102 THE GRANGER MOVEMENT 



practically barred the way to the organization of a National 

 Reform party for the campaign of 1876. Large numbers of 

 the Independents, not only in the states where the parties had 

 declared for sound money but in Illinois and Indiana as well, 

 could not reconcile themselves to the Greenback doctrine and 

 as a result most of the wandering sheep returned to the Demo- 

 cratic or Republican folds. The fundamental cause for the 

 failure of the movement, however, seems to have been the same 

 as that which has caused the failure of every third-party move- 

 ment in the United States since the Civil War the innate 

 political conservatism of the bulk of the American people. 

 Although recognizing that the issues which originally divided the 

 old parties have largely passed away, they have preferred, even 

 though it be a somewhat slower process, to bring forward the 

 new issues and to work out the desired reforms in the estab- 

 lished parties rather than to attempt to displace them with new 

 organizations. 1 



THE GRANGE AND STATE LEGISLATION 



The formation of Independent parties was not the only way 

 in which law-making was affected by the Granger movement. 

 The order of Patrons of Husbandry, and to a less extent the other 

 farmers' organizations, exerted considerable direct influence 

 upon legislative activity in the different states, of the Union. 

 This was usually by means of resolutions or petitions requesting 

 the enactment of desired legislation, in some cases particular 

 bills before the state legislatures being specified; and in most 

 states the politicians had such a wholesome respect for the 

 strength of the order that these petitions were likely to be 

 granted unless there were some other powerful interest opposed 

 to them. This was especially true with regard to legislation on 

 more or less technical agricultural subjects, such as the estab- 

 lishment and regulation of state boards of agriculture, the 

 collection of agricultural statistics, the taxation of dogs for the 

 protection of the sheep industry, the establishment of public 

 weighers of grain, and the regulation of fences. Upon such 



1 This paragraph was written before the campaign of 1912. 



