COLLAPSE OF THE GRANGER MOVEMENT 75 



farmers of Louisiana and Alabama; again in the 

 same year relief was sent to those Patrons who 

 suffered from the grasshopper plague west of the 

 Mississippi; and in 1876 money was sent to South 

 Carolina to aid sufferers from a prolonged drought 

 in that State. These charitable deeds, endearing 

 giver and receiver to each other, resulted in a bet- 

 ter understanding and a greater tolerance between 

 people of different parts of the country. 



The meetings of the local Granges were forums 

 in which the members trained themselves in pub- 

 lic speaking and parliamentary practice. Pro- 

 grams were arranged, sometimes with the help of 

 suggestions from officers of the state Grange; and 

 the discussion of a wide variety of topics, mostly 

 economic and usually concerned especially with the 

 interests of the farmer, could not help being stimu- 

 lating, even if conclusions were sometimes reached 

 which were at variance with orthodox political 

 economy. The Grange was responsible, too, for a 

 great increase in the number and circulation of agri- 

 cultural journals. Many of these papers were rec- 

 ognized as official organs of the order and, by pub- 

 lishing news of the Granges and discussing the 

 political and economic phases of the farmers' move- 

 Fient, they built up an extensive circulation. Rural 



