CHAPTER IX 



CONCLUSION 

 THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE MOVEMENT 



IF the Granger movement had been a mere episode in Ameri- 

 can history, it would still have been worthy of investigation 

 because it exhibits the conditions, opinions, and desires, which 

 prevailed among large numbers of American farmers during 

 the seventies, and because it actually played a considerable 

 part in the history of the decade. Many, however, of these 

 conditions, opinions, and desires, which were first brought into 

 prominence by the Granger movement, have remained active 

 forces in American history to the present day. 



The Granger movement was, primarily, a movement for agri- 

 cultural organization, for the advancement of the welfare of 

 farmers in every possible way socially, intellectually, politi- 

 cally, economically by concerted effort. It was, moreover, 

 the first attempt at agricultural organization on a large scale, 

 but it was far from being the last, and the ideas and ideals, if 

 not the direct influence, of the Patrons of Husbandry can be 

 traced in every one of the later organizations. In some parts 

 of the country, and particularly in the East, the Grange itself, 

 as has been seen, continued and still continues to serve as the 

 principal agency for united effort among farmers. In the West 

 and South, however, where the Grange flourished most vig- 

 orously in the early seventies, and where its most striking mani- 

 festations appeared, .other organizations arose and assumed 

 the leadership in this more general farmers' movement. 



The first of these organizations to become really national 

 in scope was the Farmers' Alliance, which spread all over the 

 South and West in the later eighties. Numerous state and 

 local orders, however, made their appearance in many parts 

 of the country somewhat earlier. 1 About 1874 or 1875 local 



1 On the Farmers' Alliance and its various component parts, see N. A. Dunning, 

 The Farmers' Alliance History and Agricultural Digest; W. S. Morgan, History of 



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