The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1884-10-29
agricultural.
:. H. HosKINs, Newport, VI, Editor.
Springfield Ignorance.


there was a Samuel, once, that would
have turned out every man in the Office
if he could not have otherwise put a
stop to the Astounding and absurd typo
graphical errors which disiigure and
distort every issue of the paper-eTors
showing most illiterate class of COM
positors, and an utterly incompetent
and ignorant proof-rcader But it is
not in the mechanical department only,
or mainly, that the Republican shows
its weakness, like typhoid patient, by
"sliding down to the foot of the bed"
In an article entitled ''The Forgotten
Granger" it says October 10:
Not word is heard from him in any
quarter, and his wrongs lie unthought
of and neglected. 1t is not many years
since the brethren of the pillow out West
undertook to uproot the whole political
system, if need be, and to arrange anew
in the interest of husbandmen's rights
with the grange. The farmers had of
course but to unite to do whatsoever
they would. and nobody knew what the
movement might effect, but as a matter
of fact it spent itself with some wild
legislation in western state or two
and accomplished almost nothing. The
grange in the East became a kind of CO.
operative buying and selling associa-
ton, gave some Specializing souls with
in fine opportunity and went the way
of most cooperative things. The or
CARNATIONS still exist. to be sure, but
haUp 1Ost roNpn,hnrs ctoirit on1
cally life. That is to say, the tiller of
the soil is no more before the public in
an organized capacity, and his special
wrongs get no voice.
If this had appeared in the weekly
Republican, agricultural department, of
which it brags so much, we should not
have felt much surprise, but that any
man so grossly ignorant of recent his
tory should be allowed to write edito-
rails in the daily shows, more than any
thing else, the laxness of discipline in
an office where once all hands were
trained men, or at least men who did
not make reckless declarations in mat
tiers of fact of which they were igno-
rant. The Republican, in years past,
has chronicled, and expressed some
sympathy with, the political campaigns
of the " Farmers Movement with
which the grange, as body, had moth
ing to do), and anybody hired to write
its editorials ought to know that that
campaign ended in the enactment of
laws which have received the affirma-
ton of the supreme court of the United
States, and are now, with some modifi-
cations, the most effective laws ever
framed to control the abuses which led
to the movement. Charles Francis Ad-
ans, Jr., while criticising some of the
details of this legislation and flinging a
few heightened sneers at its originators.
admitted, in his articles upon the sub
ject in the Atlantic Monthly, that the
movement was fully justified, and had
succeeded in its purpose of making the
corporations amenable to the laws in
most important particulars. That Mas
sachusetts has to-day its railroad laws,
and it's efficient railroad commission,
is due in large measure to the great
western movement of the farmers to
secure this successful legislation. And
yet the Republican is made to utter such
an absurdity as that " it spent itself
with some wild legislation in western
state or two, and accomplished almost
nothing"
The Grange, as a cooperative move
ment-a minor part of its purpose
met with varying degrees of success,
according to the principles adopted in
the various enterprises, but the great
decline in prices since 1870 has vastly
reduced the need for cooperative pur-
chasing among the farmers, so that this
portion of the work of the grange is
much lessened in importance. In other
directions the grange (Which has never
been political body is quite as strong
as it ever was. 1t has, for three OF four
years, been working for the establish
ment of an experiment station in Maine,
anu lHc pdpcrs Vi tudt sIdtc lllOTIH us
that the farmers campaign " for this
purpose has shown itself successful in
the choice of its friends to the legisla-
ture. The same movement is now at
work in Vermont In all the western
states the oranges are powerful enough
to get about all they ask for from the
legislatures, and their influence is often
sought in behalf of important efforts
for public improvement.
But perhaps the most surprising dis
play of ignorance in the article under
remark is the unacquaintance of the
writer in reference to the work of the
Farmers Alliance in New York, by
which railroad legislation has been
secured in that state. If he had read
and remem bered the reports about the
matter in the Republicans news
columns, he would have known that the
farmers made very effective campaign,
resulting in legislative investigation
and then in the appointment Of a rail
road commission, from which much