convention. An organization was effected by the election of officers, as follows: President, Hon. J. H. Bryant, of Bureau County. Vice-Presidents, Messrs. William Smith, of McLean; S. H. McCrea, of Cook; E. S. Topping, of Whiteside; Lewis Ellsworth, of Du Page; John Davis, of Macon; W. W. Miller, of St. Clair; E. S. Hull, of Madison; A. M. Brown, of Pulaski; G. W. Hered, of Marion; W. Seldengale, of Knox; M. L. Dunlap, of Champaign; and K. K. Jones, of Adams.

GOVERNOR PALMER'S LETTER.

The Governer of Illinois, Gen. John M. Palmer, in a letter to the Convention, expressed the hope that the first work attempted would be to convince the people of the State that they had the power to rid themselves of the burdens of which they so justly complained. Upon the practice of corrupting legislators with money, he said: "Whether public men now in office are corrupt or not, it will be the fault of the people themselves if those hereafter selected are so. The people, rejecting all the sophistry by which the real questions that concern them are concealed or mystified, must hereafter investigate for themselves, and take care of their own interests." He hoped the Convention would assert, and prepare to maintain, that there is no interest in this country that is or can be beyond the control of the law.

The state of the question between the producing interest of the State and the transporting interest, he held to be, "that the whole subject of freights, and all subjects that are dependent on, or collateral thereto, are absolutely under the control of the owners and managers of railway lines, and that practically they may and do grasp, and appropriate to their own use, such proportion of the value of the products

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of the farmers and workshops of the country as they, in the exercise of their uncontrolled discretion, may determine. The object of the people of the State must be to overthrow this pretension, and to establish the doctrine that freights, and all that relates to the transportation, storage, and sale of the products of the industry of the country, shall be relieved from the arbitrary rule of monopolies, and be subjected to such regulations as may harmonize with reason and justice." He hoped the work of the convention would be to call the attention of the people to these opposing propositions, and to urge them to support that which is most reasonable and just, and also to suggest the means by which success might be secured for the right.

GENERAL BUSINESS OF THE CONVENTION.

The various phases of the transportation and warehouse questions were earnestly discussed by the delegates, and, as a rule, in an impartial spirit, only a small proportion of the speakers indulging in appeals to the passions of the audience. Strong resolutions were passed, denouncing the wrongs under which the producers labored, and the necessity of prompt and consecutive action to obviate these wrongs. A motion to send an official copy of the resolution to the President of the Constitutional Convention, then in session, was carried, and the following declaration was adopted:

"This Convention declares, First: That the present rates of taxation and transportation are unreasonable and oppressive, and ought to be reduced.

"Second: That our legal rights to transportation and market ought to be clearly set forth and defined.

"Third: That if there be any legal remedy under existing laws for the wrongs we suffer, such remedy ought to be ascertained and enforced.

"Fourth: That, if there be no such remedy, measures should be taken to secure one by appropriate legislation.

"Fifth: That statistics should be collected and published to show the relation of North-western products to those of the rest of the country.

"Sixth: That nothing can be accomplished for the enforcement of our rights, and the redress of our wrongs, without an efficient organization on the well-known principles that give the great corporations such tremendous power.

"Seventh: That, with honest pay for honest labor, and compensation commensurate with great service, we can secure the assistance and support of the highest order of learning, ability, and skill.

"Eighth: That this Convention should appoint a commissioner of agricultural and carrying statistics, to prepare and publish, with the aid of eminent counsel, a report of the products of the North-west, the rights to market and transportation, and the remedies available for existing wrongs, the expenses thereof to be defrayed by subscription price for such report."

Hon. H. C. Wheeler was promptly, elected Statistician, and after the appointment of an Executive Committee, the Convention adjourned.

ONLY A PARTIAL SUCCESS, AND WHY.

Great results were expected from the meeting of this body. Nothing practical, however, came of it, except that it was the entering wedge, that opened the way to further work in the same direction.

It was obvious to all thinking men that the Statistician could not work without money, and that no working farmer. could stand the necessary drain upon his pocket in collecting statistics, and in employing legal talent to sift existing laws. Thus, so far as remedying abuses, the first Bloomington Convention was a failure. Not so, however, as to its moral bearings. It was the plow that broke into the stubborn soil of monopoly. But plowing alone, the farmer well knows,

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avails but little, without the further aid of the harrow and the roller. The harrow was subsequently applied at the Kewanee and other Conventions. It now looks as though the iron roller of the farmer must be set in motion to crush all smooth, and render the stubborn glebe fit for good seed. But all will come in good time. How shall it be brought about? Must it be by taking pattern of the railroad engineer? He, seeing an obstruction before him which he can not avoid, drives his engine at its highest speed full upon it.

The good farmer, in laying out lands, does not put his hand to the plow and look back. In the case we are considering, as in many others, there were crooked furrows made, for, in looking about to see where the money was to come from, the team pulled awry.

CHAPTER XIX.

THE KEWANEE (ILLINOIS) CONVENTION.

ORIGIN OF THE CONVENTION.

In the spring of 1872, the Farmers' Club of Avon suggested to a number of corresponding Clubs the advisability of holding a convention, in order to compare notes, discuss subjects of interest to the fraternity, inquire into the causes of the depressed condition of Agriculture in the West, and propose remedies therefor. A correspondence ensued among men prominent in the Clubs, in which S. M. Smith, of Kewanee; Edward Maynard, of St. David; John McAdams, of Avon; J. Howard, of Smithfield; A. M. Garland, of Springfield, Secretary of the State Board of Agriculture; W. T. R. Finnessy, of Kewanee; John Prickett, of Lewistown, and others, participated. Mr. Finnessy thought that the movement would place farmers in a "higher position." Mr. Garland expressed the opinion that the "idea concerning a unity of effort among Farmers' Clubs," etc., was "in the right direction." Mr. Howard deemed something of the kind "very necessary." Mr. McAdams desired greatly the "more thorough organization of our farmers." It was the hope of Mr. Maynard that those having the matter in charge would "act promptly." The Club of which Mr. Prickett was a member was "decidedly in favor of the (232)