Year: 1873




We clip the following from an admirable
address delivered by Hon. W D. Washburn
before the Dodge County Agricultural So
ciety, September 26th, 1873. We regret
that we have not space for the entire
speech:


The question of cheap transportation in
the first instance, it is true, bears more di-
rectly on the farming interest than any
other; but from 80 great dependence Of
all other interests upon it, finally reaches
all and becomes general in its effects. The
value of the products Of Minnesota are to a
greater extent than almost any of the
States Of the Union, dependent upon trans
portation. Only small portion of our
products find home consumption, while
for the large balance we are dependent on
an export market, and consequently upon
transportation. AS the case stands at the
present time the values of what we raise
and have for export depend largely upon
what the Railway Companies as matter
OF grace or policy choose to make them
Minnesota is especially wheat growing
State. But the price Of its wheat does not
depend SO much on the price of it in Liver
pool, Glasgow, New York, or the other
markets Of the World, as upon the rates of
transportation to the seaboard fixed by the
lines Of Railway, upon which you are nec-
essarily dependent for its transportation.
And these lines Of transportation are con-
trolled and operated not by the men who
originally put their money in them but by
q set of sharks and speculators, men who
have amassed fortunes not in legitimate
business but by systematic robbery of the
people.


Vanderbilt, Tom. Scott, Jay Could Sage,
Tracey, and one or two others, meet in
New York to-day and fix the price of the
wheat in Minnesota, and from their dictum
there is no appeal. They in fact hold the
Keys to the vast ganaries Of the West
They place themselves at your gate-ways
and call on you to stand and deliver. The
rates fixed by them do not depend at all on
the service performed, hut the amount they
think necessary to enable them to success
fully manipulate the watered stocks thew
control, and the amount Of pressure that
can be borne by the shipper. Gentlemen,
l have no wish to enter upon an unreason-
able crusade or warfare upon the railroads
OF the country. believe l appreciate, as
fully as any one, what the railroads have
done for this country. The people gener-
ally OF Minnesota appreciate it. Railroads
have opened up our broad and fertile acres
to settlement and development. They have
brought with them population and wealth
and caused our rich prairies to " blossom
like the rose ''-Railroads have been the
great civilizers Of the age, making COM
munication between different sections of
the country both easy and expeditions.
All this and more am ready and glad to
concede. But when these Railroads as
sumo the ownership Of the country and to
place values on its products and build up
despotlsm so unbearable, it is about time
for the people "to call halt The truth
is the Railroads Of this country have be-
come rich, powerful, overbearinp and in
solent, and have further come to the belief
that they are beyond the reach of law,
courts, and Constitutions, and as a general
thing, controlled and managed by men who
have no care for the public, who are their
patrons, or for the development of the
country dependent upon them


L have long looked with alarm and appre-
hension upon the vast accumulation and
Capitalization of capital so massed as to
enable the few interruptions individuals at
the money centers, who control them, not
only to tx prices on our products, but to
shape and manipulate our financial affairs,
having regard neither to the interest of
the people or the prosperity Of the country.
believe the great danger to the Repub-
lie lies in this very direction.


To-day Cornelius Vanderbilt holds q con-
trolling interest in over 200 millions of dol
lars OF Railroad property. For moment
consider the fearful power, unrestrained,
this gives him. Here in our own State the
Managers OF the two great Railway corpor-
ations, the Milwaukee s. St. Paul, and the
Chicago Il Northwestern, upon which the
larger portion of our surplus products are
carried to market, have everything their
own way. From their Offices in New York
they coolly dictate to the farmers of Mime
sofa what they can have for their wheat.
Why, 1t is only few days since these rail-
road autocrats came to the conclusion that
the farmers Of Minnesota with an abund.
ant crop, were becoming rich too RAPIDLY.
and could stand further pressure. when
they added three cents per bushel to the
already exorbitant rate Of Transportation.
thus transferring half million of dollars
or more from the pockets of those who
have fairly earned it, to their own already
swollen Golfers. Robbery is pretty harsh
word, but know of none that so fitly char
acterizes this transaction.


There was time during the last spring
when corn was worth in New York City 49
cents per bushel, while the freight with the
different commissions from certain local..
ties in the State of Illinois, amounted to
40 cents per bushel, leaving the producer
the pitiable sum Of 8 cents per bushel for
his product. In view of such q state Of
things is there any wonder that there has
been Railroad war in that State, or that
the people are excited, indignant and al
;, most desperate? While such state Of
4 things exist we cannot hope for permanent