The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1873-07-11
THE ORANGES.

From the New York Daily Graph


In Fridays issue your Washington
correspondent, speaking OF the Patrons
OF Husbandry, says that the order has
exhausted it's force and is dying out.
This is about the substance of what he
gathers from conversations i'll Washing
ton.
Will you permit me to confront his
conjectures and rumors by a few facts,
which he or any one else can verify by
examining the records at our headquar-
tiers, the Bureau of the National Grange
at Georgetown, ID. b. ] shall be care
full not to overstate. First, then, the
order was never In so flourishing and
promising condition as at this moment.
1t is daily increasing in numbers and
power, and that in a manner wholly I'M
precedented in the history of secret So
cieties i'll this country. There are at
present in the States, Territories and
the Canadas nearly 5000 Oranges, and
they are being organized more rapidly
than ever before. During the month of
May, 1873, 701 charters were granted.
Does this look like decay? When we
reflect that the minimum initiation fee
is So for men and 81 for women, except
for charter members, it should be evil
dent to the most careless observer of
events that the people must be in this
movement heart and hand. 1t is no
ephemeral excitement, nor one confined
to farmers alone, however politicians
may smooth their fears by the hope that
this great struggle for united effort
among the industrial forces of the coun-
try BODIES no danger to monopoly, Office
hunting and stock-jobbing schemes, that
put wealth in the hands of these who do
nothing to advance the interests of the
industrial classes. The simple truth is,
that the Order of the Patrons of Hus-
bandry is hailed by all the more intelli-
gent among the industrious poor as a
beacon on "a stormy coast, or as a sail to
the shipwrecked. From Maine to Cali
fornia the people are rebelling against q
state of things which prevents those
who labor and create wealth all their
lives from enjoying comfortable, aye,
elegant homes, the best conditions fol
the educatio lal training of their child
rem, and immunity from severe toll, OF
the prospects of the county-house il
their old age.
The objects of the order are not mere
ly opposition to railroad extortion anC
the material advantages of purchasing
manufactures, machinery and labor i'm
plements direct from the producers, ant
atwholesale prices (by which the Grange,
of Iowa alone last year saved over ,
quarter of million dollars), they arr
also social and educational and seeing
the people, men and women, old anC
young, embracing with ardor the prin
ciples of the order, its leaders are en-
couraged and stimulated to make it
great power in the land.
The railroads hold ont against tin
pressure of Oranges forming on ever,
hand, with persistence worthy of
better cause, but they must yield il
time. 1t is confidently hoped that with
in five years they will see that it is TO
their advantage to lower their tariffs
and run ten trains on all the great line
where they now run one, bringing to tn
poorer Eastern soils the mountains c
accommodating stable manures that ar
not needed in the West, and the three
years-old crops of corn, now wastefull
,, used as fuel in and beyond the Missis
sippi Valley. There is no object in d,
nying the pecuniary advantages expect
> ed from the union of producers East an
, West through the direct exchange {
: their products, but the social and edit
! cational benefits are incalculable. I'll
watchwords of the Oranges everywhel
. are progress, Education, "Leisul
) for social and intellectual culture" III
: libraries and reading-rooms of the o
der, the discourses of their lecturer
:, the CT culation by the million of the
= tracts, the working of the degrees, I'll
practice of regular debates in the Grang,
o III which both sexes take part, the GU
= ture of music, the decoration of Granl
! halls, the numerous social reunion
. balls, concerts, dramatic entertainment
!, picnics and processions-altogether mu
: be culture for the people which ca
:, han dly be over-estimated.
' The society is fully in harmony wit
:, the progress of the age, as is shown |
). the admission of men and women c
!. terms of perfect equality, in the subo
: dinate, State, and in the Nations
:, Grange, and throughout all the seve
= degrees. 1t is radical, but not too RAT
. ical to be popular, and to embrace a
: nationalities and sects. The discussio
4
. of politics and religion is peremptori
i forbidden in the Oranges, and this mu
;. be one reason why the organization
. widening and advancing so rapidly al
= tremendously.
= Evidently your correspondent, wi
- gives so carelessly the opinions of pol
= ticians in Washington, is not aware TIN
y in one State alone Qowa) there are
present over sixteen hundred Grange
I and in some others over half thousan,
> These opinions, therefore, remind oil
:, very forcibly of the story of the man
3 the deluge, who, when Noah refused
Il take him into the ark, exclaimed CON
Il IDENTIFY, "Get along with your old scov
: guess it isn't going to be much of
:, shower %
A PATRON OF HUsBANDRY.
To- N raoaDf lahota N ,,,ap,ha of III