The Railroads Ami The Farms

Tinte uien meet in a room in New York. Xhey aie not called kings, wear uo crown, and Beat no sceptrëSl Xhey nierely represent Trunk lines of railway l iroui the Missisaippi to New York. üther points settled, one says, " As to the grain ; shall we iriake it fifty f'rom Cüicagn!" "Agroed; crops are heavy, and we sbn.ll have enoogh to do." Business fiiiished, tlie three enjoy sundry büttles ot' good wine. The daily papei 's presen tly announce that " the trunk lin, s have agreed upon a new sijhedule of rate.s tor iïeight, which is, in effect, a triflinfí inerease ; on grain, from fortyfive to fiity cents froin Chicago to Xew York, with rates to the other points in the usual proportions. ' The conversation was insijiiiiticeut., the incroase " trifling." But to the farmers of the Northwest, it means that the will of threo men has taken over thirty millions from the cash value ot' their product for that year, and five hundred millions fiotn the actual valuó of their farms. The conversation is imaginury ; but the startling facts upon which it is based are terribly real, astVestern farmers have learned The few men who control the great railway lines Have it in their power to strip Western agriculture of all its earnings, - not aftur the manner of ancient highwiiïiuen, by high-handed nee of society and luw, the rush of swift teeds, the clash of s'eel, and the stern, Stand niid deliver!" The bandits ot ïodein civilization, who enrich theinelves by the plunder of, others, come with chests full of charters; judges are ;heir friends, if not their tools; und they wield no weapon more alarming than the ittle pencil with which they calcúlate ifferences of rate, apparently soinsignifcent that public Dpinion wonders why ihe farmers complain about such trifles Tet the farmers have complained, and, ouiplaining in vain, have got angry. When large bodies of men get angry, the esults are likely to be important, though hey mij not always provo beneficent. 'he faimers' movement threatens a revoution in the business of transportation, f not in the laws which protect investnents of capital. It seems strange, no oubt, to those who do not know that a bange of one-twentieth of a mili per ono hundred pounds, in the charge of ransportation per mile, may take huniredfi of miïlions from the actual valué of farms. It can neither becomprehend ed nor intelligently directed, without a 'uil understanding of the conditions indcr whieh agiiculture exists in the Northwestern States, and of the power which the railway has exerted and still wields tor the development or