The great West. [volume], December 20, 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
IS PUBLISHED FRIDAYS AT
788 WABASHA St., St. PAUL,
. BY THE
Great West Company.
SI.OO A YEAR IN ADVANCE
A FIRST-CLASS SHRIEK.
A WAIL OF WOE, IT GRIEVES US
SO-OUR
CAKE IS DOUGH.
The New York Financier, a bank
ing and monetary journal of large
influence and circulation, came to
our table last week and lo! We dis
covered that the Farmer had at last
driven a sharp tack into the monop
olist. Silence and division has been
their method of operation so long
that the warlike breath of the plu
tocrat struck us like a cyclone of
onions. The “Financier” opens up
a ten column article as follows:
A MONSTROUS WRONG THAT THREAT-
ENS WITH ANNIHILATION NOT ONLY
OUR INVESTMENT PUBLIC, BUT COR-
PORATIONS AND LARGE ENTERPRISES
OF EVERY CHARACTER
It is high time our business public
awakes to a realization of a danger
that is steadily growing to the pro
portions of an overwhelming panic.
A few foresee this great threatening
evil, foresee consequences that mean
disaster, poverty and ruin, if some
open and decided stand is not at
once taken against the ignorant in
terference of law-making bodies and
court interpretations of insane jus
tice.
Of all trusts, that of the law, as
rendered in these instances, is the
most mischievous and pronounced.
No trust, as the word is used, in
existence ever yet dreamed of such
oppressions as the law is now put
ting in foi-ce under the plea that
trusts must be suppressed.
For the facts in support of this
statement read what follows:
“St. Louis, Mo.—The charters of
700 Missouri corporations and 200
foreign corporations doing business
in Missouri have been revoked by Sec
retary of State Leasurer for refusing
to comply with the anti-trust law.
Of the 900 revoked at least half
have already ceased to exist.”
The above dispatch outlines
enough for the merchants of New
York and elsewhere to call a mass
meeting for the purpose of crying out
to our courts and legislators
“Halt!”
Among the corporations who have
thus been literally robbed of all pos
sibility of doing any more business
in that State are: The Seth Thomas
Clock Co., Western Associated Press,
J. I. Case Plow Co., Westinghouse
Electric Light Co., Michigan Salt
Association, in fact 900 of the great
est businesses in the State.
And to heighten these idiotic acts
that deprive Missouri of her greatest
resources and wealth producing
power, the honorable Secretary of
that State, in communicating on the
matter, adds:
“One good effect of the law will be
that an immense amount of rubbish
will be taken out of the archives of
the State.”
No words of ours can increase an
alarm such as language of this char
acter is likely to give. Especially
wheii the authoritative source of
their expression is remembered.
But we are deeply astonished at
the apathy of our merchants and the
continued asinine comments of many
of our newspapers, concerning which
the following, taken from the N. Y.
Herald is an example:
“Trusts contain in themselves the
elements of their own destruction.
They were organized to suspend the
law of competition and grind the
faces of the poor. As their stocks
dwindle and collapse on the market
the public will shed no tears.”
Evidently so think the courts and
legislators of Missouri, and they lit
erally order the business community
out of the State under the plea that
no man has a right to buy and sell
at prices that accord with their own
idea of what proper returns should
be obtained on their investment.
For him to assert such a right.—
which is the first principal of business
—he makes himself a monopolist;
consequently the court reads, “he
must be suppressed.”
Yes, Mr. Five-per-cent-a-month—it
must be suppressed. Your complaint
is our platform—we are glad you un
derstand it. We work on that prin
ciple : That no set of men shall buy
and sell —or force others to —on
“prices that, accord with their idea of
what proper returns should be.” We
propose that if you say “supply and
demand” is good enough logic for
labor—for wheat—it shall be good
enough for the plutocrat, or the
manufacturer. When the wheat ring
will permit a body of operative farm
ers to dictate the price of grain we
will allow you to dictate the price of
stoves or sugar!
The “Financier” goes on to say:
The trouble is with all this class of
people, they have raked out from the
Representing the Financial and Political Interests of the Fanners of the Northwest.
rubbish of the past something like
this;
“The first principle of common
law as has been expounded ever since
the days of Lord Coke, is whatever
tends to prevent competition between
those engaged in a public employ
ment and thus to create a virtual
monopoly was detrimental to the
public interest and therefore against
public policy.”
Such has evJr been the opinion of
oligarchical government; but is that
any reason it should be recommended
in free America ?
To say yes, means a stoppage of
all business, a stoppage of that which
gives a living to our people. It is a
declaration of piracy, the robbery of
a man’s property, because he pre
tends to put what he considers a pru
dent price on what he has for sale.
Oh yes, mister, you may put what
price you choose on yourgoods—two
prices if you choose! But you shall
not put the price on other people’s
goods of the same class if va can
help it. Nor shall you delegate the
right to put a price on your goods
in conspiracy with others.
All business is monopoly, that is
what men work for, for the profit
that monopoly gives them. No man
will invest capital in an undertaking
that he thinks he cannot control. In
some instances that monopoly con
sists in better goods; others in
cheaper cost of production; others
that no other house has similar
goods for sale; others some feature
of excellence in the method of dis
tribution, etc., etc. In fact if a mer
chant has absolutely no monopolis
tic feature about the goods he has
for sale he will surely get ingloriously
“left.”
Gentlemen, you have the issue
put here. As to whether
this “fellow” puts the thing with or
dinary goose-sense we will not say;
but it reads to us like the gibble
gabble of a demented person. How
does it sound to you ?
Gen’l. Baker in the Arena
The Gen’l is gett.ng aroused—and
when the orator gets the blaze of
enthusiasm fairly lighted no ordin
ary blast will extinguish it. The
State Dairy convention has been held
of late at Mankato. President Bush
nell, President of the State Fair As
sociation, sent a paper to be read at
the convention. Gen’l Baker read
the paper sitting in a chair. His in
jui-ed limb would not permit him to
stand. We quote from a Minneapo
lis daily:
After speaking of the state’s agri
cultural development, the paper went
on at considerable length with such
evident enthusiasm over the magnifi
cent growth of St. Paul and of the
many advantages that city possess
ed for commerce, etc. Little or
nothing was said of the dairying in
terests, and the general tenor of the
peech struck the convention as an
attempt to glorify St. Paul. The
speech was not will received on this
account. As soon as he had finished
reading the manuscript, Gen. Baker
sprung to his feet (his recent injuries
forced him to remain seated while
reading) and made a telling speech
with all the fire of youth, repudiating
the sentiments which he had just read
and declared that the splendid edifices
in the Twin Cities had been erected
by the sweat wrung from a hundred
thousand farmers who had made it
possible for the cities to be what
they are. What are the cities doing in
return? he asked. Nothing and the
great dailies are doing nothing;
their columns are instead filled with
base ball and corridor swash.
“We have left the country and agri
cultural paper, however, which are
fighting our battles nobly.” (A
voice shouted “some of them.”) He
stated that farmers, of all classes, are
not prospering. The English capital
ists were buying up our breweries,
our mills, etc., but not one dollar
goes into farms. I say nothing
about the railroads in search for the
cause of this. We farmers must band
together and sweep down monopolies
and trusts and cause the politician
to bow to our wishes. We must
stand for our own interests, for no
one else will help us—the cities and
the dailies won’t. There must be
something the matter when a man
offers me but a cent a pound for my
beef. Great God! I -would draw a
shotgun on him were it not for the
law. We farmers must do something
to keep from reaching the low level of
European peasants.
This speech was frequently inter
rupted by applause.
Others followed Gen’l Baker in the
same torrid latitude of thought.
Finally Jared Benson, who is old
enough to know better, arose and
set things back a mile or two.
His speech came as the phantom of a
year ago. It affeeted no one. The
truth of what Gen’l Baker and others
had said was not only apparent to
the audience, but to every farmer in
the state.
The Great West
ST. PAUL, MINN., FRIDAY. DEC. 20. 1889,
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 bounty, Township or City in
the State. Will the Alliances please take up this matter offi
cially—at earliest possible moment.
Let each one write personally, too; several reports from
same section will be all the better.
FROM OHIO’S BANNER REPUBLICAN COUNTY.
A private letter written from the banner republican county of
Ohio, that which.produced Joshua R. Giddings and Benjamin F.
Wade, throws a flood of light on the condition of the farmers of
that fertlie country:
“The farmers are all distracted hereabouts. They can’t sell
enough of anything to pay taxes. Cattle have not been so low
and so little in demand for forty years. My farm is an elephant on
my hands, and a sickly pachyderm at that. Although I have
plenty of feed, I sometimes think ft would be cheaper to give my
cattle away than to winter them, but I shall keep them to increase
the compost heap, so dear to the farmer’s heart, which will turn
my elephant into a garden next summer. If I have good luck I
may then be able to sell out, but I shall be glad to sell for a third
of what I refused a few years ago. Wherever Igo I hear com
plaints of the scarcity of money among farmers. One farm under
splendid cultivation, just two milefe from town and only forty rods
from the railroad tracks, was recently sold for sl4 an acre, although
it was purchased not long ago for $45 an acre. Where is this to
end?”
The Awful Carnage
2,000 KILLED AND 20,000 INJURED IN
Many people will read the following
extract from the President’s message
with great surprise. The figures
startled us, though familiar with the
agitation which has brought forth
the facts. During the past year, June
30 to June 30, two thousand railway
employes were killed —and 20,000 in
jured .
The President says:
The attention of the Interstate
Commerce commisssion has been
called to the urgent need of con
gressional legislation for the better
protection of the lives and limbs of
those engaged in operating the great
interstate freight lines of the coun
try, and especially of the yardmen
and brakemen. A petition signed by
10,000 railway brakemen was pre
sented to the commission, asking
that steps be taken to bring about
the use of automatic brakes and
couplings on freight cars. At a meet
ing of State Railroad Commissioners
and their accredited representatives,
held at Washington in March last,
upon the invitation of the Interstate
Commerce Commission, a resolution
w r as unanimously adopted urging
the commission “to consider what
can be done to prevent the loss of life
and limb in coupling and uncoupling
freight cars, and in handling the
brakes of such cars.” During the
year ending June, 30.1888, over 2,-
000 Railroad employes were killed in
the service and more than 20,000
injured. It is competent, I think, for
congress to require uniformity in the
construction of cars used in inter
state commerce, and the use of im
proved safety appliances upon such
trains. Time will be needed to make
the needed changes, but an earnest
and intelligent beginning should be
made at once. It is a reproach to
our civilization that any class of
American w r orkmen, in the pursuit of
a necessary and useful vocation, be
subjected to peril to life and limb as
great as that of a soldier in time of
war.
Now these facts should have been
known before. But now that they
are known it will cause a thrill of
horror over the whole land. How
long has this been going on?. In the
midst of this discovery which makes
JohnstoMp floods recede in the dim
shadows, and yellow fever epidemics
pale their fevered lights—we find the
bondholder’s organ staying the pub
lic hand in its effort to right so griev
ous a wrong. In the N. W. Railroader
of Dec. 6th, referring to this matter,
H. P. Robinson, it says—
“ Will be taken up by the press and
the politicians all over the country,
who will be less well-considered in
their utterance. The results will be
—there can be no question about it
—that the railroad companies will
find themselves subjected to such
pressure as cannot be withstood.”
“Subjected to such pressure!”—
that they will be compelled to do
their duty—to stay the loss 2,000
Rather Hard on the Farmers.
RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED TO THE RENVILLE UNION
ONE YEAR!
THE GREAT WEST.
lives and 20,000 limbs or members
annually! And yet safety appliances
have been urged upon the railroads
for fifteen years! Of what kind of
gristle is this man’s heart made of?
Think you the widowed and orphan
ed procession—wives and babes—for
they are young men—will object to
the pressure of justice?
But still worse and more heartless
*> he says “such pressure that it can
not be withstood 1 ”
Good God, are corporations, then,
so soulless that they withstand
pressure in order to keep up a
slaughter so extraordinary in extent ?
This, indeed, is a revelation!
Robinson says again:
“The danger, of course, is that the
public will see only one side of the
case, and not understanding the diffi
culties and dangers which lie in
the path of reform, will force upon
the railroads such hasty action as
will be disastrous to the companies,
their employes and the public alike.”
And this is a hypocrite who calls
the anti-monopoly agitator a “dem
agogue!” The only “difficulties and
dangers” are that the 7 billions of
interest drawing bondage and stock
age would have to use a small per
centage to put on different brakes
and couplings.
FOR FIFTEEN YEARS THIS SLAUGHTER
has been going on, and yet to-day
every shop in the world is turning
out the same old death dealing
freight car! Nor would the railways
change their course until the graves
of their half-paid employes lay side
ways from the Narrows to the Golden
Gate. “Disastrous to the compan
ies” is good!—but “disastrous to em
ployes” is better—if the. contempla
tion of the horrible can have com
parison ! —for it can scarcely be more
dangerous to employes than to kill
2,000, and maim 20,000 annually.
And yet, Robinson discovers some
thing wrong about his friends; or
else he strangely “gives them away!”
For, in his closing article he emits the
following tell-tale language:
“The time has come when the Rail
roads must move, and the more will
ingly they move and the better grace
they show in doing it, the less will be
the danger of extreme legislative ac
tion against them.”
Why this assumption of heartless
laxity in the matter! Why the urg
ency for “better grace?” Better
than what grace? Why, Robinson,
you at least imply that the Vander
bilts of America have hitherto been
heartless—look out for your stipend,
sir!
The Prohibitionists of lowa have
called a political convention to meet
at Des Moines a week before the leg
islature assembles. They propose to
throw a lie squarely down the throat
of thejplutocrat—who has said that
the recent defeat was brought about
by the temperance issue, to hide their
own cloven hoofs.
-T- f\
THE WARNING VOICE.
Editor Lorraine Gives us a
Nut to Crack, and it is
Promptly Cracked.
A Sample Right of Way.
At precisely the same hour that the
Great West was writing up the
gang-inspired editor of the Renville
Union, that genius was inditing the
following:
We hardly wish to warn our read
ers against a newspaper, but occas
ionally circumstances require it; and
we think the circumstances require
that farmers should be warned
against ‘‘The Great West,” a paper
recently started in St. Paul, pretend
ing to champion the cause of farmers,
but in reality working through the
most gross falsehoods to make
farmers miserable, and in no way
aiming to better their condition. We
are also sorry to learn that it is try
ing to usurp the leadership of the
Farmers’ Alliance of the State, and
if it does, good bye to the benefits of
that organization. This is another
reason for warning against it. We
find in it columns about the cost of
building railroads but not a word
about farm buildings; volumes
about elevator profits but not a syl
lable about how to increase the prof
its of the farm. Even this might be
overlooked if the truth was told re
garding the railroads and elevators,
but the editor knows as little about
this as he does about farjning, and
his lies should be rebuked. As an ex
ample, it gave the price of wheat in
Minneapolis as 85 cents when the
true price was 74 cents; and the lo
cal price as 65 cents when buyers
were paying 68 cents, and thus by
pure falsehood, makes the difference
in the markets 20 cents when in truth
the difference is but 6 cts. Again,
last week they pretended to itemize
the cost of building the W. & St.
P. railroad, and put the item of right
of way as “not one-half of SIOO per
mile.” A spur track is being built by
that company, 2 % miles from Kasson
to Mantorville in Dodge county. The
right of way costs them $2,650.00,
or about one thousand dollars a mile.
This is an authentic item, while that
is the Great West is simply a
“Fish” story. The whole aim of the
paper appears to be to stir up dis
content, and try to make farmers be
lieve they are being robbed by rail
road and elevator men when it is on
!y the Great West that is after their
dollars. Its one redeeming feature is
the plate matter of the inside pages.
—Renville Union.
[Since receiving this precious exhi
bition of servility and fraud, we have
undertaken to ascertain the facts in
the matter of the right-of-way on the
Mantorville “spur.” If the figures of
the Renville Union man are correct
($2,650) the railway does not pay
one solitary cent for the right of -way,
and the statement is a twenty-six
hundred dollar falsehood! But the
figures are not correct. The right-of
way was valued at $3,200. Then the
“bonus” of Mantorville -was $2,700 —
which comes from the village as a
whole. The other SSOO doubtless
represents right-of-w r ay grants from
property-owners. The entire right
of-way is either village property, or
subdivisions.]
[Since writing the above facts, ob
tained from village officials of Man
torville, we have received other facts
—showing that not only did the
right-of-way cost the railroad noth
ing—but the town actually paid
more bonus than the $3,250. We pub
lish a letter from one of the village
officials]:
Mantorville, Minn., Dec. 15, ’B9.
Great West Printing Co.:
Gentlemen :
Yours of the 11th inst., at hand
and noted. The right of way from
Kaseon to our Town cost $300,50
without condemnation costs which
were about S2OO working a total of
$3,250. The Town of Mantorville
pays the right of way and gives 10
acres of gravel bed as an inducement
for the building of the spur.
Good farms are worth about $lB
to S2O an acre, between the tw r o
places. Yours Respectfully.
The above delicate reminder that
the Great West flayed this reptile
three weeks since, till his hide was
lurid, is very picturesque—no,
Romanesque!
Brave Roman —here him, “We are
also sorry to learn that he is trying
to usurp the leadership, etc.” Oh,
don’t, Mr. , (we never knew r
what this mule's “call” was) don’t
weep those crystal tears over our
ambition! Wipe your nose and dry
out your ears!
“We find in it columns, etc., but
not a syllable about how to increase
the profits of the farm !” Come upon
our knee bub, and we’ll tell you all
about it. The Great West is not
an agricultural journal. Its editor
don’t know a squash from a Renville
Co. editor! But it knows a knave
and a fool on the first introduction.
We leave the fertilizing for the long
eared genius at Bird Island.
The wheat price stuff is trash: The
This Republic was lourided
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.
statement made about 84c. and 20c.
is a lie. Our quotations are all cor
rect. Bird Island isn’t the world.
The sooner their editor travels the
sooner he will discover this truth.
We put the cost of the right of
way in railroad building at SIOO a
mile. That is twice what it has cost
the railroads of Minnesota. He
brings up an instance of a “spur
track from Kasson to Alantorville,
miles, as costing $2,650 for right
of way. And this little “spur” goes
through tow n property and splendid
farms—tw’o little cities closing in up
on one another, with terminal at
Mantorville! The editor who would
apply that, lie as it is, to the general
cost of railroad building, is a scurvy
knave. SIOO a mile for right of way
is $8 an acre. Of the 4,871, miles o
railroad in this state 2,480 were built
tin ough trackless regions where even
fences w'ere scarce. Along the tracks
of one thousand miles to-day farm
fences are a minus quantity. It is
easy to estimate the value of land
along the right of w ay. The entire
mileage of the state to-day will not
average over $8 an acre—and hun
dreds of miles have been given freely
especially by the government and
state. SSO a mile for the right of way
for railways is an abundant es
timate.
On the Winona & St. Peter the
bonuses fully paid the right of way
expense.
The statement that we try to stir
up discontent among the farmers is
the only truth in the above childish
comment.
Come up, Union, come up! Come
up higher, where there is some no
bility in effort—where humanity will
own you as one of her ow n—and get
out of that miserable gang of thieves
who are oppressing the poor and be
traying the country. Grow bigger
just now we take you to be one of the
smallest, meanest and most con
temptible lilliputstliat ever struggled
w’ith a milk-bottle.
The Editor of the Renville Union
takes note of the fine-haired adjec
tives w hich we have applied to him.
If there is any more profound and
laudable language in w hich to em
balm this w retch we wall pay for its
temporary use. A man w-ho will de
liberately lie to draw down his strug
gling fellow men, and push them fur
ther under heavy burdens, has no
claim on the language which passes
between gentlemen. If he is not the
thing we name him, let him turn on
the lights.
As to Mr. Donnelly and the Great
West, that honored gentleman has
notone penny’s interest in this pa
per, writes no editorials— never has
BEEN AN EDITORIAL CONTRIBUTOR
FOR IT— has not been in the office exj
cept as an occasional visitor—and
only aids us in alliance news at the
request of Everett W. Fish, the edi
tor. Dr. Fish is able to back up and de
fend the use of any language that has
ever been offered in this paper. And
we will state, once for all, that when
we discover a thief, a puppy, or a
demagogue, we will exercise the same
liberty of description used by other
“political” papers.
It is convincing that a considerable
portion of the papers of the West
are yet tools of a partyism more
profound than patriotism, when they
slaver over Sen. Washburn. They
know well that he issued $17,000,000
of water-bonds just before his elec
tion, representing an investment of
13&c. on the dollar! And when they
draw interest they suck from the
public arteries 50 per cent, a year.
He is a man who has wrecked every
enterprise he went into, or at least
appears to have done so. Perhaps
Mr. Staples, of Stillwater, could
throw more light upon it. And yet
when party said “jump,” the great
commonwealth Jack jumped, and Mr.
Washburn caught on, and was flop
ped into the Senaf#. The common
wealth is tired playing Jack, and will
perhaps refuse to jump at the bidding
of party hereafter; and the press
which toadies to the useless element
of society will be without a constitu
ency.
It is one of the marvels of civiliza
tion that the educated mind is hard
ened to evil. Evil loses its terrors in
a mind which begins to reason!
How this can ever be remedied is a
matter of doubt. There is. however,
one avenue of escape from quiescence
in the presence of wrong—and that
is by the destruction of human self
ishness. This can never be accom
plished under the present system,
and hope can only lean upon the
wonderful surprises of the current
epoch! If, in accordance with Bel
lamy's book, the dream of the Na
tionalist could be realized, there
would of course be no greed—no self
ishness.
Then wrong would be hated be-
VOL. I, NO. lO