The Grange advance., 1873-10-22

not tell you there was something wrong,
and am not proving it now But this is
our wrong. We ought not to have bought
that machine at that price. The great
wrong is, we are paying too much for
what we buy, and getting too little for
what we sell. Does not that cover the
whole ground? II corn costs you 80 cents
and oats 26, and you sell the one for 20
and the other for 18, how in Heavens name
do you expect to pay for reaper which
costs man $45, but which he sells at $3.50 ?
| HOW pLow MEN COMBINE.
How do they get these prices? The
plow men Of this State, Illinois, all have
their annual conventions! They come to-
gether and agree that they will have just
so much for plows during that year, no
matter what we may get for our products,
and for the last two years they have asked
! q 100 per cent. on the cost Of production.
| Thus that combination make a monopoly of
the plow business; and no matter what
agent or manufactory you buy Of, you have
| to pay the same per cent.
THE LADIES' COMBINATION ON BUTTER.
"Supposing, then, you were to do just
like them ?'' "But," says one, "we can
not; we are too far apart-scattered all
over this broad land, and isolated. We
cannot combine Cannot we? Are you
quite sure Of this ? Suppose we turn upon
the world in the same way, and lock up
our corn-cribs, and when people want corn,
let them come and get it. Is this possible
Let me show you how it has been done, on
small scale, by the ladies Of county
less than 100 miles from here, where they
are celebrated for good grapes, and where
they make good butter, which the merchants
were buying at twelve and half cents a
pound. The ladies thought it over, and
they agreed that it was worth more than
that to make butter, so they decided, in a
little circle around that county, not to take
less than 25 cents. In few days the gro
ceries ran out. A man came in and said,
" Have you any butter % ''Why no the
farmers, somehow, have not brought in
any," Tomorrow and next day there we're
the same question and reply, and the thing
was growing serious, for people cannot live
without butter, you understand. So the
grocery man says, "I will jump into my
wagon and 60 out and see Mrs. So and So,
and get some. They have forgotten to
bring it in, or something Of that kind"
So he drove out to the lady from whom he
bought splendid butter, and asked if she
had aay. "No." He went to the next,
and she had none. He drove around lit
tie more, but got no butter. The next day
the men in the town said. "We must have
butter you must get some." By that time
the grocery man began to smell a rat, and
he drove out again and said, Madam;
what will you take for your butter ?"
twenty-five cents q pound" He took it !,
and now, when they want butter in that
town, they take their wagons and 60 and
get it, and when these ladies want grocer
les they take their teams and 60 and get
them, and that makes it equal.
ECONOMY AND NoN-1NTERcoURsE.
Now, I have brought this just where
wanted it, Find what viii be fair, rea-
sonable price for your products. and hold
them at that. But they turn around in
this bugbear style, and say we are in debt.
Let US get out Of debt. Anything short of
freezing and starving, for couple Of years,
that we may own ourselves hereafter, is
preferable to going on in the way we are.
Do not buy anything that you can do with
out. Cannot we do without tea. sugar,
coffee, tobacco or whiskey, if necessary? I
will agree to do all that for q couple of
years, if you will turn in and help me. and
let the saving accumulate. 1fit is the sur
plus that reduces the price of our products,
let US make surplus of theirs. Will not
that make it equal again That is the
true remedy to begin with, and until we
come to that point we are simply slaves.
So long as we allow other people to fix q
price upon our labor, just 50 long are we
slaves, having the semblance, and nothing
else, Of freemen.
So say there is necessity for organiza-
tion, for combination to meet combination.
We can gain by concerted action just what
these women did with their butter. See
how easily we can meet combination with
combination, provided we all agree ; but
how are you going to agree in anything,
unless you come together, united in COM
mon bond with q common purpose If we
have union Of action in this matter, the
victory is ours. It is won in moment.
PO WEIR OF THE UNITED STATES.
Extract from a speech of Hon. c. K. Davis at
Rochester, October 9.
We may be driven to seek the aid Of a. power
whose jurisdiction embraces all the territory oc-
| cupied by the railroads of the country. That
power is the United States, and to its constitution
we can look for authority to administer compre-