2C2 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



bill was rushed through for printing and distributing to the farmers 

 certain agricultural documents, at an expense of 8500,000 ! W. W. 

 Phelps opposed it, only to be bitterly attacked on the score of sympa- 

 thy with monopolists and lack of sympathy with farmers. One fervid 

 orator from Kansas went over his whole record for proofs of this, and 

 alleged many damaging facts — among them that he was rich, that he 

 was interested in banks and railroads, and that he had been graduated 

 with honor from Yale College. " These Grangers," exclaimed the 

 orator, " mean business ; . . . they are chosen to be the sovereigns of 

 the mightiest republic of earth." Various cities strove for the honor 

 of having the National Grange offices located within their limits, one 

 offering to give a splendid building, another, to furnish necessary office- 

 room and an annuity of $5,000 for five years, but the Grange was 

 rich and independent in those days. At the seventh annual session 

 held at St. Louis in 1874, a declaration of purposes was adopted which 

 still remains the official statement. I can quote but fragments of this 

 creditable document : " AVe shall endeavor ... to enhance the com- 

 forts and attractions of our homes, and strengthen our attachment to 

 our pursuits ; to foster co-operation ; ... to diversify our crops ; to 

 condense the weight of our exports, selling less in the bushel and 

 more on hoof and in fleece ; to discountenance the credit system, the 

 mortgage system, the fashion system, and every other system tending 

 to prodigality and bankruptcy. We propose meeting together, buy- 

 ing together, selling together. We wage no aggressive warfare 

 against any other interests whatever ; ... we hold that transportation 

 companies are necessary to our success, that their interests are inti- 

 mately connected with our interests, and that harmonious action is 

 mutually advantageous. We are not enemies of railroads. In our 

 noble order there is no communism, no agrarianism ; we emphatically 

 assert the truth taught in our organic law that the Grange is not a 

 political or party organization. No Grange, if true to its obligations, 

 can discuss political or religious questions, nor call political conven- 

 tions, nor nominate candidates, nor even discuss their merits in its 

 meetings." It is to be noted that this is 1874, at the height of the 

 "Anti-Railroad" and "Farmers' party" excitement. 



The Grange had now reached the zenith of its power. One year 

 later, in the stormy meeting held at Charleston, a measure was passed 

 for the distribution of the surplus revenue of the National Grange, 

 which may be said to mark the beginning of Grange decadence. But 

 a consideration of this decadence may well be postponed for a time. 



Any discussion of the causes of the Grange's astonishing growth 

 has been deferred to this point, in order that they may be considered 

 in connection with the railroad legislation of the early seventies, with 

 which the Grange, to most minds, is so entangled. The spirit of 

 enterprise following the war found vent in developing the resources 

 of the upper Mississippi Valley. Emigration from Europe thither in- 



