farmer
gets the small end Of the bargain. Y ou
bet your life the farmer pays the freight
ev'ry time.
can't see why some lawyer can't
get up a law that will stick in this
country to kind of divide up all these
big estates and properties when the
owner dies. Over in England the an.
nual revenue to the government from
taxin' estates of dead folks amounts to
s5O,0OOOOO. A man who owns a big
property may dodge taxes while he's
livin' but he has to dig up when he's
dead. The big diamond king Belt of
London left awful big estate and the
heirs paid $5,OOO,OOO into the public
treasury the other day. A Pittsburg
trust magnate died the other day and
left $3OOOO,OOO, all of it comm in a
way out of the public. Ten per cent
on that or $3,OOO,OoO would be about
right. That Standard Oil man O'Day
left $40,OOO,O0O but the public gets
little out of the estate. Just think of
what a rake off we'd get when Rookie
feller and Carnegie and Morgan and
the rest turn up their toes. We're all
the time kickin' about the accumulatin'
of the enormous estates. Let the big
moneyed men be made to kick when
they're dead by gettin' a generous slice.
of what they leave behind. I'm nifty
certain that if such laws can be made
to work in England and grip somebody
has got brains enuf in this country to
get whack and a grip, and hold and
purchase on the big estates on this
side of the big pond. IS .@.~zzy .&
{ <gs.z@ <%sS$F o o @ =. s.s~@. L. .
One of the best things about the
county fair to Farmer Ben is the chance
to swap talk with my old naybors, and
friends that I don't get a chance to get
to see like l used to. Somehow we
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