The Grange advance. [volume] (Red Wing, Minn.) 1873-1877, 1875-03-02
The National Grange.

From the Annual MESSAGE O
dudley W. Adams, Master of the
National Grange, at the opening O.
the session, at Charleston, S. G..
we make the following extracts
which are full Of important anG
beautiful thoughts:
From the snow-c!ad hills, the tlowcry
wales, the golden shore and prairie
lands we meet together by the historic
palmetto. Not as Nomads who gather
at shrine in obedience to sentiment
do we come, but as chosen representa-
tives Of the fraternity, whose object is
the moral and material advancement of
the greatest industrial interest of the
great republic. One year ago we met
beyond the Father of Waters and con-
graduated ourselves on the growth and
strength of our gigantic young Order.
To-day, by the ever sounding seas, we
proudly proclaim that our members
have increased one hundred fold. Two
more sister States Maine and Mon
tana have joined our ranks, and the
few remaining ones are joyfully on the
way. The work has spread from ocean
to ocean.
The winds have waited the sounds
across, and now they come back like
echoes from the other shore, asking US
to extend to other people helping
hand. This uprising and organizing of
a great and scattered interest has not IL
parallel in the history of the world.
The magnitude and force of the move
ment has surprised it's friends and as
tonished and alarmed its foes. 1t has
burst upon US with the suddenness of the
erratic comet, yet promises to remain
with the brilliancy and permancy of
the sun. It found the agriculture of
nation unorganized, isolated, unrecog-
nized, weak, plodding, and their voices
virtually unheard in the councils of the
land. To-day they are organized, unit
ed, strong, thoughtful, and duly respect
ed and recognized as one of the great
powers that be.
After speaking Of the Importance
of the transportation question and
throwing out the thoughts that
trelghts should be regulated by Con-
gress, he said:
| know l speak the sentiments of
the people, when l say we do no
wrong to the capital nominally invested
in railroads. We fully recognize their
capacity for good, and all their just
claims, but demand justice and protcc-
ton for the people.
But even if railroads do carry at fair
rates, still the fact stares us in the face
that transportation of heavy commodi-
ties is at least an expensive luxury, and
cur true policy is to bring producer and
consumer nearer together, and SO the
less transporting. We, of the South
and West, especially, should spare no
means to introduce and foster manufac-
lures in our midst, that we be not
obliged to transport our raw material
out and the manufactured article in.
We of the East, where manufacturers
are many and strong, should, with
equal assiduity, promote the cultiva-
ton of the raw material, that the terri:
BILE strain on transportation be lessened.
In speaking of the National hnan-
ces, he compared the men who are
"torturing their poor brains to devise
some plan whose talismanic power
will transmute bits of printed paper
into countless millions of actual
money of such a subtle nature that,
true as the needle to the pole, it
shall go straight to the pockets of
the poor, and, like a subtle 'Will O
the wisp,' forever evade the clutches
Of the rich;" to the old chemists in