62 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



the East, have been discriminating against 

 the West. A strong alliance is being formed 

 between the West and South for the build- 

 ing up of cotton manufactures in the 

 South in competition with New England, 

 and Chicago is to hold a great exposition 

 of cotton and Southern cotton manufac- 

 tures. It is not impossible that the West 

 and S.outh may act together on various 

 questions, one of these being silver. 



Western The announcement from 

 Farming Springfield, the State capi- 

 L/ands. tal, says of the incorporation : 

 "The Chicago Mineral and Mining Board, 

 at Chicago; without capital stock; to pro- 

 vide facilities for dealing in ores and se- 

 curities of corporations engaged in de- 

 veloping mineral deposits; incorporators, 

 Green B. Raum, Joseph Underwood and 

 John Mayo Palmer. ' ' Three better known 

 men do not exint in Chicago or in Illinois. 

 Ex-Governor Palmer has a national reputa- 

 tion. This enterprise is a board where par- 

 ties and companies having mining claims or 

 properties can meet capitalists, and part of 

 the project is the rigid investigation of all 

 properties attempted to be floated. Chi- 

 cago will also have a Mining Exchange, 

 but this board must not be confounded 

 with it. Western America may well be 

 congratulated that Chicago has taken hold 

 and will aid in the development of the 

 mineral resources, and also the agricul- 

 tural resources, for Western agricultural 

 lands will be operated in on the Mineral 

 and Mining Board. Now is the time for 

 the Western States and Territories to push 

 their lands into the market. Careful, con- 

 servative investors take more readily to 

 agricultural lands than to mining shares, 

 and of the armies of men who go West in 

 the spring to dig gold many must remain 

 to irrigate. It must be remembered, too, 

 that the big new population in the mining 

 camps must be fed and that grain, vege- 

 tables and fruit and cattle and hogs and 

 mutton are necessary to feed them with. 

 That 1896 will witness great strides in the 

 development of the West is a foregone 

 conclusion. 



The rank injustice of taking 

 and the duties off wool and lumber 

 I/umber, is now generally realized and 

 condemned, and Democrats in the wool 

 and lumber States are loudest in their com- 

 plaints. A gallant fight has been made to 



have duties restored, and if this fight is 

 kept up, it can not fail of success in the 

 present Congress. Revenue must be 

 raised, and the articles that should be 

 taxed are those mentioned. It will be 

 "tariff for revenue only." 



In the present age every class 

 Success, of business every profession 

 Organise, even is organized. The 

 trades are organized, and even unskilled 

 labor is more or less organized. Business, 

 banking, and railroad and water trans- 

 portation are organized into immense 

 trusts or pools. Now, in order to obtain 

 their rights, hold their own and advance 

 to prosperity, farmers and stock raisers 

 must more closely organize. This closer 

 organization was advocated at the meeting 

 of the National Grange and it was also 

 advocated at the subsequent meetings of the 

 State Granges of Illinois, Indiana, Michi- 

 gan, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, etc. 

 Every man engaged in farming and stock- 

 raising must be gathered into the fold. 

 With this thorough organization, every 

 question affecting agricultural interests 

 can be regulated; all needed legislation 

 can be secured. At the recent meeting of 

 the Illinois Grange, Mortimer Whitehead, 

 formerly one of " Uncle" Jeremiah Rusk's 

 right hand men, made a ringing address 

 in which he scored the politicans and their 

 methods and urged co operation among 

 the agriculturists in everything. Governor 

 Altgeld spoke at some length and advised 

 the farmers to organize and look out for 

 their own interests, intimating that if they 

 did not do so they could not expect others 

 to do it for them. 



Will the great output of gold 

 Is No bring the ratio of gold and silver 

 Ratio, together ?" ask the great lead- 

 ing editorials in the dailies. What- 

 ever may be said for or against the free 

 coinage of silver, it is a fact that a 

 great deal of the hostility to it comes from 

 the common notion that as things are now 

 there can be any ratio between gold and 

 silver. At present, silver is simply a com- 

 modity, the same as copper. Copper is 

 not spoken of as having any ratio to gold 

 simply because a quantity of copper has 

 been taken to make pennies out of, and 

 why should silver be spoken of as having 

 a ratio to gold simply because a quantity 

 of silver has been used to make dollars 



