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STATE GRANGE OF ILLINOIS. 117 



and as ii sort of pleasurable uratificatinn. Give a man tliis taste, and the 

 means of gratifying it, and you can hardly fail of making liim a happy 

 man, unless indeed you put into his hands a most perverse selection of 

 books." 



You place him in contact witli the best society in every period of his- 

 tory, with the wisest, the wittiest, the tenderest, the bravest characters that 

 have adorned humanity. You make him a denizen of all nations — a 

 cotemporary of all ages. 



The world has been created for him. It is hardly possible but his 

 character should take a liigher and better tone from the constant habit of 

 associating in thought with a class of thinkers, to say the least of it, above 

 the average of humanity. 



It is morally impossible but the manners should take a tinge of good 

 breeding and civilization from having constantly before one's eyes the way 

 in which the best bred and the best informed men have talked and con- 

 ducted themselves in their intercourse with each other. Tiiere is a gentle 

 but perfectly irresistible coercion in the habit of reading, well directed 

 over the whole tenor of a man's character and conduct, which is not less 

 eflFectual because it is really the last thing he dreams of." 



Feeling the want of having the means to acquire tins taste in early life, 

 as too many of us do, let us see to it that our children are not deprived of 

 the means of acquiring it. 



Starve the body, economize in everything else, but for God's sake, my 

 brothers, don't starve the minds of your children. 



What the Grange may accomplish is exemplified where they have dared 

 to take an advanced step and break in upon old usages and customs and 

 strike out for themselves a new path, in buying as well as selling, in cut- 

 ting otl' middle-men, and buying direct from the manufacturer, and reduc- 

 ing their purchases to a cash basis, aud thus saving the enormous profits 

 that have been derived from handling the products of industry. I would 

 infer from Brother Davies' address of welcome to the National Grange, 

 that he was opposed to this departure from established customs, as he 

 speaks of that body as a great " conservative one." If he means to convey 

 to us by the use of the terra the idea that he would conserve only the just, 

 the pure and true in business, society and government, then I have no 

 objection to the use of the term in reference to that body; but if, as I have 

 reason to believe, he uses it in the sense in which it was used during the 

 War of the Rebellion, I repudiate its application to the State and Subor- 

 dinate Granges. It was conservatism that prolonged the war and cost us 

 millions ol treasure and tens of thou.sands of valuable lives. What, in the 

 present condition of our country and our unjust and unequal laws would 

 he conserve? old wrongs, the right of monopolies to extort from labor all 

 its profits, the right of the moneyed power to control legislation, both 

 State and National, in the interest of capital and at the expense of labor: 

 If not these things, what would he conserve? Hosea Bigelow says: 



