Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1875-04-15

From the New York Evening Post
The development of the Grange
movement during the past two years,
especially the phase it has recently
assumed, teaches some instructive po-
litical lessons. In its economic as
poets the movement has been unique.
1t is anomalous to find one great vest
ed interest antagonizing another with
which it stands in natural co-opera-
ton. The rebellion of the STRIKER"
against the capitalist, which is expIic-
able by the misunderstanding of the
reciprocal relation between them, will
not explain rupture between part
ners, both of whom are capitalists,
and both fully appreciative of their
relation of mutual service. Another
impressive feature of the agricultural
movements has been its rapid growth.
Starting when the traditions of the
old parties had decayed, it availed
itself of the best opportunities for sue
cess. 1t was logical organization,
in that it proclaimed opposition to a
specific public wrong, which has as
serted its ability and intention to cor
rect. It's platform was simple in ma
terial and structure, and the speeches
of its leaders, if sometimes overstrain-
ed, were direct and practical. Thus
appealing to class sentiments and in
terests, the new organization grew
surprisingly fast in number and disci-
pine. 1t became predominant in sew
eral States without the painful effort
and Disciplinary reverses which are
usually incident to ordinary parties,
and as with most other parties which
have leaped to power, its difficulties
have come in the use, though not in
the attainment, of victory.
Without touching on the constitu.
tionaIity of the Granger legislation,
which has been so extensively dis
cussed, we desire to direct attention
to two elements which have prevent
ed its success. The first of these is
its attempt to penetrate into the min.
ute details of railway regulation. The
Potter law was conceived on the idea
that commerce could be measured as
with a yardstick; that the functions of
trade were invaribly, and that the APP
plication of statue law to the minutest
details of freights and fares was as
easy as its application to the punish
ment of crime. The Changers began
with this misconception. They ig-
nored the fact which rests on centur-
les of human experience, that the stat
ute law, when it attempts to deal with
the minute details of trade, is apt to
invade the legitimate domain of pri-
vate judgement, where it treads like
man stumbling in the dark. Such a
process implies a scrutiny, flexabil-
ty and power of differentiation for.
eign to the very nature of applied ju-
risprndence, which, to be affective,
must be rigid and universal. The
more recent attempts of the Changers
to substitute general for complex reg
ulation OF railways indicates the only
course which such legislation can ssuc-
cesfully follow.
A second economic law with which
the Granger poiicys has come into con-
fiict and to which it must eventually
conform is that which sustains the
principle of local discrimination in
freights and fares.
A rule which applies to all products
or services, is that the processes from
which they result may require dispro-
portionate amounts of human effort.
To say that the loading and delivery
of a car of freight involves such pro-
portion of the whole service of trans
portion as not only justfies but COM
pels discrimination, is but to declare a
truth the application of which, we
may recognize in numerous forms OF
commerce within our daily experience.
Thus, the rates of telegraphIng in our
own country generally show decend-
ing grade of charges in proportion
to distance, while in England the ele-
ment of distance is entirely excluded
and rates are adjusted by the length
Of the message. In wholesale, as con-
trasted with retail trade, the same
principal is revealed. Our American
postal service, in which distances are
completely ignored in computing rates
Of postage, illustrates forcibly the
same principle carried to an extreme,
and in form which meets general
acquiesence The law of discrimina-
tive charges is founded on the very
nature of production, and any attempt
to APPRECIATE it by "pro rata" statutes
which has been one characteristic fea-
ture of the Granger policy-must ulti
mately prove as Intellectual as all of
mans conflicts with natures higher
laws.
Through the disregard of the two
principles which we have endeavored
to present thus simply, Granger legis
lation has reached the secondary stage
at which we now find it. In Wiscon-
sin the grangers are hesitatingly re-
ceding from their former positions.
In the Legislature of that state the
Potter law has already been subjected
to important notifications. In Min
nesota the Changers have conceded
almost everything, and under broad
and general restrictions delegated the
railways to the discretionary authors
ty of a single.commissioner. In Ohio,
where the current seems to have slack
ened before flood tide, the Granger
bill can only be enacted as partisan
measures under partisan incentives.
1t is to be observed, too, that these
changes have come to pass while the
Granger orgaization still retains its
discipline and numerical strength I'M
impaired fact which indicates both |
the injurious character of the previous
legislation and the natural conserva-
tism of agricultural communities.
Whether the political fates shall
decree life or death to tho Granger
party its existance has not been with
out great political benefit. 1t has at
last impressed the great railway cor
with the fact of a Snpar;or