The great West. [volume], November 08, 1889, Image 1

About The great West. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1889-18??

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

                
THE GREAT WEST
IB PUBLISHED FBIDAYB AT
lie WABASHA St., St. PAUL,
BY THE
Great West Company.
SI.OO A YEAR IN ADVANCE.
ALLIANCE MEN
We wish to call your attention to
some facts which we must all take
notice of —and act upon them. We
must begin to act upon them at once.
If they cause a change in our opin
ions let that change date from this
moment.
I—Just as soon as a man takes a
stand against the monopolists his pri
vate character becomes the subject
of the closest scrutiny. If it is possi
ble to find faults or flaws they are
magnified. In illustration we will
cite an instance which is only one of
a dozen which have since come to
our notice. A man published a news-
paper in this state, and became a
definite alliance organ. Cash to the
amount of $750 was raised to start
an opposition—raised at the direct
instigation of the attorneys and
free-pass monopolistic agents. Then
letters and persons were sent abroad
to try and discover in the place of
former residence if there were not
some old blemish upon the man’s
character. As this utterly failed, the
most outrageous warfare was begun
at home. There is not a village in
Minnesota but has men who are in
“ca-hoots” with the railroad and
elevator ring— not one !
2—Now every man has faults.
Some have financial troubles. Some
have family troubles. Some have
habits not the best. Some chew gum.
Others are poor. And again, some
are not as calm and meek under the
rod as they ought to be. Some have
an itching for office. Where is the
man against whom some peculiarity
cannot be spoken!
3 —How about the politicians? Do
they not itch for office? Are they
not often the vile and disreputable?
Do they not often solicit the saloon
support, and hang around them?
Have they not faults ?
Why, but last week two United
States Senators were so drunk they
could not fill an appointment to
speak. Some legislators were so
drunk last winter that they could
hardly attend to business. Another
was a man who never paid his debts!
Where under the canopy of heaven
will you find more disreputable char
acters than come up from the slums
to get office —gamblers, prize-fighters,
(John Morrissey went to congress,
and Sullivan tries it), roues, debau
ches, public defaulters, criminals!
You could find some of them in
houses of prostitution last winter.
There has been a political dynasty in
Chicago led by Mike McDonald, the
King of gamblers. A gambler in St.
Paul has more influence in governing
the city than all the preachers com
bined !
4 We have already been informed
that we must not sustain the work
of certain alliance laborers because of
this and that personal fault. Now
we don’t know anything about their
personal habits—and we are not go
ing out into the field to see if their
third cousin wears a red necktie. It
is their work, their sympathies,
their humanities, that we want to
know of. We will put them against
a defrauding lot of political bum
mers eight days in the week, and let
the Devil judge.
5 The only men we have to fear in
this alliance movement are the habi
tues of the State Houses and the
county rings. Let the big guns in
politics get control of the alliance
and it is a “goner.” And that is just
what they are trying to do. One of
the high-up politicians is already lay
ing his plans. They see it is utterly
useless fighting the spirit of oppo
sition to oppression and corruption
which is rising—and they are hasten
ing to become a factor in it in order
that they may kill it.
Now, if we have been in the habit
of listening to criticism and detrac
tion of our workers, and sighing
for better men; and hanging off be
cause Tom, Dick or Harry w ears cur
ly hair, and has bow-legs—let us
Representing the Financial and Political Interests of the Fanners of the Northwest.
change our course at once, and thank
God that as a whole the Alliance
crowd is composed of earnest men of
earnest purpose. Any man who
puts his shoulder to the wheel is at
least leading a correct life in that
respect. Don’t let the oppressor and
the robber drive your workmen out
of the field!
THE MARKETS
England, by reasonable estimates, will require
16,000,000 quarters of wheat this winter. (A quar
ter is eight bushels.) Other counties of Europe
will require 5,000,000 quarters, India will furnish
4,000,000 quarters, and Russia 11,000,000, The
United States will furnish 15,000,000 qrs., or 120,-
000,000 bushels. This is an extraordinary demand
from this country, and by every law of trade so
strenuously urged to depress wheat in other
years, ought to raise wheat (northern wheat)
to $1 10 or $1.20 a bushel. Does it do it, No.
May deliveries at Minneapolis are quoted—No.
1 hard, 83Vi; No. 1 Northern 81.
We republish the following from the Prairie
Farmer—which is not to old to be of use now—:
because if this fact (and we know it is) it should
have affected the markets long ago. The truth
is there is no other “supply and demand” except
the dog-(lght at Chicago between the bulls and
bears where the big lion eats up the Kangaroo,
and the devil takes the hindmost.
The State Department at Washing
ton has received advice from the Con
sul at Mayence which states that —
European grain-crops have not
turned out satisfactorily, and the
United States is looked to to make up
the deficiency. This is confirmed by
reports from the international grain
market at Vienna, which meets every
year for the purpose of furnishing re
liable and disinterested reports of
grain-crops of the year. The aver
age wheat crop of Europe annually
from 1881 to 1886 is 1,211,072,192 bush
els. In 1888 the crop amounted to 1,-
240,370,925 bushels. This year is esti
mated to be about 15 per cent less.
The average in wheat for all Europe
is 81 this year compared to 93 in 1888,
and 110 in 1887.
This is the line as previously stat
ed in The Prairie Farmer. The
wheat crop of the w T orld is short.
When the bulk of the wheat crop
is out of the hands of farmers, prices
will jump. They are already advanc
ing steadily.
lowa has sounded a tocsin —and
so has Ohio. It is simply dissatis
faction with the party in power be
cause it does not listen to the cry of
the people.
What do you think of the 14 cents
a bushel for oats—and “glorious
prosperity!” 60 cents for No. 1 hard
wheat and “glorious prosperity!”
Single counties robbed of SIOO,OOO
a year and on the wheat difference —
and “glorious prosperity!”—how she
do “ glo
That was a tough joke on Thacker,
of Pope county, last winter. The
Winnipeg & Duluth Land Grab bill
was to be voted on. • Thacker lives
120 miles west and north of St. Paul.
He carried passes on Washburn’s
road. (He voted for Wash.). It
would have taken him four or five
hours to dead head it home on the
day of the A'ote, and he was awful
sick that day. We heard he was
sick, and empty Avas his cradle in the
senate chamber. But he didn’t go
home on the Washburn road, and a
little bird came and Avliispered: “He
Avill go out on the Northern Pacific.”
We didn’t belieA’e this, for Ave could
not belieA'e that $2,500 was laid out
for Pope County—(and poor C’ox,
“Baby Cox,” as he Avas called, cer
tainly didn’t get any). HoAvever,
AA*e took the 8 p. m. N. P. train out of
town, and stopped at a little country
hotel in Little Falls—at midnight.
About 8 o'clock a. m. Ave “riz,” put
on one of our “I’m-your-dreadful-
Nemesis” smiles, and entered the of
fice. There sat Sen. Thacker, with a
“Johnny-get-the-liot-drops” look on
his mouth —107 miles from the capi
tol and 56 from home—and so-o-o
sick —so sick! He shook hands AA’itli
his usual “two-for-a-quarter-of-a-dolr
lar” emphasis.
So far we’d struck it pretty rich for
a green, flat-eared, consumptiA'e
country editor! But now—“how
can AA-e get this thing into shape?
He may yet lie out of it!” It
wouldn’t do to go and get Fuller,
editor of the Transcript, to see the
Senator there! Gad, Fuller Avould
I—AA-ouldn’t1 —AA-ouldn’t lie any sooner’n Thacker!
No, it wouldn’t 'do—Fuller Avas too
vicious lengthwise like the flea. So
we got our friend, the editor of the
Herald, the neAv democratic paper—
who did the Lord Chesterfield up like
a bronzed image! But Geo. was
awful nerA’ous while that democratic
editor was talking to him. The fact
was. Geo. was sick—but not one-half
so bilious as the people who sent him
to St. Paul to do his duty.
Another
The State Institute Annual.
The Great West has made ar
rangements to send a copy of the
beautiful and useful publication
brought out by Supt. O. C. Gregg,
known as the Institute Annual, to all
of our subscribers on receipt of six
cents, (postage and mailing,) on re
quest. It AA'ill be issued in December.
The reason Ave wait for “requests” is
that during the AA'inter many sub
scribers will receiA-e them at the In
stitutes. It is a valuable w*ork.
The Great West
ST. PAUL, MINN., FRIDAY, NOV. 8, 1889,
Success as a Mustard Plaster,
Redwood Gazette
As a mustard plaster on the body
politic, to keep it in a state of irrita
tion and bring evil humors to the
surface, Mr. Donnelly is all right, but
as law-maker and statesman, good
Lord deliver us from such.
Certainly—the object of the typical
“law-maker and statesman” is to
keep the evil humors inside the body
politic and prevent them from com
ing to the surface, until the victim
dies. Mr. Donnelly is not that kind
of “law maker and statesman;” he
believes the right thing to do is to get
the Virus out of the system; and
naturally enough the Virus is oppos
ed to him.
This paper is non-partisan clear up
the spinal cord —that’s its polit—pa
triotism !
In another place we suggest that
in the next legislature, in the place of
carousal there should be “grave in
vestigation and stem work.” The
“stern work” should begin by kick
ing out fully three-fourths of the
former gang.
Now comes the chiefest danger to
the alliance. It is a fact which we
can prove, and we propose to do it:
The State House here in St. Paul is
trying to get into the alliance! This
is no scarecrow—it is a fact, a result
of the waking up of the alliances.
Has it come to this ?
We hope the judges of our Supreme
Court will read the item which we
quote in another column, from the
Pioneer Press, showing that the
money-sharks are depopulating nor
thern Minnesota and will then re
consider their decision that while a
man cannot comimt the usury him
self he can through an agent. That
decision practically repealed the ex
cellent usury law which has stood on
our statute book for ten years, and
left poverty at the mercy of inordi
nate greed.
You, dear readers, may inquire why
is it, that we farmers can’t have a
feast once in awhile. Twenty years
ago there was SSO per capita of
money in the hands of the people;
then your wheat was worth $2.50
per-bushel, your hogs 9 and 10 cents
per ponnd. Every one had plenty.
No tramps, no mortgages on farms.
How is it now? The volume of
money contracted to about $6 per
capita, and it controlled absolutely
by these bankers, as a consequence
of this reduction in the volume of
money, and its control by these
bankers.—The Newspaper, California,
Mo.
The fearful contraction of the cur
rency Avhich has been going on for
twenty years is a bonanza for the
monied aristocracy. Ten percent on
ten dollars then bought a bushel of
aa heat—it Avill buy two now! The
money loaner gets almost twice as
much noAA" at the same rate of in
terest as then. The producer gets
one-half as much. The protected
banker is getting all the profits.
This country must be awful blind
not to see the effects of a contraction
of the currency. England, France
and Germany don’t know what such
a bankers’ monopoly is!
In one of the grand articles which
we published last week to show the
nature and scope of Supt. Gregg’s
Annual, Prof. Robertson gives the
results of a test of the use of salt on
four groups of cows. Two groups
were free to salt, and two groups kept
from it. After the first test the
groups were reversed. In each test
the milk fell off—in one case 17 per
cent, and in the other 14 per cent.
Now while we are not a saltopho
bist, and in our stock experience fed
salt as did other people, still there is
a serious objection to that test.
Salt has two powerful activities in
the animal system. One is as a
strong digestive stimulant; and of
course every one understands that a
stimulant to an animal function is
an injury. Secondly, salt modifies to
a very wonderful extent the endos-and
the exosmotic action of membranes,
and thereby affect fhe absorptive
functions, hastening the removal of
juices from the intestines and project
ing them into the circulation. Hence,
the sudden removal of salt from a
fluid secreting animal would of
course lessen those secretions. The
only wonder is: that the diminution
was not far greater than 17 or 14 per
cent. The only test that could be
given would be one which passes
from an “unsalted mother” to a
saltless calf—and even then several
generations of salted ancestors
would deprave the-physical economy
of the offspring.
This is offered merely as a just
presentment of the case. The ques
tion is one which has two sides to it.
Theoretically, salt, over and above
the thin sprinkling which nature
gives, is probably not a benefit.
And as to practice it would take
more than one generation to demon
strate the matter. In the discussion
so far the “salters” undoubtedly
have the advantage.
*« If Not Purchased, What Is It?
* Knowing well the sentiments of the
St. Paul Dispatch, when in the past the
light of its own counsel has broken
though its artificially constructed
opinions, we are amazed at the pro
found somersaults it executes at
times. For instance in Tuesday’s issue
Of last week, it refers to C. P. Hunting
don, the railroad plutocrat, in these
terms:
“The Huntingtons and the Hatz
felds are the peculiar products of two
different continents, in one of which
unlimited wealth is too often the re
ward of unlimited but peaceful public
robbery.”
Now, in this sentence does not the
fact appear that really, and practi
cally, the Dispatch sees in the rail
way management of the country a
((•-Glossal system of robbery ? Hunt
ington made his millions in that
way. The Dispatch sees it, and so
expresses itself. But in the next col
umn we read an article on the new
railroad departure. It can be seen
by any person familiar with
the organization of a newspaper
force, that the article was written to
order at the dictation of the railroad
ring. How much was paid for inser
tion, or whether it went in free, is one
of the secrets which the chief and the
company alone know. But it bears
every evidence of being gotten up to
order. It opens up:
The panacea for all commercial
and industrial woes, competition, has
wrought its sweet will among the
railroads. For a time it worked un
told mischief in the premium which it
set on fraud and falsehood both on
the part of the carrier and shipper.
This is as much as to say that
competition ruins railroads. But
none have been ruined. It also con
founds the roads with the country.
The country is blessed with that kind
of “ruin.” Again, if a lawyer, a doc
tor, a plowmaker, a blacksmith, a
printer, compete and do their work
cheaply the powerful city press does
not jump into the arena and howl over
the ruin of the country! If the rail
roads want to carry freight for noth
ing it wont hurt the country. If
me Directors don’t like it they needn’t
no it. If they want to do it, 'it la
their privilege—and the Dispatch
need not fret either. The paper says
that Avherever pools were made there
was an “absence of scandals!” Now
this is one of the flimsiest prevarica
tions ever perpetrated. Wherever
and Avhenever a pool has been formd
it has been broken up by rank scan
dals and downright, infamous dishon
esty ! The Dispatch knoAvs that no
business in the Avorld ever showed up
so much nasty, dirty, lying, cheating
and rascality betA\ T een partners, as
the railroads in their solemn pledges
called pools! It says:
“The granger statesman appeared
on the scene and added to the tur
moil and folly of the situation by
undertaking to run the road his
OAvn way and for his own purposes to
the exclusion and at the cost of their
OAvners.”
A more brainless bray of assininity
was never published. The granger
did appear on the scene. He came
when he saw every factory, wagon
shop, tannery, cooper shop, commer
cial mill, ashery, boot and shoe fac
tory, foundry, etc , etc., driven from
the villages by shameless discrimina
tions. He came when he could not
ship a bushel of grain where he wish
ed. He came when a railroad actu
ally refused to transfer cars. He
came when no man could sell a bushel
of wheat except to a corporate eleva
tor which pronounced the price and
compelled a sale. He came when he
was paying freight three times larger
than required to pay cost of trans
portation and interest on cost of
road. He came when the infamous
Millers’ Association sat on the corpse
of agriculture and demanded the
shroud! He came when the farmer
was dickering for his wooden shoes!
And when he came, these banded cut
throats leaped upon him. They
made him drunk. They bribed him.
They laughed at him. They took
him to houses of prostitution and
disgraced him—then put on the
screws and bartered his honor, and
made him an adept in political
treachery. Then the Daily Press, of
ten miserable tools of a miserable
lot of lavender-breeched old rascals,
came up to the help of the mighty
against the weak. They patted the
cross-field lawyers on the back and
relegated the honest men to the
depths where “barnacles” and other
worms fester and feed in the dark
ness ! That’s the how of it, and the
HINNE3OTA
KSTOn.'CAL
SOCiETY.
Dispatch knows it all—and more too.
The Dispatch continues:
It is not strange that the air is
alive with rumors of railroad consoli
dations ; that the best informed and
most far-seeing of railroad officials,
openly foretell the inevitable union
of the great railways of the country
into a few great systems, and that
the tendency in modern industrial
life toward large aggregations of
capital in the conduct of given enter
prises is liable to find its most strik
ing consummation in the railroad in
dustry. Denunciations end the prac
tice, and the making of paper laws
against both, are but the products
of ignorance, short-sightedness or
demagogism.
Now the corrugated truth is right
here: The Interstate Commerce law,
and the state law, have brought the
railroads to desperate straits. Their
vast robberies are curtailed. They
have wiggled and twisted like worms
in a bottle. They have tried to trust
each other—but it was a failure.
Now they seek to “consolidate” to
avoid the law. Not short-sighted,
but long and clear as the vision of a
seer; not ignorant, but with a know
ledge born of the necessities of the
human race; not demagogism, but
with the element of patriotism which
says a public carrier shall carry for
the public ! This is the nature of the
state and national legislation to con
trol the mightiest band of pirates
that ever robbed the high seas or the
commonwealth! Think of it. The
lie would be so hot that the liar’s
breath would take fire if he said the
railroads of the United States cost
$40,000 to the mile! But allow that
a lie almost too unutterable to be
whispered were true! Even then
there are two billions five hundred
millions of railroad securities, over
and above $40,000 to the mile, draw
ing interest out of the “common
herd!”
And yet this Dispatch, with its
mouth open and its ears thrown
back, goes on to say:
“We have made railroad property
unprofitable.” And are there suck
ers to believe this—who wear breeches
and a backbone? No. There isn’t a
man in the world who knows enough
to order soup in a restaurant but
knows that it is a lie. A broad, silly,
farcical lie. The railroad does not
exist in the United States—not even
the closed branch in lowa—but pays
10 per cent a year on investment—
and that on top of enormous salaries
for brass-mounted attorneys. The
M. & P. tumbled—but its bonds for 8
millions on an expense of three mil
lion, were at a premium.
And again:
“Stupid public regulations and sui
cidal competition have been the two
prime agents in bringing indus
try to its present situation, when
railroad building is practically at a
standstill except in the new countries
like Washington and in the South,
which is just waking up from its Rip
Van Winkle sleep.”
Yes, railroad building is at a stand
still here. They have gouged out
the entrails of the northwest in
search for interest on bonds. They
have stolen the last dollar the people
would give—and yet somehow there
is some building going on! Now the
south must catch it. Look out ye
sunny realm of yellow corn and hot
blood—if this devil fish don’t suck a
billion in fraudulent bonds out of
your veins within ten years we’ll eat
your yams in silence forever after.
The most cheering news we have
heard is that railway building of the
Washburn-Hill-Ames type is at a
standstill.
Go on, Mr. Dispatch—keep right on.
You’ll wake up, however, some night,
with a granger legislator on your
stomach, and the wail will go forth,
like a banshee in distress, publishing
this legend: “Is this a nightmare—
or a standstill in the railroad boo
dle!”
Gladstone Sustains the Statement,
The following question was con
tained in a letter from Pipe Stone
Co.:.
“You say strikes have secured all
the [benefits ever derived from any
source to labor. I do not disbelieve
you, but could you not give some
facts for such a remarkable state
ment.”
Yes sir, but will be glad to quote
the opinion of “The Grand Old
Man,” received since that article was
published. Every one knows of
the terrible warfare of strikes
through the work of “Tradesunions,”
and that through losses and suffer
ing produced by strikes, the present
status of labor was secured. Now
This Republic was lounded
upon principles which involved
the Dignity of Labor. To des
troy the power of Labor is to
construct Caste. A Caste cannot
co-exist with a Republic.
VOL. I, NO.
hear Gladstone, on the 26th of last
month, the report of which is just
placed before us:
“London, Oct. 26.—Mr. Gladstone
made an address at Chester to-day
on the condition of the working
classes. He contrasted the English
workman’s position to-day with
that of 50 years ago, showing that
during the last half century there
has been an increase of 50 per cent in
wages, while the cheap food and
clothing now obtainable are better
than heretofore. In conclusion he
urged English workmen to study the
history of the American revolution.
He claimed that it was by and from
this country that a love of freedom
was sown in America. England now
in return reaped advantages from
the American vindication of those
principles of freedom which animated
the revolution.”
Alliance work is non-partisan—ev
erlastingly !
The “Farmers’ Friend,” a powerful
Grange Organ in Pennsylvania,
quotes a section of Mr. Donnelly’s
address issued in our supplement,
and changes it to fit the grange work.
All right, brother. Go in! But still,
perhaps it would be kindly to credit
the sentiments from their Minnesota
source! No harm done though if
you don’t.
W e have an answer to our conun
drum about the Brown’s Valley R.
R. in Inter-Lake Tribune. Thanks,
Bro. Gordon. We will use that an
swer in a week or two, in connection
with a few gentle remarks on the
Northern Pacific branches! The
demi-gods have a bonanza in those
“poor branch roads” which make
the sun-gilt gold piles of the Mon
tezumas pale their effectual fires and
cast Croesus onto the dunghill of
humiliation. If we don’t make it
interesting then Mark Twain, Bill
Nye, A. Ward, and Shakespeare bet
ter give up the humorous fake!
It w r ill not be long before that
hideous monstrosity, a Company
Elevator, will be a thing of the past,
its rickety ghosts casting shadows
athwart the depot tracks in which
owls, bats, and old memories flit in
glamorous glee.
The Company Elevator, with its
death’s head and cross-bones in the
gable, reminds us of farmers who sell
butter at 12c, per pound at the
corner grocery—when the commis
sion dealer will pay 20 and 25c., if
shipped direct.
What the d 1 the United States
American Nephew of Uncle Sam
wants of a middle man to ship his
wheat for at from five to 18 cents
steal per bushel, is a wonder that in
the next century will be scarcely
credited!
In our correspondence column see
the letter from Adrian, about the
farmers shipping their own coal!
We hope Mr. Laisure will tell us
more about their Alliance work.
When the legislature assembles
there will doubtless be an immense
granger representation from the coun
try. The monopolist has an almost
sure reliance in their effort to main
tain themselves and destroy the
moral effect of a farmers’ legislature.
They look for so many differing
views as to what is wanted to remedy
evils, that there will not only be
“splits,” but by means of them they
hope to continue masters of the field.
It is altogether likely that the com
ing meeting of the State Alliance will
be the largest ever held in the state.
At that meeting, a year before the
legislature meets, committees could
be appointed to look up the matter
of required legislation. Most of the
differences would be on the matter of
grain shipping and inspection.
Now our personal opinion is that
the general subject of grain inspec
tion better be dealt with, but with
an extraordinary care. The whole
monstrous fraud should be assaulted
in a point where there is no practical
division of sentiment, viz.: the con
trol of the railroad and its warehous
ing.
The watering of stock and bonds;
the requirement that rates shall only
meet operating expenses and inter
est on the cost; the absolute freedom
of shipments; the right of indepen
dent warehouses to sidetrack; the
making of all contracts between ele
vators and railroads void, after a
certain date; the putting of the re
newal of such contracts among crim
inal offences; fixing a maximum ton
mile rate for freightage based upon
actual cost of road—and other vital
issues would doubtless come up.
Let there be an absolute dictum
upon the part of the state—that the
State will “control” the railroads —