OPERATIONS OF RAILROAD RINGS. W7 



even partially organized, these lesser combinations would b$ 

 impossible. 



FARMERS TROUBLES OF MODERN GROWTH. 



Up to the breaking out of the war, these grievances were 

 principally confined to the exactions of local dealers, and the 

 commission men at the distributing point, or, as they were 

 called, middle men. During the war, and, more especially 

 since then, a variety of schemes to centralize capital for the 

 purpose of fictitiously lowering or increasing values, has led 

 to gigantic combinations, which have always tended to enrich 

 the wealthy and impoverish the poor. While these combi 

 nations have operated against all classes, the farmers have 

 been the greatest sufferers, and especially those of the West, 

 since, from the nature of the situation, and the limited 

 amount of manufactures, they have been compelled to sell their 

 produce in foreign markets. 



Lands were granted by the government, in the most 

 wholesale manner, toward the building of railroads in every 

 direction. Combinations and consolidations were formed, 

 stocks were watered, the Credit Mobilier was put in opera 

 tion. At last, the fact was painfully unearthed that even 

 some of our most eminent statesmen (without respect to 

 party, and men who had been heretofore regarded as of the 

 strictest integrity) had become implicated. As to the rank 

 and file of mere politicians, that class was always rotten to 

 the core ; they always lived on corruption, and they expected 

 always to do so. 



OPERATIONS OF RAILROAD RINGS. 



(Railroad combinations and consolidations were formed, 

 operated by a few individuals in Wall Street, who virtually 



