318 HISTORY OF THE GRANGE MOVEMENT; OR, 



farther east, the corn crop could not be sent to market 

 at all. 



The farmer, unlike other producers of a valuable 

 commodity, is not allowed to fix the price of his pro- 

 duce. That is decided for him by the railroads and the 

 middle-men, who generally work together, as they can 

 well afford to do, the farmer paying the cost of their 

 iniquitous combination. 



Said an Iowa farmer recently : 



" The railroads of this State 'discriminate unjustly 

 against the farmers in the transportation of crops ; that 

 is, give other men advantages which they deny to the 

 farmers. Let me explain : Here is a wheat or corn 

 buyer who makes a living by purchasing grain of the 

 farmers and shipping it to Chicago. Of course he 

 makes a profit by it grows rich, in fact. Now the 

 farmers think that if they ship their own grain directly 

 to Chicago they might save the profit that this middle- 

 man makes. They engage a lot of cars, load them, 

 and send them forward, but they find when they have 

 paid the freight and the other expenses which the mid- 

 dle-man must necessarily also incur, they don't have as 

 much left for their grain as he offered them. Now how 

 is that explained? The railroad company gives the 

 grain trader a drawback on the grain he ships, which 

 it refuses to the farmers; and in some instances, at 

 least, these traders are in partnership with railway 

 officials. I thought, when the idea of cooperative ship- 

 ments was first proposed, that these favors were given 

 solely on account of the amount of business that these 

 men brought to the railroads. I supposed that the de- 

 ductions were simply those that would be naturally 

 made to wholesale trade, and in speeches to the farmers 



