LEGAL ADVISE TO FARMERS. 19 



the power to fix the compensation of railroads for the transportation of your 

 farm products to the markets of the world; you, the farmers of this country, 

 are all po^^erful if you did but know your strength. The total vote of the 

 United States in 1880 was less than 10,000,000. The number of farmers in the 

 United States are nearly five millions. You are in the majority, and if you 

 unite you can make and uumake the lawmakers. Now, the commerce between 

 the several States can only be regulated by Congress. The Legislatures of the 

 several States have no power outside of their jurisdictions as a State, "^he laws 

 of this State may fix the rates of freight and the rates of passage on all rail- 

 roads within the State, but no further. But Congress can fix the rates of 

 freight over all the railroads in the Union. You make Congressmen, and they 

 make the laws respecting railroads. The railroads are owned and controlled by 

 corporations created by the statute. The power to create corporations is con- 

 ferred by the people upon Congress and the Legislature. The poAver to pre- 

 vent unjust discrimination in freights between different points, and to establish 

 the rates of freight for the transportation of your grain and other products is 

 "with the farmers of this Nation. A fair share of the profits of your farm 

 should be shared by the capitalists, who have built and now own and control 

 these railroads, which form the connecting link between the east and west. 

 They have aided the people in opening up this great western country, and mak- 

 ing this country the greatest producer of the cereals of any nation on earth, 

 and capital should have its just proportion of the profits. Let us see what 

 share they have taken. Within the last twenty years the railroad corporations 

 that built the railroads connecting the east and the west have been absorbed 

 and consolidated, the weaker being swallowed up by the stronger, until all the 

 leading lines are now held and controlled by a few men. Such fortunes, as 

 were never before known to have been made in one generation, have been accu- 

 mulated by men like Gould and Vanderbilt, in the manipulation of railroad 

 stocks. It is not for the interest of the future of this Nation that a fortune of 

 three hundred millions is accumulated by a father and son in one generation ; 

 neither is it in the interest of the people that our entire system of railroads 

 should be owned and controlled by one man. It is not in the interest of farm- 

 ers that these men should have absolute and unlimited control of the railroads, 

 and thereby be able, as they now are, to fix the price of your wheat and other 

 farm products. The farms of the great west have a right to demand cheap 

 transportation to the seaports of the Atlantic. If the farmers unite in this 

 demand they will be heeded. You hold the ballot; you can elect those men to 

 represent you who will work in your interest. In this age and under our pres- 

 ent system of Government, all evils can be corrected by the ballot. The future 

 of this country is in the hands of the farmers. In the struggle between labor 



»- DO 



and capital the farmers of this country are the arbitrators. They will see that 

 safeguards are thrown around to protect labor from any injustice or oppression, 

 and in like manner they will guard instinctively all rights of property, both 

 real and personal. They will see that every man shall be permitted to use and 

 control what he has honestly acquired by the use of his capital, or by his own 

 mental or physical labor Cooperation between capital and labor, by which 

 each shall get its fair proportion of the profits, is just and right. The conflict 

 between labor and capital, resulting in public riots and labor strikes, in the 

 manufacturing cities in this country, is a matter of great regret and anxiety to 

 all thinking men. There is an element in our society, not native born, but 

 brought from the oppressed classes of Europe, that seeks to overthrow our free 

 institutions and abolish all rights in property. These socialists and commun- 



