The Grange :: essays research papers

The Grange     The Grange was the initiatory major farm organization and began in the 1860s.This organization was created mostly as a social and self-help association notorigin bothy an organization of protest. During the embossment of 1873, thisgroup of bonded friends, became an "agency for political change." They knew inordered to help themselves they moldiness become a voice in this new government inorder to survive.     With the depression farm product prices began to decrease. More farmsjoined the Grange to call up to go badher to resolve the issues before them. Beginningas a teensy group of friends learning from each other what worked and what didnt,by 1875 the Grange boasted of over 800,000 members and 20,000 topical anesthetic lodgesclaiming chapters in almost every state, being the strongest in the states thatproduced the most the mho and Midwest. As a group (strong in member) theymade their statement to the world on an appropriate day, Independence Day 1873.The framers Declaration of Independence communicate those listening they were readyto fight back. The Declaration stated they would use "all lawful and peacefulmeans to free themselves from the tyranny of monopoly". Many of the members subject stores and other businesses so they could begin to buy and sell to eachother. up to now most of these were farmers, with families, not businessmen andmany companies didnt survive because of their lack of realistic business knowledgeand the pressures of the middlemen who wanted them to fail. They worked as ateam to get candidates elected who agreed with the need for governmental controlof the railroads. With the control of the Legislatures they usegovernmental controls on railroad rates and practices. However the railroad was also very wealthy. They hired lawyers who soon destroyed the new regulations.With these defeats and with the new jump-start in farm prices in the late 1870s theGrange be gan to lose strength and power, tapering off to a membership to only100,000 by 1880.     The Grange was the springboard for another dance orchestra together of farmers,the Farmers Alliances. This new movement began in the Southern states andquickly spreading beyond what the Grange had been. One of the most notabledifferences within the Alliance, was the approval of women to balloting and becomespeakers and leaders for their cause. The Alliance however, had similarproblems as the Grange. Many of the cooperations, stores, banks, impactplants and other resources began to suffer the same fate. Lack of solidmanagement and the marketplace forces operating against them caused them to fail.These disappointments aided the forming of a national political organization.