hat
there is not too much corn raised, since a great famine has just swept
over Persia, and others are threatening in different parts of the
world.

The present high rates of transportation were never anticipated by the
farmer. If in the beginning some great route charged high rates for
carrying, his dissatisfaction was soothed by the assurance that the
road had cost an enormous outlay of capital, and that as soon as
the company was partially reimbursed the rates would be lowered. The
sequel generally proved that the rates went up instead of down, and
the still angrier mood of the farmer was again quieted by a new hope:
a great competing railroad line was projected, and finally finished.
Competition would certainly bring down the prices. This was the
reasonable way to expect relief. Competition always had that effect.
Alas for the simple producer! He had borne his burdens long and
patiently only to learn the truth of George Stevenson's pithy
apothegm, that "where combination is possible competition is
impossible." The two great companies combined, became consolidated
into one, and, having their victim completely in their power, swindled
him without pity and divided the spoils between them.

The characteristic of the day is the tendency to consolidation. But
nothing can prevent the people from fearing the results of great
monopolies and "rings," or from organizing to circumvent their
schemes. Those who make no calculation for the growing intelligence
of industry are walking blindly. Never were the people so conscious of
their power--never so fully aware that in this country the machinery
for correcting abuses lies in the degree of concentration with which
public opinion can be brought to bear in a given direction. Once let
the people become fully aroused to the existence of an evil or abuse,
and there is no interest nor combination of interests that can
long hold out against them. The trouble heretofore has been the
multiplicity of conflicting opinions everywhere disseminated, and the
consequent difficulty of agreeing upon measures, and uniting a great
number of people in their adoption for the accomplishment of certain
ends. If we may rely upon the promise of the order of the Patrons of
Husbandry, now slowly and surely sweeping toward the eastern shores of
the country, and yet still widening and extending in the West, where
it rose, we may hope that this is the great moving army of the people
so long waited for, whic