New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1873-08-18
doubtedly be insisted upon at the next session
AN IMPORTANT EXPERIMENT

AN IMPOBIANl
The claims of rival seaports to the consid-
Grafton of Western shippers OF grain are IN
tellieently referred to in one OF our letters
from the Special Correspondent OF THE IRiB-
UNE in Illinois. Ii is stated that the apparent
discrimination against New-YOrk and IN favor
of other Eastern cities, which has been re-
Gently discussed in this and other papers, Is
not due to any action of Western shippers or
corporations, but to the fact that the roads
running to Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Bos-
ton find it to their interest to make such re-
duction upon through freights as to attract
shipping to the ports where they terminate.
The recent establishment OF o line of ocean
steamers in the two first-n named cities affords,
of course, strong inducement for the
railroads which serve them to take all practi-
cable measures to divert in that direction the
commercial movement which has been hitherto
almost entirely confined to New-fork.
Another fact in this letter has bearing upon
most important feature of the controversy
now at issue between the producers and
handlers of grain. Many of the produce ship
ners in the interior of Illinois send loaded cars
directly through to the New-England towns
where the grain is consumed, thus avoiding
the cost and trouble of handling in NewYork
or Boston. From this it is only step to the
action already initiated in Champaign County,
in the same State.
Among our special dispatches of Saturday of
the series which are to complete and supplement
the admirable correspondence OF The TRIBUNE,
which has given and will continue to give the only
full and trustworthy account of the Farmers
nhnrc
printed this important piece of news. The
farmers of Champaign County have introduced
a hopefuI variety into their discussions and
denunciatiops of the railroads, and have begun
n practical experiment in cooperation. They
have dubbed together and sent nineteen car
loads of corn to market on their own account,
and propose to send their entire crop
in the same way. We will not pause
to remark that even in this measure
of practical reform the trail of the corporation
appears-these farmers having obtained a IL
cense from the State to enable them TO act IN
a corporate capacity-but we welcome this action
az the most cheering indication we have yet
seen that the controversy which has as yet
deyeloped little but angry words is now en-
tering upon a stage of practical experiment
from WHICH UOlullB bHb bV"" w" 'N"'' ~
men nor class of men ever lose anything by
learning the limitations of their powers. Every
sincere experiment which shall assist in showing
the farmers, and the corporations also, just
how far they are independent of each other,
and how far they are mutually dependent,
will be of great benefit in this question. The
direction in which the farmers of Champaign
County are making their efforts, is one which
has always seemed to us to promise the most
widely satisfactory results. 1t is too plain for
argument that any measures which tend to
dispense with the intervention of middlemen
will increase the gains and the legitimate in
fuence of the producer in the market The
very fact of the existence of the mlddlemen,
and their relative Importance, demonstrates the
difficulty of the task of dispensing with them.
But the end proposed by these energetic and
enterprising farmers is one in which almost
every one can sympathize, and the way which
they have chosen to accomplish it is that
which most strongly commends itself to all
who desire to see popular reforms effected by
legal and orderly means. Amid all the miser-
les and obstacles which beset the path of
modern industry, Cooperation is the one I'M
Objectionable system which offers itself to the
Judgment and the conscience alike OF employ
ers and employed. 1t Is too slow for the
agitator and too just for the tyrant-but 1t is
the best and most effective weapon OF the
law-abiding citizen who lives by his labor.