114 - PROCEEDINaS OF THE 



consequently offices are too apt to be filled with such. Keep down sala- 

 ries if you would raise virtue and public spirit up. 



Let no sordid man be encouraged in his appetite for office, for .all such 

 are a public curse, a promoter of oppression, taxation and demoralization. 



The best men will serve us best, and most economically for the rewards 

 of honor and gratitude, and we should attend to our duties and seek out 

 such men. The greatest vice of our present state of society is the conces- 

 sion that office confers superior rank upon its holder, and that office when 

 acquired is permitted to be used as a class privilege. The bitter fruits of 

 these concessions are, that man's self-governing abilities are dwarfed 

 almost to extinguishment by the imposition of human authority in almost 

 every walk of life. 



I sa}^ then, tempt not sordid men with office, nor concede to its holder 

 superior rank. It is contrary to the genius of our institutions and especially 

 inconsonant to an organization like ours, but make office, as far as possi- 

 ble, honorary, thus securing the best men among us to fill them, and pay 

 only where such services are rendered as demand it, then have the services 

 commeasurate with the pay. 



In my judgment the National Grange should have laid out the work for 

 the Subordinate Granges for the accomplishment of the reforms we seek. 

 As a great representative body with all the facts before it, it should be ag- 

 gressive. To conserve old wrong is not its nor our mission, but to grapple 

 them with a force and power equal to the power that oppresses us, and as 

 the stream never rises above the fountain, it is to be feared that until they 

 rise up to the magnitude of the work we have in hand the Subordinate 

 Granges will not. 



It is only natural that a reaction should follow the enthusiasm that 

 characterizes our movement in the beginning, but the sober second thought 

 is generally more efficient and nearer right, and as the causes that brought 

 our movement into existence instead of being removed are, if possible, in- 

 tensified, if then we were right in denouncing monopolies and the extor- 

 tions of railroads, the right still continues with us because all the wrongs 

 we then complained of still exist, and the means by which monopolies and 

 corporate capital continue to prey upon labor, may be summed up in the 

 one word combination. 



The bankers meet in convention, and the rate of interest is uniform with 

 all up to the rates permitted in the several States, and all competition 

 ceases. 



A few railroad magnates meet and the price for carrying our corn and 

 other products to the sea goes up to a price that will extort $15,000,000 

 from the farmers of Illinois. The Lumberman's Association hold a meeting 

 in Chicago, and within two weeks the price of lumber goes up in every 

 yard in the State. So with the stove men, plow men, and even the under- 

 takers have combined, so that it is about as expensive for a man to die as 

 to live. While the National Grange meets and holds a session of some weeks, 

 the State Granges are holding their annual meetings, but the price of our 



