THE FARMER'S WAR AGAINST MONOPOLIES. 361 



very clear idea of the exact grounds of the farmers' com- 

 plaints. 'Railroad extortion,' ' Unjust Discrimination/ 

 ' Monopoly,' are general terms freely used by the 

 farmers, but just what constituted them I was unable 

 to find out. One of my first questions, therefore, was 

 whether the farmers of this State were not prosperous. 

 I told him that the people of the East, hearing of the 

 wonderful fertility of Illinois soil, supposed the farmers 

 who had been here for any length of time must be a 

 well-to-do, comfortably situated class of people. Mr. 

 Smith replied that this was a very erroneous idea. 

 * The majority of the farmers of this State,' he said, 

 'have hard work to support their families. Year by 

 year new mortgages are given to pay new debts, and it 

 is the exception rather than the rule for a farmer to be 

 saving anything. At least one-half of the farms in this 

 part of the State are mortgaged for money borrowed at 

 ten per cent, interest, and the majority of them will 

 never be redeemed. You let it be known that a man 

 in this village has a thousand dollars to lend on first- 

 class security, and he will have a dozen applications 

 before night!' 



" ' Have these mortgages been given for balances due 

 on farms purchased, or for money borrowed after the 

 farms have been paid for?' I asked. 



"'In some cases they represent a part of the purchase 

 money of the farms, but in most cases the farmers have 

 been obliged to borrow because they have been running 

 behind. Nobody can make anything by farming here 

 unless he has a large farm, and I'll tell you by-and-by 

 why, with plenty of land, a man can make a little ; 

 but even then he can seldom realize ordinary interest 

 on his investment. Now, I have here a good farm, and 



