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_/*• -am •«a«"SW^"iiiS '^S VOL I. Farmers, Mechanics and Laborers of Minnesota, to the front! Advance is the universal order of the hour, and the firm, determined tramp, tramp, tramp of the toiling masses, who have hitherto lagged, in the rear, is heard all over the world in the great onward march. Shall the 75,000 farmers, me chanics and laborers* of Minnesota fail to obey the order, or obeying in part still fail to take their stand in the very front ranks There is no place on the world's mighty battle field where the hosts of the Monopolists are attacking the people with greater zeal, determin ation and ferocity than in our ownder State. There is no place on the mighty line where it is more important that the enemy Bhould be repulsed, crushed and routed, foot and dragoon, than right where we stand. Are we ready for the work The GRANGE ADVANCE will always be just what its name indicates. It will ever be found with the advance guard and at the head of the column. From its pages no uncertain sound will ever go forth. Based upon eternal truth and justice, fighting in a right eous cause, firmly grounded in the con viction of the greatness and importance of its mission and work, it must and will prevail. Let all those who favor the cause of the toiling millions against oppression and monopoly, the cause of labor against extortion and greed, come to our aid, for we are marching under the same colors. THE GRANGE ADVANCE Is a weekly newspaper devoted ex clusively to the interests of labor and agriculture, and the following is the platform: 1. It proposes to secure for labor a legitimate reward, not by destroying any other industry, profession or call ing but by increasing the power and influence of the laborer so that he may exercise some influence in fixing the price of wheat he bays and sells. 2. It proposes to throw its whole influence in favor of CHEAP TRANSPOR- TATION, until the very lowest rates and tariffs compatable with a fair remuner ation to the carrier are realized, believ ing this to be one of the greatest, if not the greatest question before the Ameri can people to-day. 3. It proposes that if railroads are public corporations they must and shall be made to subserve the public interests —that they shall not be permitted to take private property for road beds, de pots, &c, and collect municipal and county bonds on the ground that they are public institutions, and then turn round and rob the people by extortion ate rates and tariffs upon the ground that they are private companies, and under no obligation to the public. 4. It proposes to bestrictly non-parti san, but will not hesitate to expose and denounce corruption in whatever party it is found, and will never fail to drag the guilty individual to the bar of pub lic judgment, no matter how high his position, or by how many millions he is backed. It will deal fairly with all candidates for office, and will endeavor to hold each of them before the public in his true and real character, without fear, favor or affection. It proposes"to do all it can for 5. I $&%!%} $ $ $ the mental, moral and intellectual ele vation of the masses, being fully con vinced that the existence and perpetu ation of a republic form of government depends upon the general intelligence and morality Of the people. Q. It proposes to fight the hydra headed monster MONOPOLY in what ever shape, or form, or place it may be found. No class privileges, no class legislation, but equality before the law in all respects is its motto. 7. Finally, it proposes to work faithfully and work unceasingly for the' advancement and up-building of the or of the Patrons of Husbandry, to use every means at its command to increase the interest and zeal of every individual member, to furnish them with all the latest news pertaining to the order throughout the country, to give them all the latest and best agricultural new9, to post them concerning every hum bug that we can discover in the land, to fur nish them with new songs and music appropriate for regular meetings, and in short to be the liveliest, most energetic and spiciest agricultural paper pub lished. THE FINANCIAL CRASH OF 1873. The crisis has come and gone, and now that the fever of excitement and terror is over, men are in a more fit state of mind to look into some of the causes of the trouble. It has been frequently remarked dur ing and since the panic by the enemies of the order of Patrons of Hus bandry, that the financial crisis has, to a great extent, been produced by the influence of Granges—that their hostil ity to railroads has greatly depreciated the value of railroad bonds, and thus precipitated the collapse- We desire to submit the following re marks upon this subject: 1. For at least three years last past some of our ablest financiers and best business men have been predicting a collapse in railroad stock, and a wide spread financial panic resulting there from. 2. These predictions were based upon the fact that railroads were being pushed away into unsettled regions, which could give them no paying busi ness for many years after the roads were built, if at all, the companies and bond holders mainly relying upon their enormous land grants. But the lands have no market value except as the pro jected road gives them value by open ing up and settling the country. The companies, therefore, have the. double task of building their roads, and settling up the countries through which they pass. But it was argued that there were so many being built upon this purely speculative basis, that it was im possible they should all succeed, and that a collapse was inevitable. 3. Some time last summer European capitalists sent a commission to this country to inquire into the standing, condition, prospects and securities of the Northern Pacific Railroad Co., with a view to investing in the bonds of that company. The commission came, and undoubtedly gave the matter a most thorough and comprehensive investiga tion. Upon their return their report, whatever it was, was not published hut it has since transpired that they 13^ I O S E N I N N O W E E O W E reported adversely to the road. This, undoubtedly, seriously impaired the confidence of American bond holders, many of whom have for some time past been trving to get rid of their stock. 5. Jay Cooke- & Co., probably the largest and best known bankers in the United States, were the most heavily interested in these stocks, and it was a matter of immense importance to them that the credit of the Company and its bonds should be maintained. In order, therefore, to restore and establish confi dence, they ostentatiously bought in the bonds of these timid holders, to show capitalists they were not afraid of these stocks. But the more they bought, the more they found for sale, and the more of the bonds they got upon their hands, the more essential it was for them to keep up the value. They had got into a fearful current and were no longer able to control them selves. They could simply keep on buying until their money was all gone, and then in its place lay only a heap of Northern Pacific bonds, almost worth less. 6. Others, who like them had been buying up the stocks of these specula tive roads, found themselves in a simi lar current and were soon, with Cooke & Co., hurled into the gulf of bankrupt cy. In this way the panic was set in motion. People were frightened be yond sense or reason. They rushed to the banks to get out their money, and in doing this they withdrew it from circulation. The whole trouble now is that so much money is lying in men's pockets, or tucked in corners of bed ticks for safe keeping, and there will probably be more money lost in this way than by the failure of banks. When the panic was once started, such men as Jay Gould found it to their interest to keep up the excitement for they were making the largest por tion of what others were losing. We see then that this matter has been brewing for years, and before the Granges became, to any extent, influen tial, and that the crisis was inevitable if there had never been a Grange in existence. But amid the difficulties of the hour we have this consoling reflection. If any of these roads must fail, it is better that it should occur now, than that they should live on for years extorting from the poor settlers along their roads every dollar they can earn to support non-pay ing railroads. —The freight agents of the Western railroads held a convention in Cleve land last week, at whieh they fixed the rates of transportation from all promi nent Western cities to New York. Fourth class freight was fixed at fifty cents from Chicago, and sixty cents from St Louis, Bock Isl nd, Burling ton, Keokuk, Davnenport, and Desture Moines, Iowa. REPUTATION FOR VERACITY.—A witness was called upon to testify con cerning the reputation of another wit ness for veracity. Why," said he, I hardly know what to tell you. JML sometimes jests and jokes, and then I don't believe him but when he under takes to tell anything for a fact, I be lieve him about as much as I do the rest of my neighbors." IT is a noticeable fact that the deeper miners go down in England, the higher eoal goes up. ill^la SWfcfcWU RED WING, GOODHU E C0UN1T, MINN., OCTOBE 15,1873. NO, I. ARE FARMERS DENT IMPROVI- To the cry of distress coming up from our Western farmers, the railroad companies reply, Farmers are wanting in intelligent economy. They do not prosper because they do not prudently husband their means. We cannot be asked to make their labor profitable while they are unthrifty. Nobody is saved in this world from the natural con sequences of imprudence. If a manufac turer makes cloth at a cost of two dol lars, which his neighbor makes at a cost of one dollar, the first must be bankrupted for his folly." The retort upon such reasoning is swift and merciless. Railroads are pro tected by society at large for all their extravagances and imprudences. No matter how heavy cost has been accum ulated upon a road, even though by fraud, the stockholder is held to be en titled to a good dividend wherever the dividend can be made by high fares and freights. These corporations are the petted children of the public which takes upon itself all the consequences of their folly. But the retort, however sharp and telling, does not close the controversy. The charge remains, and has an appear ance of truth. Many farmers are thrift less and their unthrift damages their class. The credit system is a pestilent evil to farmers. It is in fact to everybody but it probabjjr works most evil on the farm. Before they are aware of it, our farmers have fallen into a habit of liv ing a year ahead of their work, buying to pay after the next harvest, and buy ing with a certain recklessness because their credit is only too good. No other class pays so much for credit. Ma chines, for example, are sold to them at ruinous advances above cash prices. Collection is in such cases expensive be cause the purchasers are scattered widely, and sellers put up prices of things sold on credit enough to cover all possible risks. A credit-using farm er employing two farm hands, actual ly employs also, without knowing it, another man, whose wages equal the wages of both his hands, to collect from him his notes and bills. We hope the Grangers will cure this terrible malady of credit-using. They have already greatly diminished the evil. Many farmers fail to use their lands to the best advantage by force of habit Born on wheat lands, they keep on pro during small crops of wheat on soils made on purpose for corn or they per sist in selling their corn instead of con verting it into meat in regions where the last course is indicated by circum stances and markets. This class of farmers is not pliant enough and quick enough of wit to change when change is a necessity of profitable tillage. Turn to another side. A great moral and religious truth is concerned with one in political economy in this ques tion of improvidence. It must be wrong, it must be sinful, to enforce against farmers a cost-law which does not allow them any chance of equality in intelligence and comfortableness with their fellow-citizen. If by unthrift is meant that the Western farmer buys books, subscribes for newspapers and magazines, sends his boys and girls to college, keeps a clean and tidy house with neat furni and bits of art treasure, why then we say boldly the rest of us ought to be glad to pay for such unthrift as that— and we must pay for it. We cannot expect this work to be done for us by men who support themselves at the old cost of slave labor, or at the necessary cost of the labor of unskilled workmen. Jf we have reckoned that farmers' wives must wear poor clothing, and farmers' sons remain in ignorance, we have reckoned without our host. 'N. W. C. A. WHAT requires more philosophy than taking things as they come Parting with things as they go. NEWS ITEMS. —New York has organized a cheap transportation association, and appointed committees consisting of some of the most enterprising merchants of the city. —The London Times says with re gard to the New York financial panic that in view of the extraordinary prosperity of the United States, and the high price of its government bonds, the present gust can but be remarked as simply an effort of the financial sys tem to get rid of its dishonest element and the statement is not very far from the truth. A strong effort is to be made in the next Congress to get an appropria tion for the construction of the St Philip canal near the mouth of the Mississippi river. It is estimated to cost about twelve million dollars and when finished will, it is said, permit of sailing of the largest ocean vessels as far as Cairo for at least four months of the year. In his recent speech at Dayton, Ohio, Senator Morton, in speaking of the cheap transportation question, made a statement of considerable im portance. He says that he has in his possession a proposal submitted by Dutch capitalists to build a railroad with four tracks from the West to the seaboard, without any aid, either state or national. All they ask is a charter. We trust this proposal will not be for gotten when Congress meets, for it will contrast very strangely with certain other propositions which will be sub mitted to the authorities. —An exchange says England has entered upon the experiment of reform ing all railroad abuses and inaugurating a sort of Utopia of steam locomotion by means of a board of commissioners. The functions of this board commented on the 1st inst. It consists of Sir Francis Peel, son of the great Robert Peel Mr Price, a lumber merchant and old railroad officer, and Mr Mc Namara, a barrister. The duties of the board are to adjudicate upon ques tions of amalgamation competition, goods rates, passenger rates, and the general protection of the public. HE Senatorial Committee on Transportation was in session in New York last week. Among the statements made to the committee was one by Mr. Walker, statistician of the Produce Ex change, who said that the most promis ing competing routes will be through the Central of New York and through the St. Lawrence route when the ca nals are enlarged. The state of New York must be prepared to meet compe tition by the St. Lawrence at a rate not to exceed ten cents per bushel from Chicago to Montreal. The remedy for exorbitant rail-rates is the improvement of water routes and increased facilities by rail. Many lines are now doubling their tracks, and they can do so scarce ly fast enough. The canals since 1837 have transported over seven thousand million dollars' worth of property, and have produced a revenue sufficient to pay for themselves. The tonnage of the canals for twenty-three years has been more than double the tonnage of all the vessels entering the port of New York. The greatest capacity of the ca nals to move property eastward is four million tons. A lock should be able to accommodate a boat of twenty-six hun» dred tons. _.-\ .. I l.-rr^»