The Nelson Evening Mail. THURSDAY, MARCH 19, 1874.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume IX, Issue 67, 19 March 1874, Page 2

The Nelson Evening Mail. THURSDAY, MARCH 19, 1874.

[ In the Cornhill Magazine of November [last there appeared an article oh L " Grangoa and Farmers* Clubs in

America " which we have perused with so, much interest that we venture to think a short summary of it. will hot be unacceptable to dur readers. It appears that forviaome years past an agitation has beßJoivsprepiog among -the farpbers of the Western States of the American Union that has now assumed proportions themost imposing, and bas recently disphyed its power in a most astonishing manner. . , "The Chief- Justice of the Supreme Court of the -tate of Illirois displeased tbe farmer 1 of the State by a judicial deci?i' n. It wr.s rot pretended that the decision was contrary to law, or protnptel by unworthy motives. It was pimply distasteful to the farmers, an' they resolved to unseat the Chief Justice for rendering it As it happened, his tenure of office was on the point of expiring, snd thej accordingly .looked oufc for a. candidate to oppose to him. It "was not easy to fin I one. The Chief Justice was widely respected perronatly, and he had presided wi'h dignity over the highest cor t of the Stato. Besides ii was felt by everyone not Winded by partisanship, that the courte Jhe . farmers were about to embarkin was one destructive of the independence of Bar and Bench alike, and therefore fraught with peril to the hest interests of the community. The farmers, however, persisted; th*y found a candidate, and they seated him on the Bench in place of the obnoxious Chief Jutt'ce. There cor'd no longer he a doubt tbat they were in earnest j nor tliat, unless they coti'd be managed or pacified, every institution ' \ the land was at their mercy." Now what had incited the farmers to such an act as this ? We will give the explanation os briefly ns possible. A little more thsn a century ago the vast region that stretches south of the British provinces between Lake Michigan on the east and the Rocky Mountains on the weet, aud covers an area exceeding in size that of Germany, Austria, and Frauce, was au almost, unknown wilderness. But the potato famine in Ireland, and the collapse of the revolutionary movement ou the Continent iu 1848, sent hundreds upon hundreds of thousands across the Atlantic ia search of new homes. The hardier and bolder spirits pushod on into the interior, and gradually carried civilization farther and farther into the wilderness. The soil was magnificently fertile, and yielded plentiful harvests, but these failed to make the farmers rich, for there was no market for their produce. So they must have railways They cared not how they got them. Without capital themselves they eaid to those who had, Name your own • terms, but construct railways for us. They were taken at their word. They went to New York, LondoD, and Frankfort for loans, and these were advanced on the security of State, county, towD, village, and hamlet taxes, while in many instances Congrees gave immense grants of land to tbe railway companies. The grants and subsidies were followed by charters, which practically allowed the companies to charge what fares they pleased, and generally to do what they liked with the lines. A railway mania set in, lasted a short time, and then ended in a crash. The Stato had no power of interference, the shares ceased to be owned by Western residents, and the [farmers saw themselves without any means of controlling the lines they had built with so many sacrifices. While the high prices of the war continued, tbey cared little, but soon agricultural produce fell in value, the high protective tariff kept up the price of manufactured goods, the inconvertible paper currency caused an artificial scarcity of money, taxation of all kinds had increased exorbitantly, and .the end was that the special taxation they had imposed on themselves became intolerable. Some of the towns and counties attempted repudiation, and this led to litigation which iu most instances was adverse to the repudiates. WeU might the Western farmers be disappointed at the effect of railway extension, for it waß indeed a novel and an unexpected one. It seemed only to increase competition among the corn growers w ithout sensibly reducing tbo glut of produce. Tho railways opened up vast regicus before inaccessible, and population poured in, all engaged in the same pursuit — that of farming. To those already residing there every new settler was a competitor, whose industry kept down the price of meat and grain. Moreover, marvellous as was the increase of population, it was still only about a tenth part of that of the three countries — Germany, Austria, and France — to which this region has been compared in size, and as so sparse a population was not one to give rise to a very profitable railway trafiic the railways of course had to impose heavy charges. And tben the ''{rings" got to work. They use the lines for their their own personal purposes, and one of their commonest practices is to " water the stock," in other words, to issue fictitious shares, which represent no capital, and have never been paid for, but upon which they and their accomplices receive dividends. Buf, besides this, the "rings" are in alliance with the corn-dealers whom they favor with facilities as well as reduced chorges which thoy deny to tho farmers who are taxed to support the lines. There is still another circumstauce which adds very considerably to the exceesive cost. 'Ihe high protective tariff raises tho price of every article uaed in the construction and the working of a railway, and therefore increases the fares charged on the goods the farmer sends.to market, as well as those he fetches home: it increases the price of these latter goods— his |tea coffee, BUgar, clothing, and the like; and lastly it increases the price of his farmj implements. Thus, while the tariff adds to the cost of carriage, and thereby reduces the price of stock and grain, it raises the cost.of. working his farm, as well as of everything the farmer buys, and therefore in both ways makes him poorer. The tale of tbe farmer's grievances against the railways is not yet complete. It is notorious that the "rings"

are in lhe habit of bribing the State legislatures wholesale, aud of retaining judges to issue injunctions whon needed, just as railway companies in England retain counsel, and so it happens that the western farmars Bt?e special laws passed for the assessment of railways at merely nominal sums, whilo their own farms are as3ess* d at their utmost value. .From the above, the causes of the costliness of carriage will be perfectly intelligible, and it must be remembered that to the farmers in the Wt stern districts costliness of carriage means poverty in the midst of abundance. From the last American census it appears that both in lowa and Illinois a very large proportion of the population : is engaged in agriculture; it may be eaid indeed that every family has. a member who thus obtains his. living, and lhe population being almost exclusively agricultural, it must goabfoad to find a market for its surplus produce, and if this be not found, it must'- go without most of the comforts and conviences, as well as the luxuries of life. The complete remedy for the farmer's grievances would, of course, be the growth of a large populatiou Dot occupied in agriculture, but this has not yet happened, though somo day it probably will. till in the meantime, tho farmer is sinking hopelessly into debt with a superabundance of ail the necessities of life around him while he is aware that multitudes in Europe are in want of the food he finds himself unable to dispose of. What wonder, then, if he turns angrily upon the rail ways,from wbich he naturally exoeeted so entirely different a state of things. 7 i the northern part of Illinois, he finds that it costs him three bushels of co.n to get one to market. '1 he result is that he barely {-ets back what he has actually expended in growing the corn, but he receives no payment for carriage; ho obtains no interest on the price of his farm ; no profit out of which to make good the wear and tear of machinery; and no money to pay his taxes. ' One forenoon,' says ibe leader of the farmers' movement in II inijs. ' a farmer w- nt past here with a load of sixty bushels of corn. He paid that he had come a long distance; bnd started at four o'clock in the morning. As he returned in the afternoon, I asked him how much ho had got for his load. He held up two pairs of boys' boots, and said that his sixty bushels of corn and a dollar " i cash had just purchased them.' The < ase of the lowa farmer is no better. A corn broker in New York wrhes to one of the papers in that city, that five truck loads of maize had been consigned to him from Jowa. It was cf prime quality, and fetched the highest price — 2s 4d per bushe l . The cost of carriage from lowa to New York was 2s. The con? ignor, therefore, received just 4 d per bushel. In other words, the railways received for carrying the corn from lowa to New York (xicily eix times as much as the farmer who grew it. It i-3 not surprising, therefore, that these farmer-* are unable to d'spose of the greater part of their crops, and tint they find it more economical to burn their corn as fuel than to buy coal or wood, The rosult is that they are becoming hopelessly encumbered. ' The majority of the farmers of this state,' s»ys their leader in Illinois, ' have hard work to support their families. Yeur; by ypar new mortgages are given to pay new debts, and it is the exception rather than thc rule for a farmer to be saving anything. At least one half of the farms in this part of the State are mortgaged for money borrowed at ten p-T cct interest, and the majority of them will never be redeemed.' The same correspondent observes of lowa : — ' No one can ride across this State without observing, even from the window of a railway car, a painful contrast between the richness of the fields and the poverty of many of the houses. I don't believe there ia a better farming country in the world than the Des Moines Valley, with its beautiful rolling prairie lands, and it everywhere shows the evidence of good culture. And yet the owners of these farms live too often in cramped-up houses, unattractive, in many cases uncom or. ablo houses.' Here, again, protection and the political corruption which prevails in the United States come to the disadvantage of the farmers. To encourage banking, bankers are permitted to retain aa reserve Government bonds which bear interest at six per cent; they are paid, that is, for nsing the public money in their own bnsiness. Out in the West needy accomplices of the " rings " iu -power are fond of obtaining bank charters, and with them deposits of bonds. And they use the public money thus advanced in lending it to the farmers at an interct, as we have just said, of ten por cent." We have devoted so much space to describing the grievances of these farmers, that we must defer until tomorrow the account of the meaas they are adopting to remedy them.