Rensselaer Union, Volume 6, Number 36, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 May 1874 — Less "Lawing." [ARTICLE]

Less "Lawing."

It la as true as it is serious, that farmers, as a class, in this State particularly, have indulged to a large extent in *lawuig it** An examination of the records of our courts will show that an undue proportion of the civil suite involve country issues, and it is too often the case that both the plaintiffs and defendants are farmers. True, the farmer is often compelled to come Into court as a plaintiff to defend his property from the grasping avarice of land speculators, for he is usually most easily caught, and the fattest game that the lawyer can bag. Farmers have long been aware of the folly, and worse than folly, of going to law, but the lack of business and social intercourse with their neighbors often prevents a proper understanding of right and mutual interest, encourages suspicion and jealousy, and too often leads them to rush into the courts, and sometimes dividing the whole neighborhood into active partisans. But, thanks to the influence of the Order of the Patrons of Husbandry, this disturbing element in farm life throughout the country generally is rapidly disappearing. The Order has brought fartnets into closer communion with each other, and has developed mutual confidence and respect; and without the assistance of any secret charm has produced a change which is now substituting arbitration for law. Arbitration is one of the grand principles of the Order, and is already producing important material results, as well as promoting peace and harmony in many neighborhoods. The vast benefits that the world is expected to derive from the adoption or arbitration by the great powers are precisely such as will accrue to the farming world by the same practice.— Pacific Rural Preu.