The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1891-01-02
The Grange idea.
MORTIMER WHITEHEAD.

The farmers of our country haye
been going to school for the past
twenty three years, and the name of
their school is spelled with the letters
Ora N-GE. True it is, that with
in two or three years past other
farmers sohooIs have been started
in some States end sections with a
! different name over their doors, but
their teachers all learned their A B
lCs in the earlier grange schools, and
the lessons taught are from leaves
torn out of the Grange School book.
And what are some the lessons our
farmers have been learning in the
Grange, and how are those lessons
being applied for the good of our
country aud mankind?
First Farmers have been learning
that while they may have strength
as individuals, that strength united
is stronger; that while individual
effort plods on afoot or in dug out
canoe, united strength travels on the
flying express or by the ocean steam
err; that organizations, good and bad,
move and govern the world.
Second. Farmers have been learn
ing the lesson that they have brain
as we'll as muscle, mind as well as
land, and that it pays to cultivate
the one as well as the other, for
knowledge is power" Brain always
has ruledimuscle and always will, As
is the soul above the body. so is
brain above muscle. The farmer and
his interests wil be advanced and
respected just in proportion as he
improves his education in all things
that pertain to him in his several re-
lations. as a farmer, as man, and as
a citizen. :
Third. He has been learning the
lessons of business, that it is just as
much q part of his business to sell a
crop as to grow it just as much to
his advantage to know how to spend
his money as how to earn it. Hence
he has been studying the laws of
supply and demand. trusts cor
ners," and dealings in Futures and
The transportation question. He has
even taught some of the lessons he
himself has learned to the great cor
portions who control the country, and
the end in that direction is not yet.
He has been learning about FIRE in
surance and co operative buying and
selling, about taxes-equal and un-
1 equal, direct and indirect; about
the money furnished one class of
citizens by government for one per
cent, and for which the people must
pay six, eight, or ten per cent; about
the characterization Of silver (for the
levy and free coinage of silver (for
the many; about tarifs-for manu-
fuacturers, and free raw materials
also for manufacturers, and farmers
left out on both counts: SO he has
learned to insist upon equality be-
fore the tariff law" and before all
laws. He has learned that cash is
king; to get out of debt and keep out
That rates of interes. for money
higher than the average earnings Of
capital invested in productive indus
tries gives capital an unfair advan.
over labor; that English two per
cent capital coming over here is ab.
sorbing millions of acres of our lands
under foreclosure because of high
rates of interest; this same cheap
foreign capital buying up and run
ming our railroads, our mines, and
our factories. Having learned his
-I!esssn, ire insists upon lower rates of
interest, as true "protection to
American industries"
Fourth. The farmers in the Grange
have been learning lessons in poll
itics, "the science of government" as
| Webster defines the word. They
have been learning that wheat, corn,
pork, beef, tobacco, rice or cotton
raised on Democratic farm are con-
trolled by the same laws as the pro.
ducts of Republican farm; thai
what will injure one farmer will in
jure another; or the benefit of one is
the benefit of his neighbor; that pol
iticians have divided the farmers
birthright of strength by pairing
them Off one against the other in
different political parties. and so
their votes don't count-except for
the benefit of others; that parties are
all right in their places, but that
the people must run the parties and
not the parties the pople. Many
politicians in all parties have been
llearning this lesson of late-from
the farmers.
Fifth. The farmers have been
learning in the Grange to make their
homes brighter and better, to farm
better. about soils and fertilizers,
and improved methods; about in
tensive as against extensive farming;
to give their boys and girls better
change, because of a better educa-
ton; to have msre books, music and
towers. Then too. they have learned
to take wife and mother, daughter
and sister, to the Grange school as
we'll, that they also need the recrea
ton, the education, the benefits that
as are the mothers so will the sons
be also that Roman's influence in
the Grange school is ALWAYS for GOOD.