320 HISTORY OF THE GRANGE MOVEMENT; OR, 



competition, will retail it to the farmers cheaper than 

 what their own cost them with the freight added. Now 

 there must be some cat in that meal (or salt). It may 

 be that in some cases the wholesale dealer may give, the 

 Iowa trader a drawback ; but in others we know that 

 he is favored with special rates by the railroads which 

 they refuse to give to others shipping the same goods 

 in like amount." 



Said another: 



" We fare worse than the man who fell among thieves 

 between Jerusalem and Jericho. The great railroad 

 corporations first extort from us everything they possi- 

 bly can, and then they turn us over to Chicago to be 

 still further plundered. Why, they don't allow us to 

 say which elevator our grain shall go into when it 

 reaches Chicago; we have no redress if the railroad 

 don't deliver as much grain as we ship from here, and 

 it is utterly impossible for us to have any of our grain 

 passed as 'No. 1.' We may ship the best wheat that 

 ever went to Chicago, and the probabilities are that 

 they will mix it up with their * imperial ' wheat and 

 make a * No. 2 ' that will bring a higher price, and the 

 increase that we ought to have goes to the owner of the 

 elevator. We have no particular interest in Chicago's 

 prosperity; indeed, if our grain could go forward with- 

 out going into Chicago to be taxed for the benefit of her 

 speculators, we should be much better oif." 



Some time ago a Philadelphia merchant stated that a 

 car load of corn had been recently shipped to him from 

 the interior of Iowa. The freight charges, commissions 

 and other expenses amounted to $233.70, and the grain 

 sold for $233.07, leaving a deficit to the shippers in ad- 

 dition to the value of the grain at the point of ship- 



