Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 24, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 March 1875 — The Orange from a Southern Standpoint. [ARTICLE]

The Orange from a Southern Standpoint.

The following address by the Rev. Mr. Howard, of Georgia, wa« delivered before the National Grange during MA recent session at Charleston, S. C.: The word “ grange” is French. It means farm, and as applied by us to our organization is most titting as descriptive of a band of farmers. The homestead of the apostle of liberty, Lafayette,' who left his own fair France to tight for us was La Gratae the Grange. There is a poetic and historic propriety in our assumption of that name in a straggle of a different sort, but not the less glorious or severe. The farmers of our country have been considered as it were the beasts of burden of society : that is to say, they were expected to and the raw material for the support and raiment of the rest; and the remaining portion of the community were to derive the profits therefrom. Throughout the whole country .we are largely in the majority. The extent of the majority differs in different sections of the United States. In the South the majority is greatest—in tny own State (Georgia) reaching 75 per cent, of the whole population; in other Southern States approximating tiiat amount if it does not reach it—and yet this greater pbrtion of the community have been in a sense governed and controlled by the remaining minority. The position is unnatural. I have sometimes thought that the elephant in the menagerie fittingly illustrates our position. You shall go into the menagerie and see that huge beast, with the strength of a hundred men in his limns, and there is a little keeper with nothing but a small goad in his hand, who gives him Orders: He kneels down, lies down, bellows, roars and does everything that the keeper requires, while all the time lie could pick him up with his trunk and hurl him through the canvas without exerting any appreciable effort. The farmers of the South are the largest part of the population ; and yet this little 25per cent, with its sharp goad punches us, and we kneel down, lie down, bellow, roar, do whatever they command us to do, while all the time we could pick them up -with our trunk and throw them through the canvas and scarcely feel that we had exerted an appreciable amount of strength. Why is this? It is because the minority is organized and the majority is not organized, and we all know what a disciplined squad of men can do with an undisciplined mob. But this fault is being corrected. This organization has sprung into life. It lias not yet reached its fullness, but when that completeness of organization is perfected toward which we are now so rapidly tending there will be a body of men and women, counted by hundreds of thousands, banded indissolubly together, who will render resistance to their will impossible. This is to be the result of this organization, wliich’hps'beenTiegun and is now going on to consummation. Agriculture has been oppressed. The form of oppression differs in different sections. In the Northwest the chief burden has been connected with transportation, and efforts have been made to lessen this burden, and gallantly the contest has been waged. The burden connected with the variation of prices, the “ watering”, of stocks, rings and monopolies; that is the class of oppression with which our Northwestern brothers have had to contend. At the South we do not meet with that difficulty, or rather it assumes a different shape. I do not think that we here in the South can reasonably complain of the railroads; they are controlled by gentlemen in whom we have entire confidence. Those who hold their stocks are our widows and orphans and those seeking permanent investments. And yet-these railroads are all failing to deciare dividends, their stocks and bonds are below par, and although their rates are high they assure us that they cannot transport freights at lower rates because of the small shipments. We cannot blame them. But the burden still falls heavily upon the farmer. What is to be done by them which will correct that which the railroads say is beyond their power? A portion of our citizens have attempted to remove a part of that difficulty connected with transportation by establishing a direct trade to Europe; a movemerit eminently worthy, if it can be found practicable. The State Grange of Georgia has organized a Board of Direct Trade, with a beginning capital of SIOO,OOO, the most of which lias been paid in. They have shipped already 4,000 bales of cotton, and hope before the end of the season to ship 10,000 bales. This fe a local institution; but why should it be local when it may be extended throughout the whole country? The Presidentis a man of the highest integrity and in whom we all have the greatest faith. A gentleman from this our agent in Europe. But while this may relieve commissions so far as practicable, it does not affect the question of railway transportation. A surer relief will be provided in shipping direct to the spinners at home. We should have our markets in our own section of country, in our own counties, if possible, for the sale of our cotton. In the State of Georgia there are forty-two cotton mills to work up thirty millions of dollars’ worth of raw material, and yet the factories which have been established heretofore are prospering to a degree which is not allowed to any other industry in the land, and I wish yoii gentlemen of the Worth to see that while your cotton mills are stopping and working on half time the cotton mills of the South have never known greater prosperity. It costs you too much to get the cotton to you. The cotton mills must come to the cotton, and when they do come here they will find their profits increased to a degree with which they have not been heretofore familiar. The Southern people are poor, but I think that they can establish these factories. There are means by which we can find the capital. We of the South have always been too impatient; we have been unwilling to creep before we could walk. We must be content with small beginnings. I know of a cotton factory in Georgia which was commenced before the war with a capital Of $25,000 only. That factory has now invested a capital of $200,000, derived from no outside source whatever but the profits accruing, and in the meantime the stockholders have lived and prospered; and I can scarcely believe that there is a large cotton county in the South that could not with this small beginning build up such an interest. The system of agriculture pursued in the South is such (I mean exclusive cotton-planting) that it costs more labor to the productive acre than to any other people in Christendom. If we could act as other people act our results would be far different, but in our agriculture as in our. other pursuits we have fallen into a rut and do not know how to get out of it, especially with a jaded team. We must see how others have done and are doing, with no greater advantages than ours, to make their lands profitable. There, where profitable agriculture prevails, all portions of the land are made to pay the price of the labor; that is to say, some portions are allowed to produce those products which require no exees' sive amount of labor. If we were to take off one-half of our cotton crop qud devote our attention to the cultivation of grasses and the raising of live stock as they do at the North we would cut off one-half of our expenses, both in money and in labor, and that money which we would thus save we could put in a cotton factory and give us a market at home for all the products of our farms. I beg that this ftQint be carefully considered. 1 think it one material to the interests of the North and South and West. It is perhaps not the only remedy, but, in my opinion, it is by far the best which has been devised by which to make the markets for our farm products directly within our reach. It has been supposed by some persons that the Grange is an aggressive Institution; that our design is to attack all the rest of society. I don’t kuow that our position can be better illustrated than by the anecdote of the Quaker, who, being a passenger on a vessel which was being chased by a pirate, was asked by others of the passengers if he was not going to arm himself. “ No,”,says he, “I never carry deadly weapons.” The pirate approached tne vessel and one of her crew was justleaping on board the merchant ship when the Quaker seized him in his arms apd dropped him overboard, thou hast no business here.” The Grange gays this: “W e attack nobody, we strike no-

body, but we want it well understood that we are -excellent hands -<t fending off.” The means try which we hope to reduce the post of pur produce is so well known that I do not propose to dwell longer upon it. Our general rule is to sell where there is the greatest advantage, and buy at the greatest advantage, and, in every case that it is possible, to do without middlemen. We can’t do without, middlemen entirely; but we can lessen their number and their charges. Tiie Grange is a social, educational and moral organization as well as economic. I confess that when my attention was first attracted to the Grange there were prejudices in my mind against it, and they prevented me from becoming a member of it for a considerable time. One objection was its secrecy. I • had never joined a secret society of any kind, and had strong scruples against connecting myself with such an organization. The other was the admission of ladies into the Grange. I feared what mteht be the possible result of that admission. I confess to a religious horror of the technically termed strong-minded woman. She frightens me. There is a delicate charm about female character, like the down upon the butterfly’s wing, which, once removed, cannot be restored, and the beauti- ‘ fill insectfalls fluttering to the ground. And I was afraid that this admission might have that effect; but I went upon the principle that, when we cannot get exactly what we want, it is good sense to take the next best that we can get. I waived my scruSles, and became a member of the range, and I found that its secrecy was a bond of union, reasonable, natural and proper, impairing no previous obligation, civil, political or religious. So far as the. admission of ladies was concerned, instead of acting I found it an eminent advantage. You will in the first place see that no man will admit into an association of w.hich his wife and daughter are members any but men of unquestionable uprightness and integrity. The ladies of the Grange are the emblems of its purity. You will observe that the Grange makes provision for that which is a great defect in our society, that is, healthful amusement. It is as important as the food we eat, for it is just as natural that youth should seek amusement as that the lamb should skip or that the bird should sing. At the end of every month there is a festival; after the business of the day is over a repast is spread, and the members of the Grange, young and old, enjoy themselves in a way suited to their years and inclinations. It is our duty to make our offspring happy. There is some good poetry and some very bad theology in that popular verse:

This world is all a fleeting show, For man’s illusion given; The smiles of joy. the tears of woe, Deceitful shine, deceitful flow, There’s nothing true but Heaven. Heaven is indeed grandly, gloriously true, but there is truth oftumes in the tears'which spring from the.fund .heart, almost broken, finding relief thus when relief could not be obtained. "Go, let me weep this bliss in tears.” There is truth in the smile of joy. This beautiful earth was not made for man’s illusion. Otherwise the green carpet Of spring, its hills of flowers, the restless ocean, the starlight night, the pale moon, the glorious lifegivjng sun, are all Hoels upon the Great Creator. All nature cries out, her voice is the voice of God to His intelligent creatures: “ Be good, be happy!” It is also educational to our daughters, teaching them that they are not merely to be butterflies of life, to be amused and amuse, but that, in the conducting of the farm, they should so employ themselves as to make all work to the best advantage in the garden and in the homestead, to strive in all the various ways to make home the happiest place on earth. And, to mother and daughter, the Grange says make home beautiful within, make home happy within, with good books and sweet music; and better than all, with the accord of the heart of the family which are one in their pursuit, generous, just and true. Make home beautiful without, plant flowers around the Tiomestead, gladden it with the smiles of spring, rob winter of his chill by the everlovely evergreen. Make home so attractive for your sons at the restive period of life when they are seeking change and disposed to wander to distant lands that, as they look around them upon their beautiful home, they are forced to exclaim: “ I cannot leave thee; these flowers, these bowers their hands entwined, my r mother and sisters implanted. Here I was won, there I was won to virtue by my mother’s smile and deterred from vice by my father’s frown; over those fields I followed the bounding game, in those clear waters my young limbs bathed; I cannot leave thee; God! do so to me and mine also, if aught but death part thee and me.” As to our sons, in the way of education, the Grange here plays an important part. It brings about the combination of study and labor, and a long experience of teaching leads me to believe.that the value of this combination cannot be over-estimated. The world’s most healthy and sound minds have been produced by just such a combination. I know no position which I would rather see my sons occupy than to stand upon their own lands, honest, educated farmers, fearing God and doing their duty to their fellow-man. I cannot conceive of a social position higher than this. The Grange is also moral. I don’t know who wrote the manual of the Grange; but I have this to say, whoever he was, whether one mind or many minds, the work that has been done is an immense benefit to mankind. Out of the sacred Scriptures I know of no compend of human conduct equal to it. By the teaching of the ritual no man, no woman, no youth of either sex can fail, if she or he faithfully applies that ritual, to be useful members of society and be fitted for all its ends. The Grange directs its members to take an interest in public affairs as citizens. While we have nothing to do with politics in a party sense we have a great deal to do with laws. If there are hurtful laws that ought to be repealed and good laws that ought to be passed it is our duty to turn out those representatives who will not bring this common good about and put those in office who will prove faithful to their trust —not as men of the Grange, but as citizens. The whole country at present is not represented, but,the National Grange assembles and the w'hole country is not only represented in that body, but there is not a single sectional interest represented in it, there is not a single political clique, there is nothing to mar the harmony of the body which meets to act for the best welfare of the great majority of American citizens; and when that body meets it is in the kindred spirit to bear with the differings of party, and closely bound together by the ties of friendship and mutual interest. The North and South should know each other better, and it is just this intercourse in tlmDrange that will bring this, about. It is this intercourse which will remove all those unpleasant asperities. It is said that a bond of railroad iron is the strongest bond that can bind different sections of country together. It is indeed to us power; but there is another bond that is stronger; it is water; if is stronger than iron ; time cannot weaken it. The httle stream that starts from the mountain top, dancing down its rocky bed to the ocean, never wearies till it reaches the broad path leading to the ocekri, and as centuries roll on there is always that dancing little rivulet, always that bright little stream leading! the commerce of our country to the bread oosom of the ocean. The war settled one truth clearly. It was that the people living on the banks of the Mississippi will be one people in all times. We want four mouths to the Father of Waters: One for the Southern ports, one for the Central Atlantic ports, and another for the Middle Northern trade. If the Government will do this there will be created- a bond of union which never can be disturbed. But there is still a stronger bond than iron or water. A bond invisible, indeed, but potent as the unseen circumambient air. without which we instantly perish. It is the triple-eord which no man can break, Faith, Hope and Charity. These three—illimitable, lasting as the existence or Him of whose na-’ ture they are a portion. It is this bond which binds the Grange together, and through it binds together the whole country. If the National Grange, with its subordinate Granges, in their present numbers. Lad existed for several years beforp the war; I do not believe that war would have occurred. It is my further conviction that while the National Grange,

with the subordinate Granges, exist* —“case pezyM/iMi”—a fratricidal war, in this country, can never occur again. ’ The Grange, in its essence, aims, purposes and teachings, issupremely pacific, It repeats the Heavenly announcement, and the echoes reverberate from Maine to Texas, from the Land of Flowers to the Lakes, from the Pacific to the Atlantic, from mountain and valley, “On earth peace, good will toward man.”