104 THE ORDER OF PATRONS OF HUSBANDRY. 



CHAPTEK X. 



THE ORDER OF PATRONS OF HUSBANDRY. 



How ESTABLISHED MESSES. KELLEY AND SAUNDERS A CLOUD NO BIGGER THAN A 

 MAN S HAND SIGNIFICANCE or NAMES, &quot;GRANGE&quot; AND &quot;PATRON&quot; ELIGIBILITY: 

 ORGANIZATION AND FIRST OFFICERS: FIRST FOUR DISPENSATIONS GROWTH 

 ON THE UPPER MISSISSIPPI: EIGHTY GRANGES A DAY IN IOWA THIRD AN 

 NUAL SESSION WHAT THE PATRONS PROPOSE TO Do OFFICIAL DECLARA 

 TION OF PURPOSES CONSTITUTION AND BY-LAWS. 



&quot; INDUSTRY requires its captains as well as war.&quot; During the 

 last twenty years, the observant and philosophical watchman 

 upon the walls of privilege, might have observed in various 

 quarters the gathering of the clans of discontented laboring 

 men. The doctrine of equal rights under the law, the power 

 to enforce this doctrine through the ballot, had been gained; 

 there was needed an organization through which these could 

 manifest themselves. Political or financial combinations had 

 felt secure during all the historical struggle between wealth 

 and power on the one side, and numbers on the other, because, 

 wherever combinations of workmen were not interdicted by law, 

 advantage was taken of the diversity of interests among them, 

 to neutralize their influence. 



In France the antagonism of certain industrial interests was 

 stimulated to an unnatural degree; in America, the same thing 

 was accomplished by ranging the great body of agriculturists 

 in separate political camps. The need of a great conciliating, 

 centralizing influence was felt, before the civil war. It soon 

 afterward became an imperative necessity, for the industry of 

 the South was utterly paralyzed, while that of the North was 

 staggering under burdens too great to be borne. The associa 

 tions hitherto organized for the improvement of the farm, were 

 utterly inadequate to cope with the monster monopolies which 

 had taken a firm grasp of Congress and upon capital. 



It was very natural that the great awakening should begin 

 where the magnitude of the dangers was most apparent, viz: at 

 the seat of government. 



In January, 1866, under an order from President Andrew 

 Johnson, Mr. O. H. Kelley, of the Agricultural Bureau, com 

 menced a tour of inspection of the Southern States, during 

 which he conversed freely with the farmers and planters, and 



