The patron of husbandry. (Columbus, Miss.) 1875-1883, 1881-04-23
From the Virginia Granger.
she Grange a. 1t Appears to An
snSsIer.
ITO FOSTER MUTUAL UNDERSTAND
ING AND COOPERATION.

L
ING AND COOPERATION.
In many organizations until the
members come to understand one
another, there will not be much of
harmony OF concord. The isolated
condition Of the farmers all over the
country had the effect of perpetual
ing that ignorance of each other,
which so universally prevailed. For
wears each one had been satisfied to
travel along the hard and difficult
road, believing that he alone was
called upon to groan beneath the
heavy burdens which were imposed
upon him. His sorrows, his griefs,
his trials, his disappointments were
locked up in his own bosom or only
revealed TO the members Of his own
family, who alone he believed would
sympathize and condole with him.
He could not believe that all were
in like condition, because he had
waited and watched to hear some
expression fall from the l1fs of 9th
ers, which would lead him to infer
that they were in the like unhappy
circumstances.
Farmers had employed their en-
ergies and put forth their efforts,
only for the purpose Of relieving
themselves individually. They had
never taken a wide comprehensive
view of the situation. They had
never permitted reason to ascend
the throne, and WELD her royal cep
ire over the wide field of labor in
which with tired and wearied mus
Gle, they ignorantly plodded along.
They had been satisfied to believe
that they had common interest.
that the powerful muscle Of the
brawny arm, and the tough sinew
of the why frame would eventually
lead them out Of their troubles and
difficulties. The idea that mind
must control matter, that thought
must give purpose to the muscu
lar action, that knowledge and in
formation must mark out the course
which ought to be pursued, and
serve as guide post in the dark and
dreary way of life, never for a mo-
ment entered the mind. 1t was, in
deed, strange that each one should
have concluded that bis experience
was peculiar to himself-that he
was solitary and alone, and if his
condition was bettered, if his bur
dens were removed, if his troubles
were relieved, if his griefs were
healed, it would be only effected by
individual effort.
In the primitive stages of society
all this may have been to some ex-
tent true, but in the blaze of an adj
vanced civilization, in which men
live by the exercise of brain, and
not by muscular exertion alone, the
farmer or the mechanic who relied
upon individual effort, upon physi-
cal labor, without the directing in
fuence of mind, would soon find
that he was held at powerful dis
advantage. In an age, in which
every man in the pursuit of compe-
tency, wealth and happiness de-
ponds upon his own individual ex-
ertions, having no regard to that of
Others and entirely ignoring the
great benefits to be obtained by
combination and cooperation Of in
dividual purposes and efforts, this
individually might do very well,
and the isolated farmer would
.and as good chance for a living,
even competency as any one
eI.
81 far as the Southern farmer was
concerned in the olden time, when
the circumstances by which he was
surrounded, were so very different
from those which affect him under
the new regime, he may have been
able to get along FAIRLY, having
co.. bined in his operations the in
dlYiiddppaallty Of land owner, capitalist