Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 5, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 October 1874 — The Grange the Farmer’s University, [ARTICLE]

The Grange the Farmer’s University,

The perfection of the Grange will be reached only when those who have been reared under its influences are as intellectual, as refined and as polished as the best class of the inhabitants in our larger towns and cities without their follies, immoralities -and -vices,- By joint efforts, through the medium of the Grange, libraries can easily be procured, lectures delivered and various means of instruction and entertainment provided at trifling expense to the individual, but of the greatest value to all. Each of 100 members by contributing the small sum of one dollar toward the purchase of a Grange library would thereby place it in. the power of each member to enjoy the advantages of a liundred-dollar library, all for the inconsiderable sum of one dollar. Such is the value of co-operation. Thus through the instrumentality of the Grange do we place in our homes hundreds of good books and scores of conveniences and pleasures which are practically unattainable by the individual. It will have been noticed by all who are observant that those farmers who are best informed are the most prosperous and most contented. This is true of otlire occupations as well as that of farming, but it is of the occupation of agriculture only that we speak at this time. Farmers generally, and especially farmers’ wives, are overworked. They work too many hours in a day, too many days in a week, and too many weeks in a year. Nothing is gained in the end by thus slaving the life away. Though most farmers regard it a necessity, yet it is through the Grange we arc to learu better; andjthe sooner we set about it the sooner shull we see that we might have done so before. Let us get together in the Grange, and, by thinking a little, devise some plan of dividing our hard work with the sleek and well-fed middle-man, and of sharing »rportion of his elegant leisure. Of course he will object to this show of generosity on our part, but we must press our courtesy upon him until there shall be something like a fair distribution of the good things of this world between us. We do not demand extraordinary privileges; we demand justice. We do not labor to pull others down; we labor to build ourselves up. Six thousand years of single-handed effort has failed to accomplish any satisfactory results in that direction, and it is but the part of common wisdom to try other means "to lighten our labors and enhance our profits. The Grange is the salvation of the farmer, and needs only to be maintained by energetic, intelligent, and, above all, harmonious action to accomplish all the desirable results within the scope of auy human institution. Stand by the Grange, then!--Sustain it by zealous labor and the persistence which of. itself insures success. With it you are sovereigns with your scepter in your hands; without it you are on the high road to vassalage.— Northern Granger.