Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 17, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 January 1875 — Build Up the Grange. [ARTICLE]

Build Up the Grange.

Let us impress on every farmer who may see this and who is still “outside the gates” the importance of connecting himself with the Grange. In union there is strength. The men who belong to other trades, occupations and professions, knowing this, have for centuries past been organized into societies, asso- . ciations and colleges for the promotion of their particular callings. The tradeunions of Europe date far back into, the middle ages, and exercised a potent influence in the advancement of the useful arts and the progress of civilization. The establishment of the “Inn's” at Westminster laidthe foundation of the mighty influence the legal profession has exercised in the affairs of Great Britain. The College of Physicians at London, the Academy of Medicine at Paris, and the German institutions of a like character rescued the noble science es Medicine from the dominion of superstition and quackery, and the medical associations of Europe and America have kept its course still “ onward and upward ’ and true to the line. And our noble charitable institutions, Freemasonry and Odd Fellowship, embracing men of - all creeds and occupations, tracing their origin to the depths of remote antiquity, dispensing their light as Night dispenses her silent but vivifying dews—how great has been the good they have accomplished. Associations for the promotion of the Physical Sciences and the Fine Arts, of Historical and Geographical knowledge, of the useful industries —including Manufactures and Commerce —of Religion and Morality—these have been the chief engines that have propelled the car of progress. Co-operative effort is the lever that moves the world. In all our principal cities we have Merchants’ Exchanges, Boards of Trade, and we have also Manufacturing Associations, Railroad Associations, Banking Associations, Bondholders’ Associations, besides the disreputable “ rings” in every State that have done so much to corrupt legislation and plunder the people. By means of these various associations capital rules the civilized world to-day. Though agriculture is the most ancient and most useful and important of all human employments yet no effort was made to unite those engaged in it for the promotion of their common interests until the time of the organization of the Order of the Patrons of Husbandry. We mean, of course, a unipn embracing the agriculturists of a whole nation or country. Hence agriculture has made less progress than any other of the useful arts; hence agriculturists have been the most poorly remunerated in proportion to the amount of capital and labor employed; hence they have exercised in proportion to their numbers the least influence in the Government. Whatever special favors and emoluments men in other avocations have by means of associated effort been able to obtain from the Government have been mainly at the .expense of agriculture. If men in other avocations have grown enormously rich in a few years agriculture has paid unjust tribute to swell their coffers. Through all ages and in all times agriculture has been the patient camel, carrying and kneeling to receive its burden. But these things are no longer to bs. The fanners of the United States have learned what can be done by association and co-operative efforts, and they are profiting by the knowledge. Though less than a decade old, the Order of the Patrons of Husbandry extends into almost every State in the Union, and numbers almost a million and a quarter of. members. What it has accomplished we have no time to relate. Enough to say, the farmers have found that by patient, combined effort they can secure their rights, remove their wrongs, and elevate agriculture to its true plaoe and just influence in the Union. Our object in writing thfc article is to impress on every farmer in the land the fact that it is his duty and interest to connect himself with the Grange, to secure for himself its benefits, and do his part to promote the prosperity of agriculture. It is a duty he owes to himself and his family, and to his brother farmers. If others are laboring to secure the common good he should not withhold his share of labor in the common cause; if special benefits accrue to members of the Order he should s«cure these for himself and family. But more especially would we impress on Patrons the necessity of attending all the meetings of the Grange and taking an active part in their proceedings. To accomplish the ends we have in view we must work—work—work. To have been admitted within the gates will not of itself make a man a true Patron. He must perform the duties of a Patron, just as a man who connects himself with the church should live in the constant performance of the duties of a Christian. When Patrons cease to attend the meetings of their Grange or neglect to take an active part in its proceedings it languishes, and like a lukewarm, backslidden church, becomes, instead oJ an instrument for good, a stumbling block in the way of others. —Patron of Husbandry.