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all necessary guards and restrictions to prevent imposition and fraud would be thrown around it, gave it their hearty support; and not one of them had an idea their action was in the least degree a departure from the principles which should control the action of Grangers, or a violation of the objects and purposes of the Patrons of Husbandry, as fully set forth and given to the world in our Platform of Principles.

CHAPTER XII.

ANNALS OF THE STATE GRANGE OF CALIFORNIA.

ORGANIZATION AT NAPA-REPRESENTATION: ADDRESS OF N. W. GARRETSON: SPECIFIC OBJECTS STATED RESOLUTIONS: STATE BOOK OF PLANS: ELECTION OF OFFICERS AND EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE: AGENCIES PROVIDED FOR FIRST ANNUAL MEETING ONE HUNDRED AND FOUR GRANGES IN THREE MONTHS-WORTHY MASTER WRIGHT'S ADDRESS-REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON IRRIGATION: COMMITTEE OF INQUIRY INTO AGRICULTURAL DEPARTMENT OF UNIVERSITY—— ELECTION OF OFFICERS FOR TWO ENSUING YEARS-PRESENTATION TO BRO. GARRETSON-INSTALLATION-PROF. CAKR'S LECTURE-CONSTITUTION AND BY

LAWS.

THE organization of the State Grange of California took place at Napa, on the 15th of July, 1873, scarcely three months after the adjournment of the Farmers' Union Convention. Meanwhile, a special deputy from the National Grange had been busy organizing the necessary number of Subordinate Granges, which were now convened; the First President of the State Agricultural Society, Hon. J. M. Hamilton, Worthy Master of Guenoc Grange, appeared among the good men and true, who had been active members of the Union, and upon whose shoulders the burden of responsibility was afterward cast.

The following Granges were represented by their proper officers:

W. H. Baxter and Mrs. Baxter, Napa Grange; W. A. Fisher, Past Master, Napa Grange; E. B. Stiles, W. San Joaquin Grange; J. D. Spencer and Mrs. Spencer, Stanislaus Grange; T. Hart Hyatt, Vacaville Grange; W. M. Thorp and Mrs. Thorp, Chico Grange; J. B. Jolley and Mrs. Jolley, Merced Grange; J. D. Reyburn and Mrs. Reyburn, Salida Grange; R. C. Haile, Suisun Valley Grange; G. W. Henning, San Jose Grange; J. D. Fowler, Hollister Grange; W. S. Manlove and Mrs. Manlove, Sacramento Grange; W. M. Jackson and Mrs. Jackson, Yolo Grange; Nelson Carr and Mrs. N. Carr, Bennett Valley Grange; G. W. Davis and Mrs. G. W. Davis, Santa Rosa Grange; T. H. Merry and Mrs. T. H. Merry, Healds

burg Grange; J. A. Clark, Elmira Grange; J. C. Merryfield and Mrs. Merryfield, Dixon Grange; J. M. Hamilton, Guenoc Grange; J. M. Mayfield, Yountville Grange; J. J. Hicok, Grand Island Grange; L. W. Walker, Petaluma Grange; N. L. Allen, Salinas Grange; J. W. A. Wright, Turlock Grange; G. B. Crane and Mrs. G. B. Crane, St. Helena Grange; I. G. Gardner and Mrs. I. G. Gardner, Greyson Grange; B. V. Weeks, Pescadero Grange; J. H. Hegeler and Mrs. J. H. Hegeler, Bodega Grange; A. T. Dewey and Mrs. A. T. Dewey, Temescal Grange.

N. W. Garretson, representing the Worthy Master of the National Grange, opened the session with an eloquent and instructive address. He said:

It seems but as yesterday, (so short is the time,) since your now fair and beautiful State was unreclaimed, unsought and unvalued but for its gold. Its civilization was confined to mining camps, and its bread and fruit supplied from distant fields. Very soon, however, it was demonstrated that the capabilities of these valleys for producing the cereals were great, and their adaptation to fruit culture unrivaled. The effect of this was, not only to change the dreams of emigrants to this land of perpetual summer and sunshine, but it marked a change also in their character. Women, the refining guardians of our race, now swelled the caravan that stretched across the plains and poured over the mountain ranges or that landed from the crowded steamers. Men and women with strong arms and brave hearts were now coming to make homes and plant upon the Pacific Coast a new civilization. Your experiences in reaching California then, though bitter at the time, are garnered with the traveled past, and serve you now-a store of wonders to repeat to those who now cross the continent, borne in palaces of luxuriant ease.

I am presuaded that in no State have the industries found so rapid a development as in California. At a single bound she takes rank as the first wheat-producing State in the Union, exporting last year to England alone not less than five hundred thousand tons. While the products of your gold fields have been great, and have largely swelled the treasuries of the world, the product of your wheat fields, under judicious tillage, will be far greater, affording a more abiding wealth, and promising a far more stable prosperity. The fertility of your soil is equalled only by the enterprise and intelligence of its tillers.

I utter these words as the sum of my observations since I have come among you. I think I see in the farmers of California a discerning intelligence not so general elsewhere. With this characteristic attribute, these men might have successfully prosecuted almost any business pursuit; but seeing the wondrous capabilities for profitable production offered by the diversity of soil and climate in this summer-land, their hearts responded to the invitations of nature, to the comfort and enjoyment of farm life, to that pursuit above all others, God-given and ennobling-Agriculture.

Little did they dream while their thoughts were given to this work, that many of those they fed were combining for the impover

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your

ishment of their benefactors. Yet it is true that these men, who stand between you and the market, and whose duty it is to transfer and distribute the products of your labor to and among the consumers of the same, for a reasonable toll, have combined to flank the law of "demand and supply," forming rings and corners at your expense, and are gambling recklessly and wickedly rights and your money being their stakes. They have gotten to themselves fortunes, and, to complete their work, these ill-gotten gains are employed as a corruption-fund, to turn aside the arm of justice, and buy the men to whom you have intrusted your dearest interests in the State and National Legislatures. Laws that have sheltered you from the rapacity of these capital combinations are quickly repealed, and other laws are enacted by which other rings are formed to prey as vampires upon your material and industrial interests.

Extravagant salaries, without precedent elsewhere, are fixed for your public functionaries, while the system of prodigality is inaugurated, which, if continued, must terminate in your bankruptcy; for, to meet this unwise expenditure of public funds, heavy assessments of taxes must be made, in the apportionment of which a discrimination, as unscrupulous as it is invidious, is made against the farmer in the interest of the money power.

This work of public corruption and labor-impoverishment, to which I have alluded, is by no means confined to California, but is wide-spread and threatening throughout our whole country. Its deadly leaven has been at work in the councils of our nation, and threatens to-day, more than any other agency, the overthrow of our free government. At the sight of developments within the few months past at Washington, good men grow sick and turn away.

As unpromising as this picture makes our future, we have grounds for hope, for the people are the source of power; and, thank God, they are waking up all over the land-in almost every hamlet and school-house. The farmers, yes, and the farmers' wives-God bless them are in council. For a like purpose you are convened to-day, as American citizens, as representatives of the great producing interests of California, and as representatives from your respective Granges, to consider the state of the country, and to discuss the necessities of the hour. We are here to form the California State Grange of Patrons of Husbandry. You will remember that the eyes of the oppressed farmers; all over this State, are turned to you for relief, while your enemies will most diligently scrutinize your every act. Conscious, then, of the weight and importance of your duties here, you will, as the State Grange, define for the Order, in this State, a line of future action, which, in your judgment will, at the earliest possible day, most surely emancipate labor from the despotism of capital combinations; one that will bring about the needed reform in your State and inter-State commerce, and drive from places of honor and trust the corrupt horde who have fattened upon your substance.

With clean hands and pure hearts should we come to such a work. Therefore let each lay upon the common altar of this new Order whatever he may have of selfish ambition, or of mercenary motive,

and, joining hands, let us covenant, upon the very threshold of our organization, that the meetings, the counsels and the labors of the Order in California, shall be dedicated to the cause of justice and humanity.

That we pledge each to the other that we will labor faithfully, patiently, earnestly and persistently, to purify the moral, social, business and political atmosphere of our State and Nation, bearing ever in mind that if we would triumph in the unequal conflict upon which we now enter, we must fear God, obey our laws and maintain our honor, not forgetting that a good Matron, as also a good Husbandman, is noted at all times and everywhere for his or her fidelity.

The specific objects were declared to be:

1. To establish cooperative systems of trade, thus bringing producers and consumers as near together as possible.

2. To establish banks from which farmers could obtain loans at reasonable interest.

3. To make arrangements for the purchase of farming implements, sacks and machinery, directly from manufacturers.

4. To obtain direct shipments on more favorable terms, and storage at lower rates; drawing upon their products advances at the lowest rates of interest.

5. To secure the establishment of Grange stores; and,

6. The gradual substitution of the cash for the credit system; and, finally,

7. The eventual introduction of shipment in bulk.

The Convention resolved: To labor for the reduction of railroad fares and freights, by using all legitimate means to obtain the necessary legislation; for the reduction of port charges; for the introduction of European laborers; for an increase of tonnage for "our own purposes;" for irrigation; for the elevation and increase of our mechanical industry, all of which work was distributed among proper committees.

As a record of Grange intelligence, and in order to secure a full expression of feeling upon the methods in which these objects were to be carried out, every member of Subordinate Granges was invited to present a concisely written plan, to be classified and kept as a State Book of Plans.

It was also resolved to offer two premiums for the best plan for a general system of coöperation.

The election of officers resulted as follows: J. W. A. Wright, Master; J. M. Hamilton, Overseer; Thos. H. Merry, Lecturer; N. L. Allen, Steward; W. M. Jackson, Assistant Steward; W.

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A. Fisher, Treasurer; W. H. Baxter, Secretary; J. D. Fowler, Gate Keeper; T. H. Hyatt, Chaplain; Mrs. I. G. Gardner, Lady Assistant Steward; Mrs. G. W. Davis, Ceres; Mrs. W. H. Baxter, Pomona; Mrs. J. H. Hegeler, Flora.

Resolutions were passed authorizing the Executive Committee, consisting of Brothers Jolley, of Merced county; Merryfield, of Solano county; Allen, of Monterey county, Gardner, of Stanislaus county; Thorp, of Butte county, and Mayfield, of Napa county, to employ a central Business Agent in the city of San Francisco, under bonds and guaranties which should prevent the use of such agency for speculative purposes.

It was furthermore resolved, "to be expedient that the State Grange should have an agent or correspondent residing at Liverpool, authorized to charter ships in the proper season to convey grain crops to European or other markets; to make arrangements for advances of money on cargoes of grain, and on such other securities as the farmer may be able to command, at the lowest rates of interest; also to have laborers and emigrants sent out to California by ships coming hither for cargoes, etc."

The fullest exchanges of information between the Subordinate Granges and the State Agent, between the latter and State Agents of other State Granges, was recommended and provided for. The State Grange then adjourned.

FIRST ANNUAL MEETING.

At the first annual meeting of the California State Grange, held October 14, 1873, at San José, the following Granges were represented:

ALAMEDA COUNTY.-Livermore Grange, Daniel Inman, Master; Temescal Grange, Oakland, Alfred T. Dewey, Master.

BUTTE COUNTY.-Chico Grange, W. M. Thorp, Master; Nord Grange, G. W. Colby, Master.

COLUSA COUNTY.-Antelope Valley Grange, H. A. Logan, Master; Grand Island Grange, J. J. Hicok, Master; Plaza Grange, Olimpo, F. C. Graves, Master; Princeton Grange, Princeton, A. D. Logan, Master; Funk Slough Grange, E. C. Hunter, Master; Spring Valley Grange, D. H. Arnold, Master; Willows Grange, J. W. Zumwalt, Master.

CONTRA COSTA COUNTY.-Danville Grange, Danville, Chas. Wood, Master.

EL DORADO COUNTY.-Pilot Hill Grange, Pilot Hill, P. D. Brown, Master.

HUMBOLDT COUNTY.-Kiwelatti Grange, Arcata, Lewis R. Wood, Master; Table Bluff Grange, Jackson Sawyer, Master; Ferndale