120 THE GRANGER MOVEMENT 



upon articles long in common use, which the laxness of the patent 

 laws or the laxness of their enforcement made possible. 1 



The Grangers were also quite unanimous in demanding greater 

 economy in the conduct of the general government. Just as 

 there was a constant demand for reform and retrenchment in 

 state and local government, so was it also felt that there were 

 many ways in which the national government might be made 

 more efficient and less extravagant and corrupt. The various 

 proceedings of state and national granges are rilled with denun- 

 ciations of such specific examples as the " salary grab " law and 

 the Credit Mobilier affair, and with demands for more economical 

 administration of the national government, lower salaries and 

 fees for officials, and less display and extravagance in the erection 

 of public buildings, while the Michigan State Grange in 1875 

 went so far as roundly to condemn the contemplated appro- 

 priation for the centennial exhibition at Philadelphia. 2 



Among the various other projects for national legislation 

 with which the Patrons of Husbandry were concerned at dif- 

 ferent times during the decade are to be found propositions 

 for stricter quarantine against yellow fever; 3 for legislation to 

 stamp out pleuro-pneumonia among cattle; 4 for the more 

 merciful treatment of live-stock in transit; 5 for the improvement 

 of the system of levees on the Mississippi River brought 

 forward by the Louisiana State Grange; 6 for the appoint- 

 ment of a commission to devise means for the extermination 

 of destructive insects; 7 for improvements in the signal service 

 of the United States weather bureau; 8 for the regulation of 

 weights and measures; 9 for changes in the rates of postage; 10 



1 See above, p. 18. 



2 National Grange, Proceedings, xiii. 124 (1879); State grange proceedings: 

 Michigan, i, ii (1874, 1875); New Hampshire, i, iv, vii (1873, 1877, 1880); New 

 York, ii (1875). 



3 National Grange, Proceedings, xii. 65 (1878). 



4 Ibid. xiv. 55, 140 (1880). 

 6 Ibid. xii. 67 (1878). 



6 Ibid. viii. 67 (February, -1875). 



7 Ibid. ix. 56 (November, 1875). 



8 Ibid. 174. 9 Ibid. 43, 107. 

 10 Wisconsin State Grange, Proceedings, iv (1876). 



