SOCIAL AND EDUCATIONAL FEATURES 289 



of these papers went out of existence or became organs of the 

 Greenback party. 1 



While this first wave of enthusiasm was subsiding, another 

 class of Grange papers began to make its appearance in all parts 

 of the country. The leaders of the order wanted to get into 

 closer touch with the membership, partly perhaps with the idea 

 of checking the decline, and the best and cheapest way in which 

 this could be done was through the press. As a result official 

 Grange organs were established in nearly every state in which 

 the order existed. Sometimes the officers of the state grange 

 themselves edited and published a monthly paper, or bulletin, 

 as it was generally called, but more frequently some established 

 agricultural paper was chosen and an agreement made whereby 

 the paper was recognized as an official organ of the order in 

 return for the publication of such Grange matter as might be 

 furnished to it. In addition, a number of other Grange papers 

 were established as private enterprises, built up a large circula- 

 tion among the members by printing Grange news, and in the 

 course of time generally succeeded in securing the recognition 

 of state or local granges as official organs. There can be no 

 doubt but that such papers as the Dirigo Rural of Maine, the 

 American Grange Bulletin of Cincinnati, The Grange Visitor of 

 Michigan, the Patron of Husbandry of Mississippi and the Cali- 

 fornian Patron, exerted a wholesome influence upon the social 

 and intellectual conditions of the farmers as well as helped to 

 stay the decline of the Grange. 2 



At the ninth session of the National Grange in November, 

 1875, resolutions were introduced calling for the establishment 

 of an organ under the direction of the National Grange. The 

 proposition did not meet with favor at the time; but by the next 

 session in November, 1876, the national treasury had reached 

 such a low stage that it seemed necessary to adopt some cheap 

 means of communication or give up altogether the attempt to 



1 On the Granger and Anti-Monopoly papers of Illinois, see Franklin W. Scott, 

 Newspapers and Periodicals of Illinois (Illinois Historical Collections, vi), pp. c-ci. 



2 National Grange, Proceedings, x. 87, xiii. 25, 37, xiv. 130, xv. 38, 39, 42, xvi. 

 26-29, 35, 41, 44 (1876-82). See bibliography below, pp. 321-329. 



