448 HISTORY OF THE GRANGE MOVEMENT; OR, 



influence of the Grange is little more than to loosen the 

 bands that bind men to old parties and to make them 

 free to choose their future places. 



" The Grange, although organized several years ago, 

 did not become a formidable body until within the past 

 twelvemonth. Immense crops of corn which had to be 

 sold for less than the cost of production ; short crops of 

 wheat, with no corresponding increase of price ; railroad 

 combinations to prevent competition and reasonable 

 rates of freight ; wheat and corn rings, formed to con- 

 trol the price along many of the great railroad lines, 

 and to prevent the farmers from receiving any advan- 

 tage from favorable markets ; the insatiable greed of 

 some implement makers and agents ; the accumulating 

 mortgages on farms these and many other circumstan- 

 ces have at length aroused the long-suffering farmers, 

 and the Grange, already instituted, gave them the 

 means to make their demands effective. This ex- 

 plains the astonishing growth of the Order since 

 October, 1872. 



" I have said that none but farmers and their fam- 

 ilies may be members of the Grange. I see it reported 

 that a number of grain-dealers and others in Boston, 

 not practical agriculturists, have obtained a charter and 

 organized a Grange. I don't know by what authority 

 Mr. Abbott, the State Deputy of Massachusetts, has 

 initiated men who were not farmers into the Order, but 

 every prominent Patron with whom I have spoken on 

 the subject disapproves of this extension of the Order, 

 and the matter will probably come before the National 

 Grange at its next session. Hundreds of men in every 

 State I have visited have, for personal ends, attempted 

 to obtain admission to the Grange. Some have been 



