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CHAPTER XXI.

THE PATRONS OF IOWA AND THEIR WORK.

TWO MEETINGS OF THE STATE GRANGE.

The Order of Patrons of Husbandry early obtained a strong foothold in Iowa, and this, for a considerable time past, has been the banner State in the number of its Granges, etc. Nearly two thousand Granges are now in working operation there, and their influence is powerfully felt in almost every county.

The last annual meeting of the State Grange was held at Des Moines, on the ninth and tenth of December, 1873. Worthy Master Smedley, in his opening address, reviewed the growth of the Order in the State, showing that the number of Subordinate Granges increased, during the preceding year, from seven hundred and eighty-eight to one thousand eight hundred and thirty-eight, with an aggregate membership of one hundred thousand. He warned the members that the success of the Order depended upon the observance of their rules, prohibiting the introduction of politics into the Order. During the afternoon, a prominent member made a speech favoring the formation of a new political party.

After a sharp contest, concluded late on the tenth, the following officers were elected: Col. A. B. Smedley (reelected), Master; J. M. Dixon, Overseer; J. G. H. Little,

Secretary; J. W. Wilkinson, Lecturer; William Duane Wilson, Chaplain; D. W. Prindle, Steward; Jonathan Thacher, Assistant Steward; M. L. Devon, Treasurer; Executive Committee J. W. Whitman, E. R. Shankland, and Clark.

From a more perfect report of the annual meeting of the Iowa State Grange, held on the twenty-eighth of January, 1873, I quote the following points, not only as embodying important information concerning the workings of the Order in its greatest stronghold, but also as showing the tendencies of the Farmers' Movement. This meeting was attended by

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over one thousand delegates from the various Granges of the State, representing forty thousand of the farmers of Iowa. But for the railroad blockade, caused by the unprecedented snow-storms that had visited the West, it is estimated that over two thousand delegates would have assembled, As it was, however, the large hall used for the occasion barely accommodated the number present.

RAILROADS, LAND GRANTS, SALARIES, AND GRANGE AGENTS.

One of the memorials presented, asked Congress to build a double track freight railroad to the seaboard, and another

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asked the Legislature of Iowa to build a system of narrow guage railroads in the State. The following resolution was adopted with respect to the land-grant bill then before Congress:

"Resolved, By the State Grange of the Patrons of Husbandry, that the Worthy Master be requested to telegraph to President Grant their earnest desire that he interpose his veto on the bill recently passed by the House of Representatives of the United States, making or confirming additional grants of lands to railroads in this State."

A memorial was adopted asking the legislature to regulate railroad tariffs. Resolutions were passed appointing a Grange agent for each railroad in the State; and organizing the entire Grange of Iowa into a company for the reduction of express rates.

The report of the Finance Committee, which was adopted, recommended that the Master should receive a salary of seven hundred dollars per annum, each member of the Executive Committee one hundred and fifty dollars, and the Treasurer two hundred dollars.

A motion was adopted that the memorial of the Grange in regard to railroad legislation be presented to the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House.

At the meeting of the Executive Committee, there were appointed a State Agent, and an agent for each of the main lines of the East and West railroads in the State, whose duty it should be to attend to all railroad interests of the Granges, such as making freight rates, and seeing to prompt and safe shipment of all Grange freights.

A. B. Smedley, of Howard County, the newly-elected Master of the State Grange and Chairman of the Executive Committee, was appointed Grange Agent for the McGregor Western Railroad; E. R. Shankland, of Dubuque, agent for

the Dubuque & Sioux City Railroad; Spencer Day, of Marshalltown, for the Chicago & North-western Railroad; O. H. P. Buchanan, of Mt. Pleasant, for the Burlington & Missouri River Railroad; J. D. Whitman, of Des Moines, as agent for the State at large, and also for the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad.

SPEECH OF WORTHY MASTER A. B. SMEDLEY.

At the festivities at Epworth, Iowa, on the seventeenth of September, 1873, Col. A. B. Smedley, one of the master spirits in this great Order, in an eloquent address, enunciated sentiments which can not fail to find an echo in the heart of every delver of the soil. The following extracts will show the tenor of his address:

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The darkness, bigotry, and intolerance of feudal Europe drove to the bleak shores of New England a few souls, in whose hearts responded the divine element of freedom. What seemed to them darkness, privation, and trial was the birth of a new nation, which should be the home of the oppressed of all lands. Human slavery, relic of the dark ages, cursed our nation. The time came when slavery and freedom could not exist together; through trial, through

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"Through Trial, Toil, and Blood."

toil and blood and anguish, slavery went down into the realms of the past, and freedom was triumphant. 'Tis true that in a thousand homes are empty seats; 't is true that in a multitude of hearts there

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are vacant chambers; but God's purposes are accomplished, and the stain that for so long had darkened our fair nation's fame was effaced, and we began to say we were a nation of freemen.

But we had scarcely begun to congratulate ourselves on our success when a new enemy appeared. Circumstances growing partly out of a long and terrible war, and partly from other causes, had led to the creation of immense and powerful corporations, which threatened the safety, prosperity, and happiness of the people. Thoughtful men began to be troubled, and to look with painful anxiety as to the probable result of a condition which threatened to usurp the government, which destroyed confidence in our judiciary, and which held in their hands the prosperity of all industrial and producing classes. The national banks, although created to meet the exigency of the darkest days of the war-the system designed by good men, and serving, for a time, a wise purpose-had become an enormous power, and one which, in the hands of designing men, might be used as an instrument of oppression. Our system of railroads, de

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was seen that the whole agricultural interests of the country, more especially of the West, was made productive or unproductive, just as the whim or caprice of those who controlled these corporations led. The industry of a whole commonwealth might, and oftentimes was, made of just such a nature as they desired, and people were simply tools in their hands, with just such remuneration as they pleased to give them. Men came to see that it was only a question of time when these monopoly interests should be as absolute in their ownership of the agricultural and producing classes of the country as the nobles of Russia are of the serfs. We saw, too, that this evil was gaining in strength every day, and unless some means was found

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