The great West. [volume], December 13, 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
18 PUBLISHED FRIDAYS AT
75S WABASHA St., St. PAUL,
BY THE
Great West Company!
Si.OO A YEAR IN ADVANCE.-
THE RAILROAD BONUS.
Farmers, will you aid us in getting at the amount paid
to railroads in the shape of Bonuses? The roads have
declined to publish them in their sworn reports!
Write us of your County, of your Township, of your vil
lage or city—or of any other County, Township or City in
the State. Will the Alliances please take up this matteroffi
eially—at earliest possible moment.
Let each one write personally, too; several reports from
same section will be all the better.
THE GREAT WEST.
Farmers
Will you kindly send us accounts of
any troubles you are having in the
matter of shipping grain or pro
duce? If you have any complaints
will you let us know. We wish a
correspondent at Osakis, Douglas
Co. Especially if you are delayed in
getting cars —or if the agent talks
“deposit” to you. Let us know
without delay.
Bro. Snow, out in Yellow Medicine
County, says that an Alliance meet
ing would iiave been larger if a Snow'
storm hadn’t arisen just as he ar
rived in town!
Thirteen millions of dollars go
over the borders of Minnesota an
nually to Boston, Hartford, New'
York, etc., to pay skinflint mort
gages. Eight million more go over
the border on bogus railroad securi
ties.
Mr. Robinson don’t want to mon
key with “advance sheets” of gov
ernment officials until such sheets are
in existence. Mr. Robinson is a build
er of dreams—but as a railroad apolo
gist is in advance of the sheets.
i
Every reader of the Great West
has noticed the stalwart utterances
of the “Olive Branch,” of Hancock.
The editor has gone to Belgrade and
is now issuing a solid country news
paper at that lively village. Mr.
West is a young American of the type
which “gets there.” Farmers, sup
port him. He is “true blue.” and is
not afraid to stand by your rights.
I It is a curious commentary on the
> vast power of the newspaper that
' ' ' almost immediately after the Hector
Mirror published its column of rant
f against the Alliance and the
work, the farmers met and or
ganized one of the largest alliances,
; on the start, in the state. It had 27
■» charter members, and a report ap
pears in our columns.
That illimitable-w'henceness-of-the
who editing the Hector Mirror said
lately that property in the United
, *' States had increased 60 per cent in
T* years—more than half-as
-1 tnuch-again—and condemned agita-
V tion on ticcount of the vast increase of
\ * wealth. We refer the old gilded three
balls to the State censuses of 1885
which say that farm lands de
creased in value from 1877 to 1885 —
V and the value of farm products de
creased from sls an acre to $8 an
/ 1 acre.
The United States government is
ljurnishing various banks a hundred
million dollars to do business on. If
the same government could furnish a
loan to the farmers of the ten west
ern states at 3 per cent, there would
be a saving of $172,000,000 annually
on land mortgages. Then when fore
closures occurred it would be the
government which owned the land.
As it is, nearly fifteen thousand
farms a year are passing into the
hands of the plutocrats. One east
ern loan firm rents out over 500 farms
around Huron, Dak.
I
Ho there, Robinson !
We aren't through with that rail
road pamphlet of Robinson’s yet.
From all over the state come letters
congratulating the Great \\ est in
girdling the affair. But here’s an
other crack on the cranium of that
brilliant genius who wrote it. Rob
inson “blew” heavily on the basis of
his statements, being taken from the
advance sheets of the Interstate
Commerce Commission sent him as a
great favor!
u
We state, ox the authority of
the U. S. government, that Robin
son has never had the advance sheets
of the Interstate Commerce Commis
sion Report—unless ,he stole the
manuscript!
Now let him come to the front and
explain himself. He gave a pretend
ed "balance sheet” of a railroad’s ex
penses. We traced it up to the
Northern Pacific and established its
fraudulency. We then showed that
its enormously swollen accounts (on
account of new and vast enterprises)
only consumed twenty per cent of
one year's income! We now assert
positively that the whole pamphlet
is a fraud —that he has never had the
“advance sheets of the Interstate
Commerce Report”—for this reaeon
—it has not been printed yet!
f
I The Great West
Representing the Financial and Political Interests of the Farmers of the Northwest.
The road from Elk River to Milac
ca is 32 miles long. Jim Hill draws
interest on over $1,300,000 for build
ing it. Yet the county through
which it runs 'paid bonus enough to
grade it and furnish just one-tliird the
rails! And that w r as about one-fourth
the cost of building it. Elsewhere
we have allowed that it cost $320,000
to build—but that is because SIO,OOO
to the mile is only one-fourth of
what it stands up against the fai*m
ers when leaving out the land! The
real cost lies somewhere between
$5,000 and $7,000 a mile —ready for
the locomotor.
Money? Scarcity of money? Why
bless your soul, during the past three
years you have taken up over 200 mil
lion of undue dollars of obligations,
paid from two to seven years interest
on them for future years, and besides
paid an enormous premium on them.
What for ? Why so the banks could
loan money to you at from ten
to twenty per cent, when before you
were paying only 4% per cent. These
were 4 and 4% per cent government
bonds. The people paid the interest.
Now' your Treasurer gives the Shy
locks of Wall street seven years inter
est in advance, takes up the bonds,
gives them the money—and you bor
row' your own principal and your
own interest of the banks at three to
five times the rate.
“Why can’t farmers unite for their
own w'elfare?” asks a correspondent
from Pope Co.
We will answer it: Because, Thom
as, in nearly every tow'nship there
are fools among the farmers them
selves. They are thickest about the
villages and county seats. At Glen
w'ood, in your county, the farmers
lost 23 cents a bushel on wheat for
two years—they lose fourteen cents
now. They had an elevator wrecked
over their heads. They pay a hun
dred dollars a week to the clay
patched old railroad. They pay $240
for a bridge built of twelve plank and
one4x4 timber. And yet the Alliance
there is pulled to pieces by the
knavery and traitorous folly of a
dozen farmers who stand in with the
“Combine” gang. The “Combine”
supports a political villain right in
their midst. Our advice is to have
the farmers draw the line clearly and
closely betw'een those who stand in
with robbers and those who don’t.
The question arises, by what secret
alchemy or unseen influence are the
parties enabled to keep the American
people from breaking up the rotten
hearted despots who are bleeding the
laboring classes and creating mil
lionaires by fraud and political rob
bery ? Where is the lever they oper
ate? First —it has the United States
Senate, a compact body of pluto
crats, rich lawyers, railroad presi
dents and boodle kings. To this
Senate add the President and cabi
net. Then enlarge to every state, and
you find railroads, elevator com
bines, beef combines, and Treasury
suckers, from the county up, who
“stand in” with the plutes of \he
Senate “for all there is in it.’’
“Counties?” you say. Yes, for the
party-boodler will build a culvert
over some creek with ten dollars, and
draw on the treasury for $240 to
divy up with the rest. It is singular
that a new party cannot get into the
field—but so potent is the money
power that it seems impossible.
Every man who makes ten dollars in
four years by his “party” talks
against a new party! Radiant pa
triotism.
The government is now run on the
plan of saving the money-kings—the
bankers —from any trouble, inconven
ience, or losses. The United States
Treasury comes to their relief
whenever the sky is cloudy. It has
done so time and again. It even buys
up the bonds —which were bought at
60c. or less on the dollar, at a pre
mium of from 16 to 24 cents on the
par dollar! And jet—and yet—you
struggling children of toil—that
same kind government sees you
mortgaged to the teeth to consum
ing Shylocks—with $480,000,000 lock
ed in its own vaults without loaning
a cent to labor. It could do so at
three per cent to every advantage
conceivable. And then, if foreclosure
take place, the people would own
the land. Kind government that —
which sees labor in its rags because
of its protection to the Sodomites.
ST. PAUL. MINN., FRIDAY. DEC. 13, 1889,
“Age on ages telling!” That is a
grand and comprehensive expression.
Rarely do reforms transpire during
the epoch when they are given birth.
Often from the depths they spring in
to being, and battle for life, until the
fanatics and cranks w’hose offspring
they are, sink into the grave unsung,
and unrequited for the secret heroism
of their lives! The generation w'hich
follows lends respectability and en
couragement to the fanaticism of the
preceding period—and another gener
ation adopts them. But again there
have been reforms which have arisen
and sunk out of sight like the splut
ter of a meteorite in tJie.Aeep sea—
and ages after some convulsion of
nature has brought them again to
view'.
It seems very difficult to believe, in
this line of thought, that Christ was
followed by churches teaching and
practicing communism! Such is the
indisputable knowledge of history.
But yet again reforms come sud
denly. Ten years ago the “Looking
Backw-ard” of Bellany w'ould have
been expurgated from the houses of
nineteen-tw'entieths of the American
people. But today it is the delight
of ninety-nine of every hundred.
Here has been a sudden change. Rev.
Edw'ard Everett Hale, Mary Liver
more, in fact the grandest intellects
of this century endorsing “social
ism!” Why, it does not seem possi
ble ! It isn’t possible—there will yet
come some thump at the door, and
w'e will all w r ake up, and find that
Andrew Jackson has just been nom
inated for the presidency—and what
a funny dream w'e did have, didn’t
we Mr. Bellamy!”
Of what use is the U. S. Senate?
Can any one suggest a practical
value therefor. If it is but a costly
luxury—why not get rid of it?
Bob Dunn, of the Princeton Union,
says:
“You are a liar, Dr. Fish.” We say
Robert is an honest man. Perhaps,
after all, we are both mistaken.
Ah, tilery
There will probably be a spurt in
wheat about January Ist. Then a
large amount of options are settled
up and wheat futures delivered. But
another reason is that by that time
the wheat crop will be fairly in the
hands of the gamblers and it will of
course be a proper time for a raise.
There are balance sheets and then
there are advance sheets —ask Rob
inson about them. Robinson, what
will you take for the “advance
sheets” of the Interstate Commerce
Commission Report—from which you
constructed that w'onderful pam
phlet? We are in the market to pur
chase them.
The National Farmers’ Alliance, at
the St. Louis meeting endorsed the
Hennepin Canal, and the free coinage
of gold and silver. It also gave the
saloon a black eye by resolving
that,
“We oppose the liquor tariff in all
forms!”
They also decided that the Pacific
Railway frauds should be stopped at
once—that these monstrous mon
opolies should be compelled to pay
up or turn over the plants to the
government which built them. It al
so voted against a traffic except for
revenue.
There are 45 national banks in
New York City.
They have a combined capital of
$45,450,000.
Their profits reached the enormous
sum of $l3B millions!!
This is over 303 per cent!!
In 1880 the profits on the farm, by
the U. S. Census were 3 per cent.
303 and 3. That’s the difference
which the protection of the United
States government brings about. The
laboring people of the United States
are under the foot of the money
kings. The U. S. senate is composed
wholly of bankers and lawyers—not
a laboring farmer or mechanic in the
whole outfit.
Congress will soon be straggling
with the question: How long a
time can we give the Pacific rail
roads to pay their long past due
debt —so that they will feel certain
that it will never have to be paid.
Why cannot the U. S. government
deal fairly with its people? Such an
outrage would have cost an English
king his head. Charles II was be
headed for crimes infinitely less than
giving a bonus to the Companies of
a hundred million dollars.
As an exchange observes, now is
the time to take these roads on the
mortgages and ran them ourselves.
Why should pity be shown such piti
less robbers when our prisons are full
of more deserving malefactors?
Shame on such a tyranny of the
money power—it has never seen its
equal on the earth’s face!
ftoblnson, hi there!—lend us the
loan of your “advance sheet?”
The decrease in circulation during
the past year w'as 37)4 million—dur
ing a. period of extraordinary hard
times. But at the same time the
government notified the banks that
they would protect them by buying
bonds at any time they should feel
the stringency! Protect the Shy
locks any w'ay.
We understand that the U. S. gov
ernment declines to take a record of
the mortgages in the country at the
coming census?
What is the excuse?
“Because it w r ill cost too much!”
Great God, w'hat a government!
It has spent 36 million dollars the
past fey months to accommodate
bankers—an actual gift —a bonus —
a “premium on bonds.” But out of
the 6 million necessary to take the
census it cannot use one-fiftieth of it
for the poor man! And my friend,
are you a “party” man now'?
Oak Park is all torn up over the
•school book question. A new teach
er thew out the state books and sub
stituted the books of Van Antwerp,
Bragg & Co. It kicked up an adult
row, and the war is still on. It may
interest the state to know that the
15-year contract by which Merrill fur
nishes school books at 50 per cent of
previous rates, is about expiring.
The history of the attempt of the
Cincinnati publishers to control the
school book sales is one of no
little interest. At least $20,000
w'as spent by the ring to defeat the
present .contract, in the legislature,
and it w r as saved only by one man
who got mad because he didn’t get
as much money as another one, for
his vote in the matter! Some inter
esting details may be brought out if
the conflict is renew'ed.
“Mr. Editor, what’s a ‘guff.’ ”
A “guff” is a farmer who mewls
around that he “won’t have nothin’
to dew with the Alliance ef hers goin’
ter chaw up any pollertics”—and he
will never unite while Spook, Spectre
& Co. have anything to do with it.
< REFLECT,
You farmers who have to pay as in
terest on farm mortgages in the
ten western states, the sum of $275,-
000,000 a year—averaging interest
and commissions at 8 per cent.
There is no exaggeration in this
statement. It is a cold, hard, unwel
come fact. Any one is indeed a
dreamer who can imagine that this
can be paid.
By the census of 1880, which we have
modified by several state censuses of
1885, the total taxation of the United
States, internal revenue, State, Coun
ty, Municipal and school, reaches the
sum of $380,000,000. Now if the inter
est on chattle mortgages be added to
the land mortgages, we find the ab
solutely appalling fact that the farm
ers in the west are paying interest
enough to run the whole vast machin
ery of this mighty empire—from the
school district to the nation at large!!
It is inconceivable —but it is as
true as the fact can make it. We
must rise against this monster or
perish beneath its feet.
A CORRECTION.
Marshai.i.towx, la., 12-6-89.
Dr. Fish :
I see in all your estimates of rail
road building you have used the price
for rails which I gave you in the
& contract. It will not answer
for general contracts. They are un
der standard, and are iron. Most
roads now use “standard” rails and
steel, though more or less important
roads still use iron. Standard steel
rails are quoted at $22 a ton. The
C. M. & St. P. is using a $25 steel.
This makes good “ironing” come to
about $2,800 a mile to $3,000 a mile.
Roads are ironed, as in the contract
sent you, at $1,600 to $2,000 a mile,
especially where under standard iron
rails are taken from tracks being re
laid. In fact most northwestern
roads are laid for less than $3,-
000 to the mile. This will bring up
your estimates of $4,500 and $7,500 a
mile to from $6,000 to $9,000. But as
you have always allowed from $7,500
to SIO,OOO a mile, you have no reason
to worry over the matter. Yours
truly, etc.”
The above was written by a
man who knows whereof he speaks.
The contract spoken of refers to a
Nebraska road—a pattern of road like
the Soo line—and most of our west
ern lines —including vast sections of
the Manitoba and all the branches of
N. P.
Gradually the country press will
see the truth of what we say. and
publish the facts as they are: That
from $7,500 to SIO,OOO built and
equipped every mile of road in Minne
sota, including every fixture and at
tachment —and that a moderate
road, with cuts and fills well mixed
in, can be built and equipped for
from 5 to $7,000 a mile.
* : ;v . >
jSp-i. Wt.
The toiling man sometimes gets
weary, and folds the bedclothes
about him, as he lies down to snore,
sick and tired of contention. But
what wearies him most of anything
is to have a set of harpies harp their
harps in his ear morn, noon and
night, telling him what a miserable
botch of a workman he is. Sometimes
he is shiftless; sometimes he is a
drinker; sometimes he is an ass; but
all times the siren song pierces his
vitals—“what an infernal poor farm
er you are!”
“Low prices for wheat ? Ah,
that’s because your a darn poor
farmer.”
“Combinations robbing you? Yes,
but that’s because you don’t know
how to shovel manure.”
“Thirty per cent interest on a
mortgage? Certainly, if vou knew' a
beet from a bootjack you w'ouldn’t
feel sixty per cent.”
“Railroads take 20 cents to haul
wheat 120 miles? Cert—gnaw' bones
closer and let your children w r ear no
stockings and you can get rich on
air!”
“Sugar too* high?” Thunder, put
your Trust in saw'dust—and eat
no sugar—millionaires are careful
about expenses.”
“Politicians stealing you blind?”
Well, don’t get into politics—w'ork
like a nigger—keep your w'ife and
children hard at it—and rest your
financial salvation in letting me, a
big-bug, and the lawyer, and the
banker, manage politics. You can’t
raise corn and think “d n” at the
polls. We can do all that for you.”
“Coal, is $11.50? Of course it is.
But better farming w'ill bring it
down. Keep your family at work
and they w'on’t need coal!”
Now' w'e’re sick of this. The most
intelligent and magnificent farming
in the history of the world is done
today. There is most splendid breed
ing, wise foretho’t in regard to crops,
and much rftachinery and [journalism
called in—and yet 500 farms around
one little western tow'n have passed
into the hands of the mortgagees in
five years! Let us have rest.
Build Your Own Railroads!
Why should not the state or coun
ties build their own railroads ? Rail
road building has been magnified in
to a tremendous “triumph of modern
engineering!” There isn’t a county
surveyor this side of Terra Del who
couldn’t build a railroad without ten
minutes preparation. The cost of a
moderately built line is less than
$7,000 to the mile, all ironed, side
tracked, switched, ballasted, bridged,
fenced, stationed and ready for busi
ness, with its boots blackened and
hair combed. There is not a road in
Minnesota which cost SIO,OOO to the
mile. They are nearly all bonded
and landed for SOO,OOO to the mile,
and those not landed are bonded for
$40,000 to the mile.
If any railroad contractor says a
western railroad costs more than
these figure he is a liar! Tell him the
Great Wnsjr says so.
$2,000 to the mile will furnish a
a moderate equipment—rolling stock,
etc.
That expose of the editors of the
Renville Union and Hector Mirror
had its effect. Seventy-five new sub
scribers, in their letters this week,
say “amen!” and “good!” And one
says, “God be with you till we meet’
and may he keep you for the mighty
work.” Another says, “Now we’ve
got a man who can expose political
swindlers, let us stand by him.”
We thus introduce a statement to
clinch our spikes through the rotten
hulks of such political frauds. The
Assessor of New York state officially
declares that the farm-lands of that
“empire state” are rapidly passing
into tenantry by the mortgage
route.
The Maryland Farmer states a
similar condition.
The New Hampshire state govern
ment has formed a paid commission
to see why their farms are being de
serted, and how to avoid it.
The Vermont farms are in a condi
tion even worse than New Hamp
shire.
In oxe couxty of Minnesota, with
butß,ooo population in 1880, 800 farm
ers have been driven out of the coun
ty by the mortgage route in ten
years. We get this from a banker’s
books.
What is doing this? Well, we can
tell who is helping to de it: Tlxeedi
tors of monopolistic newspapers
which stand by the gang!
A millionaire rode gaily through
the prairies in a grand $20,000 Pull
man private car. He saw an old,
worn-out, thrown-aside harrow ly
ingin the field. “There,” said he, “is
the cause of the farmers’ poverty.
Secretary, wire General Manager
Slap-it-on to double the freight rates
from Patch-prairie to Minneapolis!”
Better Farming.
Appreciation of Prosperity
HMIȣBBTA ;
H!S T H!CAL !
■2 y V* 'TV
2$ ■ . 2 I i
This Republic was lounded
upon principles which •involved
the Dignity of Labor. To des
troy the power oi Labor is to
construct Caste. A Caste cannot
co-exist with a Republic.
VOL. I, NO. 9
The local papers, and conservative
alliance men dread the approaching
conflict which draws nigh. Old men
remember Lovejoy, Charles Sumner,
John Brown and Kansas wars. Pre
monitions of violent strife are in the
political atmosphere. That the com
ing struggle will be confined to the
political forum is almost certain, but
that it will be bitterly and fiercely
fought, with antagonisms never be
fore equaled in human history, is
equally certain. A base line of oper
ations will extend from Pike's Peak
to the Yellow' Sea—from Brazil to the
Hebrides but the luminous focus
will be on the American ballot box.
Europe listens with alarm to the deep
diapason of unrest, and the profound
utterances of unarmed toil trembles
into speech out from a voiceless past.
It is Labor’s approaching battle.
It is the cry of distress thrown fierce
ly against the Rock of Ages—calling
for its Christ. From caverns of Ig
norance, whence want has crowded
the suffering; from prison houses of
toil where the windows open into a
hopeless future; from the shadows
of despair, where no bright evangel
has spread her wings of Tight; from
the haunts of vice, where the past is
dwelling in the present, and from the
half-closed temple of Justice—will
come the throng. The cry will be:
Unchain!” And when the conflict is
over it will be found that Righteous
ness hath loosed its quiver, and gthe
monster Greed has been stricken.
Let this conflict cpme—it must
come! This rising tide has never
stayed its course, though revolutions
have marked its ebb and flood.
Princeton Union
Railroad Bonuses
Farmers, will ,vou aid us in getting at the
amount paid to railroads in the shape of bonuses’
The roads have declined to publish them in their
sworn reports!—Great West.
The editor of the Union is not a farmer—
although by his own labor he can and does raise
truck of more value on a rood of ground than
some farmers do on a ten ncre field—but we will
endeavor to enlighten the Great W'est as to
railroad bonuses in this vicinity. In March, 1886.
Mr. .Tames J. Hill held a consultation with a dele
gation of Princetonltes, several of whom were
farmers, and made a proposition to build a road
from Elk River, in Sherburne county, via Prince
ton, to Mllaca in Mille Lacs county. His propo
sition was gladly accepted. Mille Lacs county
voted bonds to the amount of $47,000, bearing
interest at the rate of five per cent., due in twenty
years, the town of Baldwin, Sherburne county,
voted $2,700, with the same rate of interest and
due at the same time. The road was built and
completed in December of that year. About the
first of December rtf that year the St. Anthony &
Dakota Elevator Co. commenced buying Wheat
here. In less than three months 110,000 bushels
of wheat were marketed at this point, and at
least :>O,OOO bushels had been sold at other points
that fall—because farmers were obliged to sell
their wheat in order to pay their bills. (Will the *
Morrison County Democrat make a note of this.)
Good prices were paid for wheat here, and there
was no cause of complaint on the part of the
farmers. The railroad also opened up a market
for baled hay, ties, piling, cordwood, etc. Before
the advent of the railroad there was no market
for hardwood of any description at this point.
Farmers could not give cordwood away. Now a
farmer can clear his land and find a ready cash
market for every stick of timber he euth. He
earns good wages in the winter while engaged in
clearing his land and the land, when cleared, is
the most productive in Minnesota. The wheat
crop for the past three years, owing to the unpre
cedented drouth and other causes, has been a
failure. But the railroad is not to blame for that.
There is not a practical business man er farmer
in this vicinity who regrets voting a bonus to the
railroad company. Since the advent of the rail
road land has doubled und trebled in value. We
are not theorizing, we are stating plain fpets—
accomplished results. We speak from personal
experience. We know something of thehardships
farmers endured in hauling their produce over
twenty and thirty miles of long dreary roads to
market. AV e have traveled those roads under a
blistering July sun, and when the thermometer
registered 35 degrees below zero. In many por
tions of the State farmers and business men have
grievances against the railroads that should be
redressed, that no fair-minded man will dispute.
But in this neck o' the woods, railroads have
been our salvation.
It is difficult indeed to reply to the
above. It becomes so necessary in
this day to have railroads that it is
true that people are willing to pay
any price for them! But is this not
the most powerful argument in fa
vor of restricting them in their ra
pacity? Is it not the argument
which editor Dunn would use
against usury—against extortion
under tremendous advantage? Mr.
Dunn says the farmers have received
a good price for Avheat. We are com
pelled to deny this; not from a de
sire to start a fresh point for contro
versy but from the absolute necessities
of the circumstances. It is impossi
ble that they could have had a good
market for their products. If Mr.
Hill has built a road 32 miles long
through Princeton he has saddled
not alone a debt of something like
$50,000 on that section. That is the
visible debt. He has not invested
$320,000 to build that road,' even
with your assistance! He has in
vested nothing. Now don’t say w§
are extreme —we are not. Our effort
is to be fair and reasonable. Mr. Hill
borrowed from the farmers along
this line the sum of nearly one mil
lion dollars—the cost of the 32 miles
as assessed for payment. And the
farmer, on whose credit it is borrow
ed must pay not only the interest,