112 THE GRANGER MOVEMENT 



of the order the establishment of a workable water route 

 from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico by improvement 

 of the Fox, Wisconsin, and Mississippi rivers. In order to 

 bring the influence of the Grange to bear more effectively for 

 securing federal aid for this project, the executive committees 

 of the various Mississippi Valley granges held a meeting at 

 Keokuk, Iowa, October 6, 1873, at which arrangements were 

 made for carrying on a correspondence with the congressmen 

 from each state on the subject. 1 Shortly after this a North- 

 western Farmers' Convention, which met at Chicago, took up 

 this and other schemes for internal improvement, and the officers 

 of this convention were given an opportunity to present the 

 views of the farmers on the subject before the Windom com- 

 mittee on transportation of the United States Senate. 2 The 

 National Grange, in the " Declaration of Purposes " adopted 

 at its next meeting, February, 1874, declared that the order 

 would advocate the increase of facilities for cheap transporta- 

 tion in every practicable way. 3 Resolutions were also adopted 

 at this and at subsequent meetings favoring specific projects. 

 Meanwhile the various state granges continued to pass resolu- 

 tions on the subject, and it seems probable that- this agitation 

 had considerable influence in inducing Congress to appropriate 

 over fifty-eight million dollars for river and harbor improve- 

 ment in the decade from 1870 to 1880, a sum more than four 

 times as great as the appropriations for similar purposes in any 

 preceding decade. Of this money, a considerable part was used 

 on the Mississippi, Wisconsin, and Fox rivers, but this general 

 project of a Lakes to Gulf waterway has never been successfully 

 carried out, because of a number of weak links in the chain 

 which do not seem to be susceptible of improvement. 



1 The resolution embodying the proceedings of the Keokuk meeting is to be 

 found in Wisconsin State Grange, Proceedings, ii. 31 (1874); Iowa State Grange, 

 Proceedings, iv (1873); and also printed separately in the form of a circular, a 

 copy of which is in the library of the Wisconsin Historical Society. 



2 Windom Committee, Report, ii. 646-688. The proceedings of the North- 

 western Farmers' Convention are here given in full together with testimony of 

 the officers before the committee. 



3 National Grange, Proceedings, vii. 58 (1874). 



