PRACTICAL CO-OPERATION. 93 



and unassuming nature, you can hardly realize the great revolution 

 it is making in public opinion for the benefit of agriculture and the 

 farmers. Too many think because the}' are not made count}' officers 

 instantly or sent to our Legislature, the grange is a failure ; or they 

 may not receive a cash benefit paid to them — many times as large as 

 would be fair pay for all their service rendered, and because they 

 cannot see or feel these benefits are coming to them in some such 

 manner, they fail to realize that the general prosperity of farm inter- 

 ests does bring them large reward, and the}' do not give the proper 

 source from whence it came full credit. 



It is becoming clear to the American people, says Professor Olin, 

 ''that strikes, bovcotts and mobs are not remedial ao^encies. The 

 old-fashioned conviction is forcing itself upon the political and social 

 world that if you sow corruption, there will spring up crime ; if you 

 plant sedition, you will gather rebellion ; if you scatter mob law, 

 you will harvest mobs ; if you sow to the winds of socialism and an- 

 archy, you will reap the whirlwind of destruction and death." 



It is also becoming equally clear that arbitration and cooperation 

 are the best ways to settle all questions of disagreement, and to 

 reach and to accomplish all needed reforms. 



Under present environments and especially under future prospects, 

 we can see no bright hope for the farmers and the farming com- 

 munity, unless cooperation shall be made more and more of practi- 

 cal use. Our own interests, our own future, and the future of our 

 boys and girls demand it. We see no reason why farmers should 

 not "pool their interests" and control the '"out-put" of food crops 

 the same as the coal, the oil, and the iron men do. 



A keen observer of men and things, in a recent public print, says : 



" In those localities where patrons buy and sell together, and by a 

 system of lecturing keep up an interest in the order, a higher stand- 

 ard of excellence prevails among the farmers and their families ; 

 more independence of character is displayed ; more interest is taken 

 in the education of their children ; fewer mortgages encumber their 

 property ; a purer morality exists ; and more time and attention is 

 given to public matters and public duties." 



There is no calling on earth more honorable and more to be re- 

 spected than that of cultivating the earth. It has the claim of being 

 first and was given to man by his Creator. It should be handed 

 down by father to son improved, beautified, and fully up to the exi- 

 gencies of the times. 



