AS A POLITICAL FORCE 9! 



which had been sixty thousand the year before, was cut down to 

 about twenty thousand, and it was claimed that the facts that 

 Governor Carpenter was himself a prominent Patron, and that 

 he had pledged himself to favor the farmers' policy, were all 

 that prevented an Anti-Monopoly victory. The district elec- 

 tions resulted in a legislature composed of thirty-four Republican 

 and sixteen opposition senators, with fifty of each party in the 

 lower house. 1 As a result of this tie, a long struggle ensued 

 over the organization of the House of Representatives, in the 

 course of which, the seventy members who were also Patrons 

 held a meeting and tried to unite on a Grange candidate for 

 speaker, but found that they too were equally divided into 

 Republicans and opposition. This shows clearly that a large 

 proportion of the Grange element had not gone definitely into 

 the Anti-Monopoly party. The deadlock was finally broken 

 after 140 ballots by a compromise, according to which the 

 Republicans got the speakership and the opposition the other 

 officers, and the control of a number of committees. 2 



In Minnesota the outcome was somewhat the same. The 

 Republican majority for the head of the ticket was reduced 

 from the usual fifteen or twenty thousand to about five thousand, 

 and the Anti-Monopoly candidates for secretary of state and 

 treasurer were elected, while the Republican majority in the 

 lower house of the legislature was reduced to two. A consider- 

 able number, moreover, of the members of the legislature elected 

 as Republicans were also Grangers, and in favor of state regula- 

 tion of railroads. 3 



1 Chicago Tribune, November 8, 1873, p. 2; Industrial Age, 1873, October 18, 

 p. 4, November 8, p. 6, November 15, p. 5; American Agriculturist (New York), 

 xxxii. 439 (November, 1873). 



2 Iowa, House Journal, 1874, pp. 3-48; Chicago Tribune, January, 1874, pas- 

 sim; Industrial Age, 1874, January 24, p. 3, February 7, p. 6. 



3 Chicago Tribune, May, 1873- January, I ^74> passim; Industrial Age, Septem- 

 ber 6, 1873, P* 4> Prairie Farmer, xliv. 291 (September 13, 1873); Martin, Grange 

 Movement, 510-513; Stephe Smith, Grains for the Grangers, 233-236; E. D. 

 Neill, History of Minnesota (4th ed.), 760-763; American Annual Cyclopedia, 1873, 

 pp. 510-513. For the attitude of the Patrons of Husbandry toward this political 

 movement in Minnesota, see the Farmers' Union (Minneapolis), 1873, PP- *72, 

 194, 197, 218, 243, 261, 269, 276, 279, 285, 356 (May-November, 1873). 



