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Background:

Granite Ware (or "graniteware") in Granite City, IL, was founded by German immigrant brothers Frederick G. and William F. Niedringhaus. They developed the speckled, enamel-coated metal kitchenware in the 1870s and founded the town in 1896 to house their massive factory, the St. Louis Stamping Company (later NESCO). Granite Ware needed steel, so the Granite Iron Rolling Mills was founded. It manufactured sheet iron. The rest is history.

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Setting: City Town Hall hosted by the Six Mile Prairie Horseshoe Guild of Illinois.

Good evening fellow hammer holders, forge tenders, and proud defenders of the anvil. We gather tonight under the steady glow of honest coal fire to discuss a matter of grave concern. There is talk in town of a new enterprise. A cookware shop. Yes, cookware.

Some immigrant brothers with a fondness for shiny enamel have been whispering about plates and pots and wash basins. They say they only want to make simple household goods. Harmless they claim. Practical they insist. A tidy little shop that will bring a few jobs and maybe a new storefront or two.

We are not fooled.

We horseshoe smiths have seen how these things begin. First it is a plate. Then a bowl. Then a whole line of cookware. Suddenly wagons are rolling in with sheet metal. Then more buildings appear. Then chimneys. Then furnaces that burn hotter than anything this town has ever seen. Before you know it, someone decides they should make their own steel so they do not have to buy from outsiders.

And then what. A steel mill.

A steel mill in our quiet town. Imagine it. The clanging. The smoke. The whistles. The endless railcars. The need for more water, more power, more everything. Families moving in by the thousands. Houses popping up where peaceful fields once sat. Children growing up thinking steel is normal and forgetting the noble simplicity of a well shaped horseshoe.

We must ask ourselves the hard questions. Where will this growth end. If they start with cookware today, will they not demand blast furnaces tomorrow. Will we be forced to share our skyline with towers that glow red at night. Will our proud guild meetings be drowned out by the roar of rolling mills.

And what of our trade. We have served this town faithfully. We have shod the horses, fixed the plows, repaired the wagons, and forged the hinges on every respectable door. Our work is timeless. It is local. It is honest. You can shake the hand of the man who made your gate. You cannot shake the hand of a steel beam.

They promise opportunity. They always do. They say new industries create more jobs and new businesses and a stronger town. But at what cost. Today a saucepan. Tomorrow a smokestack.

We urge this community to think carefully. Protect the quiet rhythm of hammer on anvil. Preserve the modest charm of a town where a man can hear himself think over the crackle of a forge. Do not be lured by shiny enamel and talk of progress. Leave such grand experiments to other cities that crave noise and growth.

And let this be remembered. When they say it is only cookware, remember that every great upheaval in history began with someone saying do not worry it is small.

Signed with soot and sincerity,
The Six Mile Prairie Horseshoe Guild,
Guardians of Quiet Streets and Reasonable Ambition


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