VOICE OF THE PRESS. 81 



quarter per cent, more per montli than they ask on city loans; 

 thus still adhering to the suicidal policy of crippling the indus 

 try which lies at the foundation of the prosperity of other in 

 dustries and of the State. 



&quot;This discrimination of the banks and moneyed men against 

 the agricultural industries, is as unjust to the farmer as it is un 

 wise in those who practice it. It induces or compels a forced 

 system of cultivation without proper fertilization of the land. 

 It prevents necessary improvements, without which the country 

 cannot possess the appearance or reality of thrift. It compels 

 the farmer to sell his grain at w r hatever he can get for it, thus 

 throwing him into the clutches of another class of sharpers. 

 The grain buyers conspire together to form rings and corners to 

 catch the producer in a tight place and rob him of his crop or. 

 at least, of his legitimate profits thereon. It is a common re 

 mark in this country, that the price of grain is kept down after 

 each harvest until after the bulk of it has passed out of the 

 hands of the producers, and then, by combinations of the buy 

 ers, forced up to an illegitimate price, thus forcing from the 

 consumers the common laborers, mechanics and manufactur 

 ers of the State an improper proportion of their wages and 

 profits for the staple articles of life, and at the same time dis 

 couraging the introduction and success of manufacturing indus 

 tries, upon which, and the additional consumers they would 

 bring, the producers must depend for their home market the 

 most profitable and reliable market in any country. 



&quot;It would seem as though we had named difficulties enough, 

 with which farmers are beset, to arouse them to united action 

 for the purpose of breaking the chains which bind them down, 

 but there are still others, compared to which those enumerated 

 are but trifles. Chief among these is the freigl&jmwwpoly^ 

 The whole carrying trade of the State is now virtually in the 

 hands of one company. Whether it shall cost the farmers of 

 the State one sixteenth, one eighth, one fourth or one half the 

 value of their crops to move them to market, is absolutely at 

 the discretion of an organization which has absorbed all the 

 railroads and all the steamboat routes of the State. This com 

 pany has it in its power to-day to reduce the cost of putting 

 the surplus products of the State on the wharves of our seaport 

 towns and cities to the least possible figure, and thus spread 



G 



