The Republican journal., 1900-09-20
THE INFLUENCE OF THE GRANGE.
What Uncle Scion Chase Says of This Or.
ganizatiOn of Farmers.

ganization of Farmers.
| From the Boston Sunday Herald.
| The grange in Maine is an organiZa-
ton of farmers, their sons, their wives
and their daughters, but the grange is
not limited to farmers. Ministers, law
yers, doctors, and all engaged in indus
trial pursuits, are eligible to member
ship in the grange. The grange does
not exist in the cities, but in many of
the rural towns it is almost a clean
sweep, while in the centres of wealth
and culture it's influence is felt.
Excepting during the busy season,
July and August, we meet in the grange
halls once in two weeks for an all-day
meeting, baked bean dinner and So
cial time. Matters pertaining to farm
ing and economic questions and what is
going ON in this busy world are discussed
1t is free parliament, excepting as re-
CARDS politics and religion, which are
barred out.
The grange is helpful in farming
community in many ways. 1t breaks
up the isolation of farm life. We see
new faces and get new ideas and edu
cate ourselves unconsciously. We look
forward to grange day as a day of rest,
recreation and self-culttre. There is a
good deal of common sense in a farm
ing community as well as some sense
that is uncommon. If one has the fac
ulty to pick out common from uncom-
| mon sense the grange is a good school
for children of Charger growth"
The grange is national organization,
| but it is not so lively in all the States
as it is in Maine.
| The Hon. Aaron Jones of Indiana,
master of the national grange, is now
in this State, and lately addressed a
| large audience of grangers and others
at Merrymeeting Park, The worthy
master of the national grange is good,
easy tailker, and his western way of
saying things is entertaining. He held
the attention of the large audience to
the finish
The Hon. Aaron Jones visited Maine
year ago, and, like everybody else
who comes here. comes back next year
OF course our sidehill farms are not so
productive or so easily handled as the
western prairies, but we can raise finer
sweet corn than will grow in the fertile
bottoms of the Wabash.
Our sweet corn factories are now do
ing a rushing business, and the crop
turns out much better than was eX-
pected on account Of the drought i'll the
first part of the season.
The worthy master of the national
grange is aware that nature has made
Maine a continuous park, delightful to
all corners, easily accessible by land
and sea, and he told us that all we do to
make the landscape more attractive
will put money i'll our purse.
The worthy master did not talk poll
NJnt Of al Ir,.1, Il
state are handled with a pair of tongs
in the grange
lie said that the grange had accom-
plished much i'll its brief existence of
SO years, and the good work has just
begun. The mission of the grange is to
carry refinement and culture to the
farmers tireside, the building of charac-
ter and the uplifting of humanity. not
by force of arms but by a feast of rea-
son and a flow of SOUL and in this work
our wives and sisters are the best work
erS.
The grange is the first order to recOg-
nize the women in fraternal union. In
the grange woman is not ''WalltloWer,'
but one of us, and takes her part in the
exercises and discussions with the men.
\ grange meeting without the women
folks would be like snow storm on the
Fourth of July.
The worthy master said that women
who were so useful in the grange were
needed in the town meeting, and that
coming generations would look back to
this day and wonder why anybody ever
thought of limiting the right of suffrage
to men.
The work of the grange. like the work
of the church, is never ending. The
grange stands forindustry and progress;
that is to make two spears of grass grow
where there was but one before
Without industry on the farm two
bushes and three weeds will grow where
there didn't but one before
No man should ever be permitted to
grow rich by the sweat of anothers
brow. The grange is standing by the
sermon on the mount i'll the letter and
the spirit The one object of the grange
in politics is to see that our laws are
shaped so that public burdens shall
! bear upon all alike, and public blessings,
like the rain and the sunshine shall fall
upon the just and the unjust. If we
are partisans we cannot afford to lose
sight OF the great principles of frater-
nifty and justice upon which our order
rests.
W nlle we are making progress toward
higher ideals, injustice and wrong doing
are mixed up with our progress. The
mission of the grange is to eliminate
wrong doing by uplifting the home and
by cooperation make the farmers fire
side the well spring Of river of public
opinion that will make it impossible for
one man to grow rich by the sweat of
another's brow. Changers are Demo-
Gratis and Republicans, but behind our
party obligations there is a higher duty
to lift up higher ideal in our homes
that will purify the political pool.
Our laws reflect the will of the peo-
pie. If faults there be in the body pol
itic, the fault is in the fountain head
the people. In a word, our government
is no better and no worse than the peo-
pie. Our law-givers will make into law
just what the people want them to, and
the men whose duty is to enforce the
law won't enforce the law if the people
don't want them to. In this country
the will of the people is the law of the
land, and is above the law because
therein lies the power to make or UNI
make law.
Co-OneratiOn and concentration arc