Marshall County Republican. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1856-1878, 1874-08-06
The Granger.

leauer III the new 1OIk OUt, unuoI INC
heading of "What is Granger ?"
" A Granger is person little known
but much discussed. He is very mys-
terious, and In some parts of the coun-
try where the politicians have looked
for him with straining eyes, but have
thus far failed to recognize him in the
flesh, he is almost as mythical as a Ku
Klux to Georgia darkey. But the
Granger is coming. He is frequently
about some time before he is recog-
nized. He is great and powerful man
in the Far West, where his brethren are
many and his progeny legion. But no
pent-up Utica will answer him. He
is just now pouring over the Allegheny
Mountains in astonishing numbers. But
a few months ago he had not single
lodge in the State of Pennsylvania,
and the State rings and the city rings,
and the little court house rings in
the various counties, stole on
and slept soundly, regardless of
him and his. But the other day
he was at Mechanicsburgh in Cumber-
land county, with great turnout of
his people, and showed beyond doubt
that he was at home in the East, as well
as the West, and was able to smash
things generally, if he was so minced.
"There were sharp eyes bent on this
smiling little village while the Granger
was there. Some people thought his
ambition was rising already, and that
finding himself Unexpectedly formida-
BILE, he would begin to cut capers, break
states and other political fxings, and
dance around in the exuberance of his
strength, to the certain discontinue of
all parties, his own among the rest. But
he did nothing of the kin1. He calmly
resolved to ignore politics, and went
into secret session on mis- own business,
which is understood to have related
principally to the purchase of his sup
plies, and the sale and transportation of
his crops. His conduct on this, as on so
many other occasions, was disappointing
was indiscreet. 1t is indeed strong
evidence that the Granger is sensible,
sober-minded, solid kind of a person,
who is in no danger of getting drunk
with his new prosperity and seeking
strange adventures outside of his ap-
propriate field of labor.
"But who and what is the Granger
after all He goes off to deliberate in
a room with the blinds down, has pass
words and signs and grips, and allows
nobody to hear what he says or to see
what ne does. He must have many
secrets. Most assuredly he has; and
The SIN, looking down impartially upon
everything mundane, and lmpartine
health and vigor to everything good,
knows what his secrets are. In the first
place they relate entirely to his own
affairs. and it is for that reason alone
that he has failed to crafty the general
curiosity by publishing them at large.
For instance, the Changers make their
hard living by tilling the soil. When
one of them begins life it is great
matter to him to get his reaper, his
mower, his thresher, and his hundred
other machines and implements, as vel
as the household furniture, his clothing
and his groceries, his " one-horse-shay
and his parlor organ, at something neal
half the price of the retail merchant OF
the manufacturers agent. This h'
does by cooperation with others stu
ated like himself but how and wher,
he does it is one of his secrets, and ;
very precious one at that.
"In like manner, when at the end O
season of incessant toll, he sees hi
fields yellow with the harvest of breaC
and his fatted herd lowing in the past
ure, he reflects that he and the con
sumers of all this produce are frequent
" situated far apart, and that host O
intermediate agents and traders Absorb
large portion of its value in money
He resolves to put in his own purse thu
difference between the price paid b!
the consumer, less transportation, anC
the price usually paid to the farmer
He does this by means of the Grange
but the precise method of it is anothel
of his grand secrets. When he has &C
conplished these two capital operations
he has made and saved enough to MAKE
his business profitable, and to give hi
wife and children some of the luxurie
and advantages in which the families o
fourishing middle-men are commonl.
INDUCED.
can association which promises hin
such results, and which at the sam,
time vindicates the independence of hin
and his class, opens to him prospec
full of roseate and radiant hues as com
pared with the servile and beggarly con
dition from which he is rising. Here
tofore he has taken what was Offered
and given what was asked. Hencefortl
he will, like other classes of men, com
bine with those whose interests arr
identical. and do himself the justice o
which he has been SO long deprived
His power in virtue of this widespread
, and coherent organization may well b.
J considered tremendous. A million o
members to-day will be two millions b,
the next spring, andwh they begin T.
hold back crops or send them forwar'
, according to their own good pleasure
, New York and Chicago, Wall street an
the produce exchanges, will begin t
count a new and terrible, because un
known and manageable, force in tn
business of the country.
"To the Granger and grange a
unmixed good to the speculator an III
mixed evil. The manufacturer and tn
wholesaler find their accounts in th
/. certain sales and the cash paymen,
4 which are a part of its economy SO thu
: nobody but the blood-suckers, til
|, spectators in grain, the middlemen an
II H. - e.