WHAT ORGANIZATION HAS ACHIEVED. 235 



WHAT OKGANIZATION HAS ACTUALLY ACHIEVED FOR THE 



AMERICAN FARMER. 



NOTES ON AxN ADDRESS BY HON, J. K. CAMPBELL OF YPSILANTI. 



The facts iu regard to farmers' organizations are known to all. Their 

 history is all included in the past fifty years. About thirty-five years 

 .ago the Grange had its beginning. 



Originated at the close of the civil war to unite the farmers of the 

 north and the south, it did much to unify the sections lately at war. 



Its Declaration of Purposes, sent out in the early history of the order, 

 is still the best statement of the demands and the needs of the farmer. 



The Farmers' National Congress is another of the active forces at 

 work for the uplifting of the farming class. It considers the great ques- 

 tions of national importance upon which the intelligent citizen should 

 be informed. Most of those in attendance are men and women from the 

 farm. But they were able to take up these large and world-wide topics 

 and treat them in an able nmnner. This was the direct result of the 

 education that comes through organization. 



The influence of farmers on legislation has been greatly increased. 

 Through the efforts of the Grange judicial decisions favoring the people 

 have been secured, the Bureau of Agriculture has been raised to a cabi- 

 net department, and the living questions, such as the relations of labor 

 and cai)ital, are being studied and discussed. 



President McKinley once said, that in his public career he had often 

 noticed how helpless the farmers were before legislative bodies. This is 

 now all changed. We have legislative committees before every law mak- 

 ing body. 



Organized effort has brought the daily paper to the farmer's door. It 

 has made possible many lines of influence not before within rea^h of the 

 farmer. As a result of the uplifting, educating influence of organization, 

 the American farmer is keeping pace with the development of every other 

 interest and fitting himself to be the national juryman of the future. 



