OBJECTS AND ADVANTAGES OF THE GRANGES. 121 



negligence en their part, is almost certain to have an evil in 

 fluence on the future of the man. 



This is, and should be, one of the legitimate fields of work 

 for the Granges, because herein lies their power in the next 

 generation. The child of to-day will be the man or woman 

 then ; the boy of to-day, the drudge and indifferent farmer, 

 or the intelligent worker, and the successful tiller of the 

 soil the law maker or the ruler according as his educa 

 tion has been neglected or fostered. 



But a short time ago, the Order of Patrons of Husbandry 

 was the vague idea of one individual ; a year ago, a compara 

 tive handful of men and women ; to-day, they are a vast army 

 of earnest workers, strong in their will to resist the aggres 

 sions that have accumulated with each recurring year, to 

 burden the farmer and carry the fraternity lower and lower 

 in the social scale. Their watchwords are hailed and an 

 swered from the Atlantic to the Pacific from the head 

 waters of the Great Lakes, and the wild forests of Canada, 

 to the everglades of Florida and the Texas plains whose 

 shores are washed by the Gulf of Mexico. Their banners 

 are unfurled, not alone to a nation, but over a continent. 

 Political organizations arise, culminate, accomplish or fail 

 of their ends, and die. They are weak from want of cohe 

 sion and unity of purpose. But the Grange was strong in 

 its infancy, and while yet weak in numbers, because laboring 

 with a unity of purpose for the right. It is still but a 

 youth, with its best powers undeveloped ; but the stripling 

 David has already cast the stone that is to smite the Goliath 

 of Monopoly in the forehead. Those who despised it a few 

 months ago, in its supposed weakness, are now praying to it 

 in its young strength. When it shall have arrived at its 

 full stature, a giant in strength, irresistible if it remain pure 

 in its intentions, it will wield a power such as no other 

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