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It is evident to every one that the condition of the workingmen of the country is not prosperous, and that for years past the tendency has been continually from bad to worse, until it is painfully apparent in the experience of nearly every laboring man that his expenses are greater than his income. 

To farmers and mechanics alike this rule applies.  The cost of living, the cost of production, the cost of transportation, are fully double what they were a dozen years ago.  Our taxes -- National State and local -- have largely increased, and in every other direction the tide is against us.

The cause of all this, we believe, lies in a defective system of legislation and in corrupt legislators.

Political parties as they now exist, are no longer trustworthy, but have become mere machines to plunder the producers of the country for the benefit of a few special interests.  Railroad Rings, National Bank Rings, Protective Tariff Rings, and a thousand other Rings, big and little, run the Government and grow rich at our expense, and we feel, therefore, that the time has come to seek relief.  All we ask from Government is economy, justice and equal rights, security for all and favor to no one, and this much we insist upon receiving.

In order to further these ends, we, the undersigned, citizens and workingmen of Richland county, cordially invite our fellow workingmen of the county, without regard to past political associations, to meet together at the court house in the City of Mansfield, on Saturday, the 7th. day of June, next at eleven o'clock A.M., and then and there to concert together some general plan for future action.

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