THE FARMER'S WAR AGAINST MONOPOLIES. 309 



to accept it ; and the crop that has cost so much labor 

 and care and capital to produce, goes to swell the profits 

 of the local grain dealer, and the farmer is doomed to 

 another disappointment. 



Said a gentleman, writing from Dubuque, Iowa, not 

 long since, referring to the hardships endured by the 

 farmers of that State : 



" While every other interest seems to 'bear down* 

 upon the farmer, he has been, until recently, entirely 

 powerless to resist or to retaliate by putting up the 

 price of what he has to sell. In a former letter I have 

 explained how the railroads often play into the hands 

 of the grain speculators, to the injury of the farmers. 

 But these speculators have a way of combining against 

 the farmers, independently of the railroads. The great 

 bulk of the grain of this State has been sold by the 

 producers at the nearest railroad station, and it has 

 been very rare for a farmer to ship his own crop. The 

 reasons for this are numerous : very few farmers know 

 much about the methods of doing business in the cities; 

 they are not acquainted with the commission merchants, 

 and if they were would often be afraid to trust them. 

 Again, it often happens that the farmer desires to sell 

 a load of grain and get the money for it immediately 

 without waiting for it to be sold in Chicago, while he 

 may not desire to sell enough at the present state of the 

 market to load one or more cars. The result of these 

 circumstances is that the local wheat buyers have had 

 almost a monopoly of the shipping business, and, as I 

 have already remarked, the bulk of the crop is sold at 

 the nearest railroad station. But even here there is 

 little or no competition between rival buyers, because 

 they either agree each morning to pay a certain fixed 



