AS A POLITICAL FORCE 9! 



which had been sixty thousand the year before, was cut down to 

 about twenty thousand, and it was claimed that the facts that 

 Governor Carpenter was himself a prominent Patron, and that 

 he had pledged himself to favor the farmers' policy, were all 

 that prevented an Anti-Monopoly victory. The district elec- 

 tions resulted in a legislature composed of thirty-four Republican 

 and sixteen opposition senators, with fifty of each party in the 

 lower house. 1 As a result of this tie, a long struggle ensued 

 over the organization of the House of Representatives, in the 

 course of which, the seventy members who were also Patrons 

 held a meeting and tried to unite on a Grange candidate for 

 speaker, but found that they too were equally divided into 

 Republicans and opposition. This shows clearly that a large 

 proportion of the Grange element had not gone definitely into 

 the Anti-Monopoly party. The deadlock was finally broken 

 after 140 ballots by a compromise, according to which the 

 Republicans got the speakership and the opposition the other 

 officers, and the control of a number of committees. 2 



In Minnesota the outcome was somewhat the same. The* 

 Republican majority for the head of the ticket was reduced 

 from the usual fifteen or twenty thousand to about five thousand, 

 and the Anti-Monopoly candidates for secretary of state and 

 treasurer were elected, while the Republican majority in the 

 lower house of the legislature was reduced to two. A consider- 

 able number, moreover, of the members of the legislature elected 

 as Republicans were also Grangers, and in favor of state regula- 

 tion of railroads. 3 



1 Chicago Tribune, November 8, 1873, p. 2; Industrial Age, 1873, October 18, 

 p. 4, November 8, p. 6, November 15, p. 5; American Agriculturist (New York), 

 xxxii. 439 (November, 1873). 



2 Iowa, House Journal, 1874, pp. 3-48; Chicago Tribune, January, 1874, pas- 

 sim; Industrial Age, 1874, January 24, p. 3, February 7, p. 6. 



3 Chicago Tribune, May, i873~January, 1874, passim; Industrial Age, Septem- 

 ber 6, 1873, p. 4; Prairie Farmer, xliv. 291 (September 13, 1873); Martin, Grange 

 Movement, 510-513; Stephe Smith, Grains for the Grangers, 233-236; E. D. 

 Neill, History of Minnesota (4th ed.), 760-763; American Annual Cyclopedia, 1873, 

 pp. 510-513. For the attitude of the Patrons of Husbandry toward this political 

 movement in Minnesota, see the Farmers' Union (Minneapolis), 1873, PP- 172, 

 194, 197, 218, 243, 261, 269, 276, 279, 285, 356 (May-November, 1873). 



