COLLAPSE OF THE GRANGER MOVEMENT 63 



cooperation was probably chief. Their hatred of 

 the middleman and of the manufacturer was almost 

 as intense as their hostility to the railroad magnate; 

 quite naturally, therefore, the farmers attempted 

 to use their new organizations as a means of elimi- 

 nating the one and controlling the other. As in the 

 parallel case of the railroads, the farmers' ani- 

 mosity, though it was probably greater than the 

 provocation warranted, was not without grounds. 

 The middlemen the commission merchants 

 to whom the farmer sold his produce and the retail 

 dealers from whom he bought his supplies did 

 undoubtedly make use of their opportunities to 

 drive hard bargains. The commission merchant 

 had such facilities for storage and such knowledge 

 of market conditions that he frequently could take 

 advantage of market fluctuations to increase his 

 profits. The farmer who sold his produce at a 

 low price and then saw it disposed of as a much 

 higher figure was naturally enraged, but he could 

 devise no adequate remedy. Attempts to regu- 

 late market conditions by creating an artificial 

 shortage seldom met with success. The slogan 

 "Hold your hogs" was more effective as a catch- 

 word than as an economic weapon. The retail 

 dealers, no less than the commission men, seemed 



