Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1874-05-16
FOR RENT,
THE GRANGE STORE sYSTEW.


To the Union and American.
As the UNION AND AMERICAN Is a
live paper, and deals with the living is
sues before the people, it viii doubtless
permit farmer and Granger to no
tice the Communication of s. L. s.. pub
hshed In the UNION AND AMERICAN,
of the 18th inst, in which he says;
Friend Granger, man Of toll, of sim
pie habits, of tried rectitude, do you
not feel pang of shame TO give your
self up to such disereditable proceed
Gngs against fellow-man, perhaps
Door mechanic, who, as he is not an ag-
riculturist, is shut cut from your Or
der? His money is as hard-earned as
yours why should be pay more than
you do for the necessaries of life? If
you really want to make some effort to
better your condition, make farming
success. Open IN every county an ag-
ricultural institution, where the art of
theoretical and practical farming and
chemistry is taught, SO that your sons
may know precisely how to prepare the
soil, how to choose fitting seeds and
plants, understand the rotation of crops,
the fattening of cattle, the manage
ment of the dairy, ETC., according to the
rules and principles of science. Such
an institution would be a source of in
exhaustible wealth to you and your
posterity.
The suggestions to make farming
more professional by the better educa-
ton OF farmers sons, are sound and
timely; but S. L. S. sees only half Of
the wants and duties of the men who
own and cultivate the soil. A dollar
made by the best system of agriculture
must buy a dollars worth of goods
This is all THAT the Grange store system
contemplates; and it is absurd to say or
intimate, that any poor mechanic
or any other honest man, is injured if
a Granger is able to obtain the full
value of his crops, and of the money
received in payment for the same, when
he buys store goods of any kind. Let
mechanics, and all other producers,
combine their patronage and strength,
and invest their capital, whethera dime
or ten thousand dollars, to the best pos
sible advantage. If the spectators of
Chicago have raised the price OF land
in that city from a dollar and a quar-
ter an acre to a thousand dollars foot
front, and covered it with palaces, are
farmers bound TO pay price for goods
that viii yield high rent, high taxes
and insurance on such fictitious values?
During the last thirty years the men
of cities have been creating municipal
debts, investing capital most extrava-
gantly, and diminishing the intrinsic
value of all real estate within corpora
ton limits. Farmers, and all laboring
people will soon be driven to make
their purchases and exchanges outside
of this wild and incurable folly.
Thomas Jefferson pronounced cities
''sores on the body polite" 1t is
about fifty years since jefferson died. and
these ugly sores have not been cured.
The Grange system OF industrial ex-
changes is of universal availability
step IN advance, the Same as
printing, manufacturing and rail
road travel by steam. Once
stage coaches drawn by horses
were very useful to convey persons
from Nashville to Louisville and re-
turn; now this labor is not needed. S.
J.. S. says in substance that a middle
man between two producers, say one In
Tennessee, and the other IN New Eng
land, Will starye as a merchant If he
receives only ten per cent advance on
his investments. This may be so, and
if 50, he should cease at once to be a
mere trader, and become a manufac-
II
farmer. We tell him plainly that ed
ucated producers viii not long pay ten
per ceut nor fire, to any one who adds
nothing To the intrinsic value
of the property he handles.
The parties most interested in trade
can no more prevent progress in dis
pensing with the labor and capital of
all middle men than the owners of sail
ing vessels and stage coaches and
horses could prevent the active and
successful competition of steam.
This is free country in part at least,
and the largest manufacturers Of cot
ton and wooden goods, ready-made
clothing, hats, shoes and boots, and a
thousand other articles, at the North,
have offered to sell to the officers of the
National Grange in Washington for the
cheapest possible distribution among
State and county oranges, their fabrics
at from fire to ten per cent less than
their bills show the largest commission
houses in Boston and New York
pay for the same quality of goods.
Why this remarkable discount to
Changers? Because goods will 90 to
millions of consumers, who Will be
steady customers through a known
channel, and consume loo per cent
more of the products of manufacturing
industry, by saving from % TO so per
cent in the purchase of these useful ar
ticles.I Manufacturers are shrewd bus
mess men, and so are the men who or
ganized and stand at the head of this
agricultural order By saving I'M
known millions that now 60 to fill the
Golfers of merchant princes" this
money Will give at once greater en-.
ployment to all mechanics and factory
operatives, and a higher standard oi
domestic comfort to them, as well as u
all patrons of husbandry and their fam
lilies.
This arrangement keeps wealth IL
the hands of producers. Is it wrong t,
cast drones out of an overstOcked hive
which daily consume more than work
inc bees, yet never collect a drop o
honey? Men blinded by demagogisn
may not see that any improvement il
possible in this direction. Forty year
ago, when business men paid % cent
to send half ounce letter from Nash
vile to Boston, no one expected to SCI
that labor performed by Government
for three cents Yet, when a poo
woman pays one cent for the carrying
of a half ounce letter from city to city
the charge is at the rate of thirty-twC
dollars for transporting 100 pounds