108 TEE GRANGER MOVEMENT 





the enactment of more stringent laws for the enforcement of 

 contracts to labor. 1 In Alabama the influence of the Grange, 

 as exerted by agitation and memorials to the legislature, appears 

 to have been a factor in securing the repeal of the personal 

 recognisance law and the enactment of many laws in the interests 

 of the white farmers; including a high license law, a law to 

 restrict the sale of liquor by druggists, and more stringent laws 

 to prevent trespass, burning of woodlands, and stealing of 

 agricultural products. 2 



Such were the main lines along which the order of Patrons 

 of Husbandry sought to influence the course of legislation in 

 the different states, and in general it would seem that the results 

 of this influence were salutary; certainly that was the case in 

 so far as it served to check the tendency toward extravagance 

 and corruption on the part of public officials. True, the amount 

 of legislation which can be pointed to as a direct result of Grange 

 influence, aside from the Granger railroad laws, is slight, but 

 the work of agitation performed by the order served at least 

 to inculcate an interest and a watchfulness in legislative matters 

 on the part of the farmers, the indirect influence of which was 

 probably quite extensive. 



THE GRANGE AND NATIONAL LEGISLATION 



The constitution of the order of Patrons of Husbandry ex- 

 pressly declared that political questions would not be tolerated 

 as subjects of discussion, 3 and the founders repeatedly asserted 

 that the order was not a political organization. Nevertheless, 

 the phenomenal increase in the membership of the order during 

 1873 and 1874 awakened the liveliest interest, and sometimes 

 apprehension, among politicians throughout the Union. Thus 

 the New York Tribune, referring to the Grange, declared that 



1 Mississippi State Grange, Proceedings, v (1875). 



2 Hawkins, " The Grange in the South," in Allen, Labor and Capital, ch. xx. 

 Mr. Hawkins also declares that the Grange was a considerable factor in uniting 

 the farmers and white men in general in preparation for the reestablishment of 

 white supremacy in Alabama in 1874. 



3 See Article XII of the constitution in National Grange, Proceedings, vi. 18 

 (1873), and many other places. 



