Sifting Through the Sands of Time from the Courier Archives

A Panic Stricken Market

Just suppose we had a Democratic administration coincident to the violent convulsion in the stock market in Wall Street! What a commotion it would have made in the Republican newspapers of the county as an object lesson to voters against the election of a Democratic president. But the panic under a Republican administration is no reflection upon that party according to the comments of those organs. Seriously what would have been the damage if it had not been for the Federal Reserve Law passed by a Democratic Congress under a Democratic administration to have securities drop more than one-third in average value as they did in the past few weeks. The din would have lasted at least four years until the next presidential election.

Opposition to the Chain Store

No more lively topic of Grange discussion at the present time is to be found in the United States than the subject of chain stores which are so rapidly opening their branches in small as well as large centers. Probably half the Grange problems of the present season will introduce the subject in some form, frequently in the nature of a stirring debate in which the opposing arguments are vigorously marshaled.

As a rule the Grange attitude is antagonistic to the chain store because its coming has reduced the local demand for farm products and by so much has increased the marketing problems of the small farmer. Moreover, the local merchants who are injured by the coming of the chain store are usually leaders in community enterprises, often active supporters of the Grange and relied upon to give a lift to various community undertakings.

Grange sympathy appears to lean strongly toward the local merchants and loyalty to home institutions and to home people has always been one of the striking characteristics of the Grange. In some Grange sections the state organization has definitely put itself on record as opposed to the extension of the chain store and calling upon its membership to give their patronage to local merchants who are residents of the town and who have long maintained an established business within its borders.

Into the same discussion in many Granges comes the question of patronizing mail order houses, and again the Grange declares itself unfavorable to the extension of this sort of training, that by affording a sharp contrast to many groups of rural people who in the past have been extensive patrons of such houses. Many of the papers and talks in Grange meetings on these subjects have been exceedingly interesting and the discussions that have allowed have been very lively.