Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1907-08-30
OVER 1000 AT GRANGERS' FIELD DAY
Wndham County Pomona Grange Won Baseball Game from Sax
tons River Pomona 4S-NaOna Master and State Masters
Predicted Continued Growth in Vermont

Ideal weather, good speakers, hOtly
contested sports and a bountiful picnic
luncheon made the Grange field dav. I'M
der the auspices of Windham County po-
mona Grange on the Valley Fair grounds
Friay one of the most successful gath
aIiugs of the kind ever held in this
county
The Oranges for nearly every town
i'm Windham county were well repre-
-ontcd and there were many visitors
from other parts of the state and from
uoighboriug states. George w. Pierce,
master OF the State Grange, estimated
that at least $500 people were on the
grounds in the afternoon when the lead
iuE Changers from other states brought
messages of congratulation and stimula-
zion to greater works in the future
tho crowd began to gather shortly after
o'clock on the fair grounds and before
noon about 1900 people were present
They kept coming in all day by train and
carriages and very few left before the
md of the program. The sports we're
started as soon as a good crowd gath
cred and continued until nearly noon. All
were well contested and gave the visit
ols a chance to get a good appetite by
cheering on their favorites The win
u,rs in the contests were announced in
ls, weeks paper At the close of the
morning program of sports the big crowd
was ready to do full justice to the bounti-
pared. and full hour was spent in
picnic fashion.
About o'clock in the afternoon Mr.
Pierce called the distinguished speakers
To- a flagdraped stand before the grand
stand where fully 20O0 people were as
.embled. He opened the exercises with
short speech in which he outlined the
work accomplished by the Oranges in
Vermont during the past year and what
was planned for the near future He
reported membership of 10000 and the
addition of % new Oranges. The goal
which he set up before the Changers was
the one already reached by New Hamp-
shire more Oranges than there are towns
IN the state. He introduced Hon. c. d.
richardson. master Of the Massa chusetts
state Grange, as the first speaker.
Mr.. Richardson expressed his pleasure at
being at such a gathering of Changers
and brought the greetings of the %. 900
Changers in Massachusetts, He said
that his state had often found encourage
meut in looking at the sound progress
which the sister states were making and
he felt that it was only a question of
time when there would be a Grange in
every rural community The influence of
the Grange had kept pace with its
growth. One of the most marked indi-
cations of this widened influence was in
the fact that the young men and wom-
On OF the rural Communities are not
drifting toward the cities as they once
did. The Grange gives to them at home
the education and the society which at
tracts them to the city. He believed that
there would soon be a reaction from the
cities to the rural districts far greater
than had ever been known in the other
direction.
The next speaker was o. S. Brooks,
master of the Connecticut State Grange.
He congratulated the Vermont Grange on
the fine growth it had made, saying that
he believed it was but preparatory to a
greater growth. He spoke at length on
the benefit which the active Oranges
could be in waking up the dormant
Oranges in other communities. One of
the strongest points in the order was the
equality given the women in it. He said
that in Connecticut the woman's suffrage
movement had come to look on the
Grange as its strongest ally.
c. B. Hoyt. overseer of the New Hamp-
shire State Grange and national organ
izer, was next introduced. He said that
although he had been all over the country
there was no state except New Hamp-
shire that he would rather live in than
Vermont He spoke of his experiences
here last year while organizing Oranges,
saying that transportation facilities were
poor. Teams were faster than train SER
vice in the interior of the state. He said
the Grange had raised the standards Of
living and taught the farmers to CO.
operate. In closing he predicted a mem