38 THE GRANGER MOVEMENT 



i 



to the so-called classical institutions. 1 So also, the agricultural 

 press, which has since become an important educational factor, 

 was then weak, impractical, and little patronized. Not only 

 were the farmers deficient in technical education, but as a class 

 they lacked that knowledge of a more general nature which 

 the best interest of their business demanded. They knew little 

 of the conditions and prospects of the various crops throughout 

 the country, and the probable future condition of the markets; 

 they were ignorant of many of the usages of business; and the 

 lack of knowledge of simple economic principles and their appli- 

 cation to the politico-economic problems of the day made it 

 difficult for them to reason intelligently in matters in which 

 their own interests were at stake. 2 Thus what little political 

 influence or power they did possess was largely nullified by their 

 lack of knowledge as to the true interests of agriculture. 3 



Such, then, was the situation as it presented itself to the 

 farmers of the country in the decade of the seventies; and in 

 casting about for a remedy it was but natural that they should 

 look for examples to those other classes of society which had 

 been forging so rapidly ahead. The one thing which presented 

 itself again and again in almost every other industry, but which 

 appeared to be lamentably lacking in agriculture, was organiza- 

 tion the organization and cooperation, for their mutual advan- 

 tage, of those whose interests coincided. The manufacturers 

 were united into stock companies and more or less vague associa- 

 tions; the merchants had their commercial organizations; the 

 bankers and brokers, their stock-exchanges and clearing houses; 

 and even the laboring men were beginning to find and assert 

 their common interests in trade-unions; but for the farmer 

 there was nothing of the sort. Each individual went his own 

 way unmindful of his neighbor or of the interests of his class 

 as a whole, which in the long run meant his own interests. 4 



1 National Grange, Proceedings, xix. 17 (1885); Messer, The Grange, 16. 



2 Ibid, ii ; Elliot, American Farms, 211-220. 



8 Messer, Benefits of the Grange (pamphlet, 2d ed.), 3. 



4 Nation, xviii. 55; Prairie Farmer, xliii. 369, xliv. i (November 23, 1872, 

 January 4, 1873). 



