Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1874-01-01
That Middle man.

The everlasting nigger has ceased
to disturb the peace of the world, but
the imps of Satan take their turns IN
keeping this sublunary sphere in
state of turmoil, discomfort and mis-
cry. Perhaps we prefer to be miser-
able ANYHOW, and are ready to thank
his Satanic Majesty for keeping US in
hot water. We place it among the
minor blessings, at least, when we
can find some person or some class of
persons that can mitigate our discon-
tent. At the present writing the IA
nous "middle man. answers this pur-
pose remarkably well.
We have ceased to talk about
Bank robbers, or Salary'grab rob-
bera. or Credit Mobilier robbers,
Railroad robbers or the Bender fami>
", for, fortunately or not, We have
recently discovered that the very
prince-the robber Of all robbers-is
this felonious, voracious, Unsuitable
yUhu4 - -Lo.-. ~ =
rats and blight and weeyil, army
worm, chintz bug and the Colorado
pest? The middle.man is an embodi
ment of all the varmints and bugs and
worms that ever preyed upon the
farmers field, granary or stock yard.
He is the vampire into whose capac-
ious and infinite stomach flows the
beef, pork, chickens, cheese, eggs,
corn and oats of the mighty West.
lie must be exterminated or we are
ruined. Unlike other robbers he
docs not fly the country, but main
tains his ground and laughs in our
faces. He gets right between the
farmer and the first, original, creative
manufacturing man AM robs both
ends of the manufacturing world.
Can we not dethrone this monster
in some way? This is the great
problem of the age. TheiI name is
legion. When we go to Chicago we
still don't find the first "original"
manufacturing man. The merchants
there, Just as in Boscobel and Lam
caster, Plattevillc and Bloomington,
are all middle-men. Some million of
people have emigrated away off to
China in order to raise tea SO all
the road between us and the Celes-
tial Empire is lined with middle-men.
Other people have taken it into their
heads to go to the East and West In
i es to cultivate sugar and coffee, and
here is another long string of middle,
men who stand between us and the
home merchant who doles CIT to us
these necessaries by the pound, TAX
ing care to tax us with all the charges
made by these middle-men.
What an army Of middle-men are
employed in selling agricultural i'm
PIGMENTS and machinery to the farm
er. Reapcrs, whose cost is but 500
TO $40 at the factory, sold for 5000 to
the farmer, and the greater part of the
difference on each machine pocketed
by these middIe-men Two.thirds
Of the purchase money Oh each sew
ing-machine sold likewise goes to
line the pockets of these middle-men.
With such an immense margin for
profits the farmer as well as villager
should at once enter upon the bust
ness Of exterminating the middle
man by the manufacture Of their
own machinery But without the
middle man they fear they could not
sell enough of their manufacture to
make the enterprise selfsustaining.
To compete with Mccormick and
Nanny, Marsh, Vanbrunt or Case,
they must employ the same agency in
multiplying their sales that they do,
aud 50 they would have to sell at the
same price, adding to tbe cost Of each
machine the charges Of middle-men,
loss from bad debts and contingencies
10 which All extensive credit business
: subject,
But woe be to US, if, after all our
denunciations and cutlery, it shall be
discovered that the "middle.man" is
Just rs essential to the business world
IS the farmer or anybody else. The
annihilation of the middle man is
big Job. Thousands must work in
concert and furnish the ready cash.
II the farmers in five or six counties
Of this State would unite, furnish the
capital and bind themselves in some
legal form to take and pay the cash
down for all the machinery that Man
NJ or Mccormick or Case can manu-
facture, she latter would furnish their
machinery at fifteen per cent.
above actual cost and be glad to get
il. This anti middle-man society
would then have all their machinery
in its possession, and the experiment
could then be fairly tried whether the
sales could be made without middle
men and at prices lower than those
manufacturers that employ tummers
TO expedite and multiply their sales.
This scheme would amount to about
the same thing as though the farmers
owned and run the mandatory them
selves, and if they could dispose of