The Fremont weekly journal. [volume] (Fremont, Sandusky County, Ohio) 1867-1877, 1874-02-27

gage system, the fashion system, and
every other system tending to prod
Iigalityland bankruptcy; we propose
meeting together, talking together,
working together, selling together,
and in general acting together for our
mutual protection and the advance
ment the association may require; we
shall avoid litigation as much as
possible by arbitration in the grange; !;
we shall constantly strive to secure
entire harmony, good will, and vital
brotherhood among ourselves, and
to make our order perpetual. We
shall earnestly endeavor to suppress
personal, local, sectional, and nation.
al prejudices, all unhealthy rivalry,
all selfish ambition. Faithful adhe-
renee to these principles will insure
our mental, moral, social, and mater
ial advancement.
FoWrth-Our business interests.
We desire to bring producers and
consumers, farmers and msnufactur-
ers, into the most direct and friendly
relations possible. Hence we must
dispense with surplus Of middle
men-not that we are unfriendly to
them, but we do not need them.
Their surplus and their exactions
diminish our profits. We wage no
aggressive warfare against any other
interests whatever. On the contrary,
all our acts and all our efforts, so far
as business is concerned, are not on
ly for the benefit Of producers and
consumers, but also for all other in
terests that tend to bring these two
parties into speedy and economical
contact. Hence we hold that trans
portation compares of every kind are
necessary to our success; that their
interests are intimately connected
with our interests, and harmonious
action is mutually advantageous.
Keeping In view the first sentence in
our declaration of principles of action
that individual happiness depends
upon general prosperity, we shall
therefore advocate for every State
the increase in every practicable way
of all facilities for transporting cheap
ly to the seaboard or between home
producers and consumers all pro-
ductions of our country. We adopt
it as our fixed purpose to open out
the channels in natures great arter-
les that the life. blood of commerce
may flow freely. We are not enc
mics of railroads, navigable and irri-
eating canals, nor of any corporations
that will advance our industrial inter
ests, nor of any laboring classes. In
our noble order there is no commu-
nism and no agrarianism. We are
opposed to such spirit and manage
ment of any corporation or enter
prise as tends to Cypress the people
and rob them of their just profits.
We are not enemies to capital, but
we oppose the tyranny ofmonopolies
We long to see the antagonism be-
tween capital and labor removed by
common consent and by enlightened
craftsmanship worthy of the nine
teenth century. We are opposed to
excessive salaries, high rates of inter
est and exorbitant percentage profits
In trade, as they greatly increase our
burdens, and do not bear a proper
proportion to the profits of the pro
ducers. We desire only self-protect-
ion and the protection of every true
interest offered by legitimate trans
actions, legitimate trade and legiti
mate profits. We shall advance the
cause of election among ourselves
and for our children by all just means
within our power. We especially ad
vocate for our agricultural and indus
trial colleges that practical agricul-
ture, domestic science, and all the arts
which adorn the home, be taught in
their courses Of study.
Fifth-We emphatically and sin
cerely assert the oft-repeated truth
taught in our organic law, that the
grange, national, State, or subordin-
ate is not political or party organ
ization. No grange, if true to its
obligations, can discuss political or
religious questions, nor call political
conventions, nor nominate candida
tes, nor even discuss their merits in
it's meetings, yet the principles we
teach underlie all true politics, all
true craftsmanship, and if properly
carried out will tend to purify the
whole political atmosphere Of our
country; for we seek the greatest
good to the greatest number. But
we must always bear in mind that
no one by becoming a grange mem
ber gives up that inalienable right
and duty which belongs to every
American citizen to take a proper in
terest in the politics of his country.
On the contrary, it is right for every
member to do all in his power legit-
imately to influence for good the ac-
ton of any political party to which
he belongs;it is his duty to do all he
can in his own party to put down
bribery, corruption, and trickery, to
see that none but competent, faith
full, and honest men, who will unfin-
chingly stand by our industrial in
terests, are nominated for all posi-
tions of trust, and to have carried out
the principles which should always
characterize every member, that the
Office should seek the man, and not
man the Office. We acknowledge the
broad principle that difference of op-
inion is not crime, and hold that
progress toward truth is made by
differences of opinion, while the fault
lies in the bitterness of controversy.
We desire proper equality, equity
and fairness; protection of the weak;
restraint upon the strong-in short,
Justly distributed burdens and Justly
distributed power. These are
American ideas, the very essence of
American independence, and to ad
Vocate the contrary is unworthy of
the sons and daughters of an Amer:
lean republic. We cherish the be-
lief that sectionalism is, and of right
should be, dead and buried with the
past. Our work is for the present
and future in our agricultural bro
therhood and its purposes. We shall
recognize no North, no South, no
East, no West. 1t is reserved by