Year: 1874

Now that the State Grange of Louisiana
is fully organized and in proper working
order, we hope for such reform in our agrl-
cultural system as w1l rebound to the bene
fit of every other progressive interest. Inc
soil, climate and productions of our beauti-
full State are indicative of her course and
point plainly to the fact that thorough and
selt-sustaining system of agriculture IN all
its branches is the surest and best road to
financial prosperity and independence


The mission of the Patrons of Husbandry
is to work out this problem, and, although
much has been said about the antagonistlc
relations of this order to other Industries
and enterprises, there is nothing in the con-
sttution that warrants such a conclusion.
In all great reformatory measures like the
one now agitating the public mind, ultra
men will come to the surface with wild pro-
positions entirely opposed to the views and
aims OF the persons who inaugurate the
measures.


The constitution of the National Grange,
upon which the State Grange is based, is the
embodiment Of conservatism, and does not
propose to break up our railroads, demelish
our commercial relations and unhinge our
whole system Of traffic, but, on the con-
trary, to so control all these agencies as to
make them subservient to the productive
and paramount interests Of the country.
The accumulation of money, and its use in
the establishment of oppressive monopolies,
never fails to result, as at present, in great
distress to those who are the architects OF
our national prosperity, the laboring
classes. Conservative men, both in and out
of the oranges, know very we'll the recipro-
cal relations between the great agencies of
pros gress, agriculture, manufactures and
commerce, and that a lively and healthy
competition is the sure regulator of them
all. The want Of union among the mem
bers Of any one Of these agencies will place
them at the mercy Of the other two, and
again, without q proper union OF interests
between all Of them, tyrannical moneyed
monopolies step in and precipitate disaster
and ruin.


This very condition of things necessitated,
in the judgment of rejecting producers the
establishment of the order of Patrons of
Husbandry, and while the members of the
order are endeavoring to shun the whirlpool
of Chary bdis we sincerely hope that they
,ray not dash upon the breakers of Scylla-
that while they propose to break up ruinous
monopolies, they may not establish monopo-
lies more extensive and ruinous than ever
before existed.


To suppose that one man can successfully
and properly bundle all the cotton or sugar
that is produced in Louisiana is about as
preposterous as to expect that one line
of railroad or steamboats, can carry
these products. If the agent or
agents of the oranges succeed in
breaking up oppressive commercial
rings then they have effected an object that
will result in much good, as lively compe-
tition will then step in and correct every
other evil. The men who have spent years
in railroading, steamboating and mercantile
pursuits can conduct these matters much
better than those who have devoted their
lives to the farming interest, and it is vastly
preferable to use these men in the different
capacities to which they are, from long ex-
perience, SO well suited, than to introduce
new order of things that must necessarily
result in evil consequences. The grangers
evidently mean war to all dangerous and
ruinous associations, but peace, good will
and aid to all useful and proper enterprises
in whatever department. They recognize
no impediment in sex or color and in this
they have taken long stride forward.


They are eminently a social organization,
but unfaithful politicians have been ''sent
to grass in many Of the States of the West,
no matter what their politics. The order
is spreading its local oranges all over our
State, and while they live up to the consti-
tuition which lies before US, we can not but
rejoice that the thinking men in their ranks
have turned their attention in this chan
mel.