Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1904-09-08
THE BIG GRANGER LINES" "

Ill Blu INAN1Eh LINES
Under the above heading, and treat
ing of the Chicago, Milwaukee and
St. Paul Railway, there appears in
the Saturday Evening Post remark
able article by Frank H. Spearman.
1t is deeply interesting to residents of
the whole northwest, and especially to
those of Wisconsin. The opening par
agraph is as follows:
Thirty years ago the farmers of
the Northwest after voting high
tariff ticket conscientiously for ten
years, concluded that something was
wrong, and without suspecting the
tariff they set vigorously about re.
forming the railroads. Over Wiscon-
sin, Minnesota and Iowa ran an
epidemic of railroad legislation as
lively as a prairie fire, and the move
ment took on a political activity that
surprised the country. The organiza-
tion through which the farmers worked
was a fraternal association known as
the Grange, and the movement became
famous as the Granger movement.
But the Northwestern farmer wakened
only long enough to rub his eyes: the
political nurses who looked after his
tariff interests explained that his real
destiny lay for another generation in
taxing the paint off his cradle TO
make other people rich, and, under
the soothing syrup of the statesman
of that day, he went again to sleep.
THE Grange has gone the way of all
orders political its legislation lies
forgotten on the statute books, but
the movement left those railroads ly-
ing within reach of the Granger laws
a name that survives. Wall Street
dubbed the Northwest roads the
the Granger lines, and prominent in
the group, then as now, is the Chica-
go, Milwaukee and ST. Paul Railway.
In writing of the territory in which
the ST. Paul lines were originally
projected Mr.. Spearman pays the fol-
lowing high tribute to Wisconsin:
Wisconsin, in resources, is ma
tion in itself. 1t is the most cosmo-
politan of our States, and three
fourths of its people are of foreign
birth or parentage. Wisconsin
counts 100 grasses, and, if Nature has
denied to it coal, it has given to it
sixty forest trees. Swept by glaciers
ages ago, the landscape hollows of
this early moraine present an unend-
ing variety of lakes. 1t is the land of
lakes: there are some 2000 scattered
over this single State, and they are
notable for every charm of the forest
landscape. They lie in a climate
more rarely favored than perhaps
any of our national Fairgrounds.
They have the seclusion and the
charm OF the English lake and the sun
and the air of Switzerland. Their ell
ovation, even, is surprise. One OF
these landscape mirrors, Trout Lake,
lies more than 1900 feet above the lev
ell of the sea-almost 1000 feet above
Lake Michigan, close beside it. In
Wisconsin's forests are the spruce,
the pines and the larch, the yew is
there and the birches, the wild iris
and the violet, the blue bell, clematis
and the brier rose.
Unto this rich territory have come
people from every State in Europe
save Turkey. They have made their
own settlements, preserved in many
interesting instances the best of their
native customs, clung tenaciously to
their religious faiths, worked unceas-
ingly and prospered Wisconsin as
a Commonwealth is a study in indus
trial contentment. To the whole
Northwest this admixture of foreign
peoples in Wisconsin has shown the
remarkable industrial possibilities in
dairying. The abounding springs,
the rushing waters OF the rivers, and
the cool Of the clear, deep lakes in
Wisconsin all suggest the dairy, and
native grasses afford the richest OF
grazing for the herd -