126 Missouri AORictiLtuRAL REPokf. 



ing to the front? Why are the hayseeds of the past becoming the 

 gentlemen farmers of the ])resent? Because his products feed and clothe 

 the world. Because his products form the basis of manufactured goods. 

 Because the balance of trade is alone kept on the right side of the 

 ledger by the exportation of his products. The transportation com- 

 panies would have to quit business, the railroad stocks would go begging 

 and Wall street would be in sack cloth and ashes, and yet they pinch us 

 and rob us and despoil us. The old adage is indeed a truism, "if the 

 farmer prospers all the world prospers.'' We want the world to pros- 

 per, but fair play is no robbery. All we ask is fair play. We do not 

 want to be held up for all the traffic will bear. We ask that the inter- 

 state commerce commission be given power to regulate rates ; that they 

 may act as umpire between the colossal corporation and the smallest 

 shipper. If we ask for bread they will give us a stone, but if we de- 

 mand it as our right, and insist on our rights, the gentleman farmer will 

 get theim. From 1888 to 1898 the commissioners exercised the right as 

 they understood the law to enforce their decisions, but some shrewd cor- 

 poration lawyer brought a test case before the Supreme Court and our 

 highest tribunal decided against the commissioners and the people and 

 for the railroads. Since then the connnissioncrs have been powerless, 

 only to suggest, and it leaves the people at the mercy of the railroads, 

 and although, as ex-Governor Larabee says, the people have paid tril)ute 

 to the railroads above a legitimate price, to make the jjcople the virtual 

 owners of the roads, and we believe this statement is true, for tlie rail- 

 roads have ever and always issued bonds to build the roads, at a rate 

 of interest that insured the selling of die bonds for cash, with which 

 they built the roads and bought rolling stock. The excessive tribute 

 wrested from the people has paid the bonds, and the roads have_ re- 

 capitalized their stock, or in comiuion parlance, watered their stock four- 

 fold beyond its actual cost, and the end is not yet. But some niay not 

 think this a legitimate subject for the President of the Missouri Fine 

 Stock Breeders' Association, but the whys and wherefores of the unpre- 

 cedented fall in pedigreed cattle leads us to seek the cause, and to demand 

 a remedy. We have been hewers of wood and drawers of water in the 

 years agonQ. Now we demand ecjual rights for all, especial privileges 

 to none. 



The corn growers have been entertiiining and instructing us. A 

 clipping from an article by Prof. B. T. Galloway, chief of the bureau 

 of plant industry in the Youth's Companion. The article was on In- 

 tensive Farming, and speaking of openings fi^r young men claims the 

 raising of seed corn the most promising. To quote him, there are an- 

 nually raised abotit two and a half billion bushels of corn in this country, 



