The Grange advance., 1873-10-22
honor to the State, at whose gates it
stands. Minnesota has reason to be
proud Of what has so aptly been called
the Gate City.
For the Grange Advance.
A FEW PRACTICAL THOUGHTS.

1t is not so much to the great mis-
fortunes, as it is to the little mishaps
and sorrows that we owe the unhappi
ness Of life. We notice the great ones
more; they produce more pungent grief,
perhaps. Yet it is to the little errors
dlsappointments, wrongs, that come
trooping along unannounced, unexpec-
ted, and unwelcomed, day after day:
from January to December, through
our whole lives, that we change the
chronic moroseness Of our dispositions,
once placid as the surface Of peaceful
lake, and that would have recovered
from Il shock of pungent sorrow, to the
condition Of its native peacefulness.
The producers Of this country, and
We suppose Of every other, complain
bitterly, and, no doubt justly; Of the
wrongs they suffer at the hands Of the
manufacturers, the broker (or middle
many and the carrier. These seem to
have declared warfare on the producer,
and to have waged it so bitterly as to
have absorbed the greater part Of the
profit of his labor in years past The
complaint is just. The determination
to shake off these parasites, or at least
cause them to appreciate their proper
relation, is laudible. But the work is
great one It will not be accom-
plished till after the lapse of much time,
nor without earnest, persistent, united
effort, and till after many an expert
ment has been tried and its failure ex-
perienced Nevertheless, it will be
accomplished. There is no wrong for
which there is not remedy. The
extortions of those who stand between
the manufacturer and the consumer,
and of the corporations upon which the
producer is dependent to carry his pro-
ducts to market: and at whose mercy he
is, are the great wrongs-the wrongs
that have called out the sharp, bitter
complaints-that have caused this
mighty uprising Of the farmers Of this
country. Now let them study into the
causes and look for the remedy; and
continue to follow up the investigation
until the remedy is found and effect
lively applied.
But the object of this article is more
particularly to say that the extortions
of manufacturers, middlemen and mo-
nopolists combined, against which the
farmers of the country have heretofore
apparently had no ability to success.
fully contend, and which may be CON-
pared to the great sorrows mentioned
in the beginning hereof, have never
produced the want and poverty-have
never been such a misfortune as the
thousand and one little losses and leak
ages against which every man may with
care. diligence and economy protect
himself.
Somebody has quite philosophically
said, there are two things about which
we have no right to complain; one is,
What we can't help, and the other is,
What we can. IF we can't help a thing
it does no good to fret about it; if we
can it is our duty to do so rather than
to fret over it. Applying this practical
truth to ourselves, and how many Of US
there are that have no right to complain
at our condition in life. We are farm-
ers and poor. Have we any right to
murmur? Let US see. What makes
US poor? Why our income has not
been so great as our expenditures.
There is a remedy in two directions,
one is to increase the income the 9TH
er, to decrease the expenses. We have
not time to particularize. We may,
however, say that there are many in
stances where an increase Of income
is involved in the very thing that de-
creases the expenses. Counting every
loss an expense, what prevents the loss
adds to the income. Thus We may see
how the loss of that great pile of ma: