The Grange advance. [volume] (Red Wing, Minn.) 1873-1877, 1875-01-12
Stand Up and be Men.
Come, my brethren let US try,
For a little season,
Every burden to lay by.

n'o1y our0on 10 lay Dy.
Come and let us reason. ;
!. l am talking to workingmen-the
vast army of unwashed and unkempt
democracy-the real producers of pota-
toes and things. Some call you leather
heads; that is, thick to understand.
So you are continually duped by the
thin skulled dead-heads. You occupy
the implanted shanties, log cabins, and
dirt novels of creation. There you
roost at night, and daily eat your
plain grub, then march forth like a
chain gang, to exercise your bones,
muscles, and nerves, to make the proud
non-producers shine in grandeur and
opulence, who become your congress.
men and Legislators, monopolists and
Observation-Disclosures and LAWYERS.
They get your votes, and expect always
to get them, and thus keep themselves
at the very top of the revolving wheel
of fortune.
Oh, Workingmen! GLOW often would
have gathered you as the hen gathereth
her chickens under her wings, but you
would not" You will suffer in the cold
and storms, because you refuse to CO.
operate. Go to the great world E1hi-
oltion of Industry, and behold, in the
show case Of art, invention, genius and
labor, all that imagination ever con-
cieved, to bless, beautify, and dignity
humanity. 1t is oil the work of your
own bony hands. The palaces of kings,
and the temples of priests, are of your
own patient construction. But it is all
for somebody else. You do not delve
and sweat, drive and contrive, manage,
control and save, for yourselves. You
allow yourselves to be robbed all the
time. That is the trouble with work.
ing men. Their labor fills the nation
with good things, yet they themselves
60 ragged, houseless, ignorant, and
hungry.
We scold about railroad extortion.
and very justly; for it is wicked and
abominable, and makes US feel that
every railroad man is a thief and a
scoundrel, for it brushes down the farm
er and toiler, and intensifes the hard
times all around. Yet what remedy
have we? We may talk, and write and
print. But stop and think. Is not all
trades and all business one grand uni
versal system of monopoly and extor-
ton? Without competitors, every man
grabs, clutches, and monopolizes all he
can get. So that the rule of all society
is-every man for himself, and the
devil take the hind one! That is it.:
and it accounts for the hundreds of
thousands out of work and out of bread,
and all the mischief and misery every-
Where-no matter how rich the earth
may be, or how full of money and hon.
ey, beauty and plenty. The working
man must be kept in poverty, and 90 on
foot.
We see at once that, although we
claim to be brothers and sisters. and
talk of equal rights, yet the people need
checks and balances all through, to pre-
vent one man from eating up another.
And as to the railroads, the balance of
power on them must be ship canals and
rivers and steamboats-a flank move
ment employed in military art, and
terribly expensive; yet necessity justi-
tes such expedients.
Then, as regards other every
day disadvantages of working
men around home, 1 think
OF no cure but the sharp, spunky, and
free newspaper. They must read and
think more, and learn to stand up and
be men, The women are learning that
already. Shame on the men! Intelli.
gence brings independence. Throw
physic and law to. the dogs, and don't
build SO many steepled poor-houses
Then You must own up to some vices,
like smoking and chewing tobacco, and
drinking whisky and lager. There
where the money goes--pop goes the
weasel. But stop all that. Teach
your boys good trades or farming, and
encourage them less in fancy ways and
fast life.
The more intellipent one IL the bette,