The daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1873-1877, 1875-12-28
wkAtths Changers Have Done,

grangers, has done its work so unobtru |
sively and quietly that many persons imag-
inc 1t has done nothing at all. and that the
associa ton is an empty and unmcaning
brotherhood OF farmers who do not know
how to do anything beyond holding weekly
and monthly meetings, aud indulging in
interchanges OF sentimental resolutions
and congratulations. This is an egregious
mistake. The grange has made the farmers
a power in the land, it is revolutionizing
them, and, through them, SOM very i'm
pOrtant relations and habits of the country.
Its work is none the less effective and
permanent for not being marked by vio-
lence and social arrangement. The reve-
luton it is accomplishing-for the greater
part of it is yet to be done-is not attended
by the turbulence, and the fierce and
deadly collisions that everywhere attend
the efforts OF the mechanic orders to inn
prove their condition: it is a process more
like the steady and im~perceptible but
irresistible working OF those gentle forces
of nature that turn the farmers grain first
into a tender sprOut. then into a stalk, and
last into the full ear with the yield OF a
thousand fold. The agricultural interest
of this country has long been a gyved
giant-a patient 1ssachar bowling down
between burdens. The distance that
separate farmers from each other. and the
difficulties in the way of that intercourse
lhat alone reveals the power of combina-
ton were regarded as i~nsurmountable
obstacles to any general improvement Of
their situation; and even when,a few years
ago,they began the movement that has ac-
complished SO much for them, aud is des-
tined to accomplish SO much
more. their awkward and clumsy
movements were the theme OF
universal d~erision, But the grange has
triumphed over all these difficulties, and con-
quered n place in the van of the great class
movements of the day; it has gathered the
six million agricuiturists of the land into
a mobile organization, and is training and
discipiining them for great and useful
tasks.
What the grangers haye done in the
realms Of politics and public questions, up
to this time, is more in the shape of an
impression than of direct results. And
yet its effects have been universal and be-
nlgn, There is not a state lin the union
that does not present traces Of it, 1t was
the range who originated the cheaI
transportation movement which the com
mercial classes of the east first scoffed at
and then espoused. 1t was they who brok,
the power of monopolies in California; i
was they who initiated that Legislation
against railroad discrimination enacted il
nearly all the western states, which, whil'
admittedly unjust aud oppressive 10 som,
OF its features, is forcing the solution of
question which the railroads. IL left t
themselves, would never have attempted
to solve; and il is they who are maxim!
that demand for q national improvement
80 vrnENnr, r,Y,~., .-l,,l L., ...ol Al,
great work now going on at the mouth O
the Mississippi, and which will not b.
abated till all the great streams of the val
ley shall have been made constantly navi
gable for freight boats.
But it is what the grange has done 70
the individual farmer that it deserves mos
honor for. 1t has taught him, or is teach
ing him the valuatle lessons of buying 70
cash or not buying at all; of avoiding debt
at stores; OF stunning money lenders an,
mortgages; OF cultlvating the spirit of hi
vocation; OF lifting agriculture 10
to the position of a mehtodical bus
mess; and, more than anything else
it has taught him the saving power of CO
operation, Last year, 3s we learn frou
the proceedings of the Missouri stat
grange that met recently at Sedalia, ther
was furnished through agents of tn
oranges to farmers, 100000 worth G
farm implements and machinery, Thes
implements were shipped directly from tn
factories to the local oranges on orders
without being burthened with the ware
house charges, commissions and profit
exacted by middle-men; and it would nc
be cut of the way to estimate that the say
ing thus effected was % per cent. or 800
00O On the entire purchase, But it is nc
in the purchase of agricultural implement
alone that this practice is applied; farm
ers are learning to buy all their supplies
aud sell all their produce, where it
practicable, through the agency of thei
local oranges: and if all the saving thu
effected could be accurately computed fc
. the past year,i would not be less. probabl
than halfa million dollars for this state
This is co-operation-the principle tha
saves to the consumer the profits on wha
he buys; it is imperfectly understood, q
yet; butthe oranges are giving to the farm
ers practical lessons of its value, and it wi
not be many years, perhaps, before til
farmers of Missouri will do a great part
their buying from stores belonging
themselves and their selling through the
own agents. They have done much in tn
past three years to elevate their calm!
and demonstrate its power; and yet the
have only begun to work. They have onl
to preserve their unity, and carry out ii
social economical principles on which tt
grange rests, to exhibit far greater result
in the future, and stamp the fraterni
spirit of their order on the industrial lii
G