650 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 



was passed for the distribution of the surplus revenue of the 

 National Grange, which may be said to mark the beginning of 

 Grange decadence. But a consideration of this decadence may 

 well be postponed for a time. 



Any discussion of the causes of the Grange's astonishing 

 growth has been deferred to this point, in order that they may 

 be considered in connection with the railroad legislation of the 

 early seventies, with which the Grange, to most minds, is so 

 entangled. The spirit of enterprise following the war found vent 

 in developing the resources of the upper Mississippi Valley. 

 Emigration from Europe thither increased greatly after the close 

 of hostilities, and the tide was swelled by men turned adrift in 

 the disbanding of the armies. The cry was for railroads to open 

 the country, and the speculative spirit, induced by an inflated 

 currency, was quick to second it. Land-grants of enormous extent 

 were made by the general and state governments, and Western 

 municipalities vied with each other in bonding themselves to 

 offer inducements to railroad-building. In the years 1865-1871, 

 $500,000,000 was invested in Western railroads. D. C. Cloud, 

 in his " Monopolies and the People," makes the statement that 

 " one acre out of every eight and a half of the entire area of 

 Iowa has been given away to railroad corporations. . . . There 

 were land grants, subsidies, bonds, subscriptions, and taxes to the 

 amount of five per cent of our entire valuation in one year." 

 Every farmer wanted a railroad, and every one with any pre- 

 tense to economic knowledge wanted two, to keep down charges 

 by competition ! Railroads and population reacted on each other. 

 The consequence was, that both railroads and population moved 

 too far west, accumulating debt in the inflated currency as they 

 went. There was little traffic for the railroads in anything but 

 grain. So long as the price of this was high, all went well, and 

 they were suffered to go on their reckless way with little remark 

 save a clamor for more competing roads where the pinch of 

 discrimination was felt. But conditions changed. The price of 

 wheat began to show the effect of the enormous increase of pro- 

 duction. The demand caused by the Prusso-Austrian and Franco- 

 German wars ceased. The grasshopper became a burden. The 



