1889.] PUBLIC DOCUMENT — No. 4. 287 



the diffusion of such information is immensely increased 

 by the close association and unity of interest provided for 

 in the Grange. 



But this, too, as well as its social work, is all within the 

 Grange. We have not yet touched upon its exterior work. 

 And I confess that my own interest in this which I have 

 thus hastily sketched has been so absorbing that the external 

 work of the Grange has seemed comparatively unimportant. 

 It is not, however, absolutely unimportant, nor has it been 

 neglected. If my impressions are correct, it was the first 

 thought of its founders to bring the power of association to 

 bear upon the farmer's relation to the markets, as buyer and 

 seller. They felt keenly the disadvantages under which he 

 labored, and thought they saw in association a remedy for 

 them. The results have proved their judgment correct, and 

 justified their work. They thought, too, that by means of 

 organization and concentration public opinion might be 

 moulded, and legislation secured against evils which affected 

 not the agricultural class alone, but with them other pro- 

 ducers, and through them the great body of consumers. 

 They believed that the grip of monopoly upon the articles of 

 transportation must be relaxed, or no healthy, vigorous circu- 

 lation could be maintained. They believed that falsehood in 

 trade, working injury backward upon the producer and for- 

 ward against the consumer, should be the subject of legisla- 

 tive prohibition and penalty. The interstate commerce law 

 and the oleomargarine legislation of the several States and of 

 the United States stand as conspicuous expressions of this 

 thought. Both have been bitterly resisted and savagely 

 criticised ; and if indeed they are wrong in principle and 

 evil in their fruitage, much of the blame thereof must fall 

 upon the Grange, for it has done more than any other single 

 agency to bring them to pass. The Grange does not shrink 

 from this test. It believes firmly in the principle of the 

 control of monopolies by the government. It believes in 

 such supervision of trade as shall punish fraud, prevent 

 harmful adulteration of food, and protect not the purses 

 alone but the health as well of all consumers. 



How trivial, in view of the work it has done and stands 

 ready to do, seem the objections urged against the Grange. I 



