The Grange advance., October 15, 1873, Image 1

About The Grange advance. (Red Wing, Minn.) 1873-1877

Image provided by: Minnesota Historical Society; Saint Paul, MN

_/*• -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.
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