LABOR'S WRONGS. 33 



cases the wholesale dealer may give the Iowa trader a 

 drawback; but in others we know that he is favored with 

 special rates by the railroads which they refuse to give to 

 others shipping the same goods in like amount ' ' 



Said another farmer: "The great railroad corpora- 

 tions first extort from us everything they possibly can, and 

 then they turn us over to Chicago to be still further 

 plundered. Why, they don't allow us to say which 

 elevator our grain shall go into when it reaches Chicago ; 

 we have no redress if the railroad don' t deliver as much 

 grain as we ship from here, and it is utterly impossible for 

 us to have any of our grain passed as 'No. i.' We may 

 ship the best wheat that ever went to Chicago, and the 

 probabilities are that they will mix it up with their 

 'imperial' wheat and make a 4 No. 2' that will bring a 

 higher price, and the increase that we ought to have goes 

 to the owner of the elevator. We have no particular 

 interest in Chicago's prosperity; indeed, if our grain could 

 go forward without going into Chicago to be taxed for the 

 benefit of her speculators, we should be much better off." 



Mr. Stephen Smith, an Illinois farmer, speaking for 

 the men of his calling in his own State, says : ' ' For the 

 past ten or twelve years the conviction has been gradually 

 forcing itself upon us that something was wrong in our 

 affairs; for while every other industry was being fairly 

 remunerated, we have been steadily going behind, until 

 poverty, if not bankruptcy, stared us in the face. We 

 found that, while we labored harder and more hours than 

 the artisan and workman in other pursuits, we were forced 

 to content ourselves with poorer food and clothing, with 

 fewer social privileges, and less opportunities for mental 

 cultivation than they. 



" We could not help seeing that if they were as steady 

 and industrious as we, they were able to live in better 

 houses, and had more money to spend in their adornment 



