Rensselaer Union, Volume 6, Number 50, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 September 1874 — Manufacturers and Grangers. [ARTICLE]

Manufacturers and Grangers.

In my opinion there is no substantial reason why manufacturers should oppose the Grange movement. There should be complete harmony between individals engaged in making plows and mowing machines and those who have occasion, as tillers of the soil, to use them. And yet individuals engaged in the manufacture of these indispensable farm implements are out of patience, because there is a growing sentiment in the country in favor of the right to buy those implements of those who make them, instead of agents, by paying them an additional fee. This may be a very silly idea, but it is gaining ground, and manufacturers are alarmed. What I ask, and what every farmer should demand, is, the right to go into any establishment where farm tools are made, and buy them at a fair and reasonable price. What gives a man a more contemptible idea “of humanity than to be told when desiring to buy directly of the manufacturer: “Oh, we sell through our agent at your place.’ Mr. Smith is our agent over there, and he has the exclusive right to sell in your town?” In cases of that kind the manufacturer seems to benefit—whom? Himself and his agents. The welfare of the farmer is the last consideration. Grangers don’t ask anything unreasonable, and they will not ask that long before it will be granted. It may be true that the idea upon which Grangers base their organization is not absolutely’ practicable. What of it? If they are half right, and monopolists half wrong, there is an opportunity for reform. A first-class sewing machine costs the manufacturer say $35 to S4O, but before I can own one I must pay nearly double that amount. Hundreds, and 1 may say thousands, of sleek, oily-tongued fellows swarm the country and make their living off the farmers and the laboring classes. It is time the gaine was stopped. If I am able to have a farm tool or my wife a sewing machine I am able to send or go where they’ are made and buy them. Farmers and manufacturers should learn to understand each other, and then they’ will learn that their best interests can bestbe subserved by friendly’ co-op-eration and mutual good-will.— W. 0. Spenser, Madison County, N. E.