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GRANGE OF STATE ILLINOIS. 119 



It 18 expecting too much of human nature to look to the class of men 

 who so largely compose our legislative bodies to do even justice to other 

 classes wlieu an opportunity occurs to legislate in the interest of the class 

 they represent. 



A religious bigot cannot have a beneficent influence upon fallen 

 humanity, and a Grange bigot will antagonize all other labor, forgetting 

 that by co-operating with labor in every department lies our strength to 

 cope with the combinations against us. such men must come to realize that, 



" When men, wielding i>low and ax and pen, 

 Join themselves as one man — then 

 We shall plant our cause so deep, 

 That all the world its fruit shall reap." 



Many things are possible for our Order tliat can be accomplished only 

 by means adequate to the end. Our members must make the work one of 

 individual responsibility, not depending upon the State or National 

 Grange to do the work, nor upon the Master of the Subordinate Grange, 

 but insist on yourself, never imitate, that wliich each can do best none but 

 his Maker can teach liim, no man or woman yet knows what they can do 

 or are capable of, until that person has tried to exhibit it. Be not content 

 then to do that which is assigned you, you cannot hope too much, or dare 

 too much. 



There is from every one of you an utterance brave and grand, if you 

 will but strive to give it voice, then with the cumulative force of all your 

 lives, cultivation and experiences, you may enrich the whole with the in- 

 dividujil tlioughts of each, and make the Grange a grand store-house of all 

 that can elevate and ennoble our class. The Grange can accomplish an- 

 other grand and noble object, if it will, but lo do this some straight-laced 

 notions must be got rid of, some of the "stand aside I am holier than 

 thou," feeling eliminated, that all who labor may be recognized as broth- 

 ers with whom we can affiliate up to the point whose certain forms and 

 rites forbid, they are doing the same work in their own way as we are do- 

 ing in ours, those who condemn without understanding the aim and scope 

 of our Order would be our friends if we were less tenacious of our ad- 

 hering to secrecy where no cause for it exists. Every family has its secrets 

 whicli are sacred to them, we have ours as well, but beyond these few and 

 simple safeguards thai are neccessary to protect ourselves from imposition, 

 there is notliing but what the outside world might know, indeed ought to 

 know, and knowing it, much of the hostility manifested towards us would 

 cease. It is because we so isolate ourselves, and the mystery with wliich 

 we are surrounded, that many refuse to join us, when if the principles of 

 the Order were explained in open Grange meetings, our aims and objects 

 freely put before tlie public as they might and should be, in myjudgment 

 it would add to our numbers and increase the interest in our work more 

 than any means in present use can possibly do. If open meetings could 

 be advertised at intervals, and the public invited lo attend, a flood of light 

 might be let in where there is only apparent darkness, and we should the 



