FIRST STEPS TOWARD THE GRANGE. 91 



vise some plan of getting to foreign and domestic markets with 

 out having their products go through the hands of so many 

 middle-men; to import grain sacks direct, instead of allowing 

 California merchants to swallow up the farmers earnings by 

 enormous profits.&quot; The sum of nineteen thousand dollars was 

 subscribed on the spot, and eleven thousand subsequently, 

 making a total of thirty thousand dollars on that Saturday after 

 noon. 



By the first of April, there was a chain of farmers organiza 

 tions completed on the Pacific Coast, from El Monte in Los An 

 geles County, to Walla Walla, in Washington Territory. It 

 began to appear likely that greater privacy in carrying on the 

 large business interests contemplated by them, would be indis 

 pensable. In the Spring of 1871, W. H. Baxter, residing on 

 his farm near Napa City, had communicated with the Secretary 

 of the National Grange, with respect to the wants of agricult 

 urists in California, the social isolation in which so many of 

 them lived, and the exactions which they suffered. Certain 

 plans for their relief had been shaping themselves in his mind, 

 which, through this correspondence, he found anticipated, or 

 met to a reasonable extent by the statements of the purposes 

 and practical effects of that Order. In August, 1871, he re 

 ceived a commission. as Deputy of the National Grange for Cal- Wf- 



\j 



ifornia. 



TTr. Baxter at once began to spread information with regard 

 to the objects and advantages promised in the new organization, 

 but his hearers, for the most part, were already members of 

 clubs, and had no suspicion that any open organization would 

 necessarily fail before the combination of intellect and capital 

 with which the farmers had to contend. Patient and persist 

 ent, Mr. Baxter watched his opportunity, and was content to 

 bide his time, which came even sooner than he expected, at the 

 Farmers Union Convention, which met in San Francisco, 011 

 the 8th of April, 1873, and was fully represented by delega 

 tions from all the Clubs, and by those who are now the leading 

 Patrons in the State. 



The convention was opened by an address from President 

 Bidwell, who said: 



We are convened as farmers and representatives of the farming- 

 and industrial interests of California. For several years a grow- 

 in * want has been felt among the farmers of the State for co-opera- 



