Year: 1873

of their liberties. To sustain this in
dictment we need no argument OF
proofs. The facts are self-evident.
Capitalists indeed and politicians Of
easy virtue,e tell us that we are
crusading against capital-that there
is nothing wrong. All! "doth the
wild ass bray wheh he has grass? Or
loveth the OK his fodder?n When
men are rapidly accumulating wealth
and building themselves up into a
moneyed aristocracy, they are not swift
to complain Of the wrongs and injuries
under which other interests are suf-
fering, especially il those wrongs and
injuries. are inflicted by their own
hands. Na& VIA aR


We demand legislation and congress
sional enactments in the interest of
agriculture and labor Capital is a
power capable of taking care of itself:
labor is not, but dependent on capital.
AS the object Of law and government
is, to shield the weak from the strong,
we insist that II, is the duty Of the
law making power to restrain the ag-
gressive force Of all proper legislation,
and protect the weaker from unjust
exactions. T


We are utterly opposed to monopo-
lies and insist on such legislation as
will, at least control them within rea-
sonable limits. We are paying enor-
nous tribute to railways. steamships
and river carriers; tribute out of all
proportion to the actual cost Of their
construction and maintainance. We
believe they are Of right subject to leg
islative control. 1t is difficult to un-
derstand how they can exercise one Of
the highest powers of sovereignty, and
still be private corporations. The Fed
eral Constitution prohibits the taking
of private property for any but pub
licpurpOses. A corporation existing for
public purposes, capable Of divesting
you OF your property against yourwill,
and which draws its sustenance from
the public, should be held to be for all
purposes, a public corporation and a
creature of law, and under, not above
the laws.


We mean business and intend to
do our own in our own way as far as
possible and profitable, and do 1t at
: the least possible expense.


Our kind friends at San Francisco
who as middlemen, have made their
twenty thousand. dollars pei, year In
handling produce, without investing
a dollar capital, may retire on the
fortune already accumulated. We in
tend to sell.at the highest price and
buy what we must have at the lowest.
That Is the way all good business men
do, and it is right for the farmer to do
it. We said that the farmers Of Iowa
saved more than million dollars the
first year after the Inauguration of the
system, in the purchase of implements
and supplies. Enormous profits are
made by agents in the sale of machin-
cry Of one kind and another, and if the
farmer can save from twenty to thirty
five per cent. by buying of first hands,
it is his right and duty to do so.


One Of the most prominent features
OF our order is, the material aid which
it affords to all within its pale. That
feature extends not merely to business
affairs, but to all the essential rela-
tions of life, 50 far as it is possible and
prudent to extend it. In sickness and
in health, in poverty and distress, the
hand ola kindly brotherhood is al
ways ready to succor and to help. We
not only inculcate brotherly love as a
duty imposed by our order as we'll as
by the higher law of the great Creator,
but we aim to cultivate closer and
more intimate social intercourse, by
which each and all may be made hap
pier, wiser and better. One of the
greatest evils of these busy, money
making times is, that we shut our
selves up in ourselves, and give our
time and thoughts to our business to
the utter neglect Of all else. 1t is our
duty, and should be our. pleasure, to
know each other better, and cultivate
more assiduously those social ameni-
ties which always afford pleasure and
add charm, without which life is
comparatively cheerless. l believe If
men generally knew more of each 9TH
er, if they could see more of the work.
ings of the human heart, they would
find less to censure and more to ad-
mire and love.


Another and, probably the most i'm
portant duty imposed by the very ma
ture and purpose of our order is to ele-
vate all that comes within its reach.


knowledge is power" in all the
varied pursuits of life, from the hum
blest to the most exalted, and he who
possesses 1t may be cast down, but can
not utterly fall. Ignorance is the curse
of the world; 1t is the willing tool Of
the demagogue, the blind victim Of
avarice, the hand-maiden of super
stition, the bloody sacrifice on the al
tar Of ambition. OF its bones it has
reared thousand monuments to COM
memorate the genius of Hannibals and
Caesars and Bonapartes. Through all
the ages 1t has toiled on and on, in
poverty and degradation; and on it
as on solid walls, thrones have been
established to reign and rule with iron
hand over the yielding millions! 1t
licks the hand that smites it; it robes
its Oppressors in costly raimen1 and
surfeits them with riches and earthly
honors. 1t bends the neck to receive
the yoke, and tolls on, and ever with
the patience of the OK which only
knoweth his masters crib.


1t knows nothing of the great world
without-of the bright, glowing lights
Just beyond the border, into which, if
it could find the way through the
darkness and gloom, 1t would be trans
formed into a beautiful image before
which angels would fall down and wor-
ship.


Such is brief, though imperfect,
picture Of ignorance. What can we
do to dispel it? Let 1t be our aim to
cultivate our minds, to train ourselves
to habits Of thought, the better to dis
charge the great trusts reposed in us,
as co-guardians of our rights, liberties
and independence. SIT II


Let us not forget our children. We
shall soon pass away, and they must
occupy our places and assume and dis
charge the grave responsibilities rest