ACTION OF THE IOWA STATE GRANGE. 557 



ing three long sessions each day, full delegations from the 

 Clubs and Granges of every County in the State save one 

 were present The work of this representative body of 

 men, together with the work and resolutions of the Iowa 

 State Grange, and the Illinois State Grange, which met the 

 week previously the first in Des Moines, Iowa, and the 

 latter at Bloomington, Illinois will serve to show the ani 

 mus and earnestness of the men engaged in the movement. 



ACTION OF THE IOWA STATE GRANGE, DECEMBER, 1873. 



The resolutions passed by these three great conventions 

 are important in many respects. The platform of the Iowa 

 Patrons of Husbandry, was confined principally to the inner 

 workings of the order. It recommends the establishment 

 of a circulating library, in connection with the Subordinate 

 Granges, a step of the greatest importance, and productive 

 of vast good as a means of still further educating the mem 

 bers in social and intellectual life. It is also easy of accom 

 plishment, since the only obstacle is a financial one that may 

 be easily overcome. A committee was also appointed to 

 arrange for the establishment of a newspaper, to be strictly 

 educational in its character an organ of the Order, which 

 should be the mentor and teacher of each Grange. 



The Iowa Patrons also expressed themselves strongly as 

 to the necessity of a modification of the school laws, that 

 they might be more efficiently carried out in practical edu 

 cation through efficient teachers. While doing this, they 

 emphatically urge the continued education of the farmers 

 after the school days are over. Hence, the necessity of 

 libraries to which all may have access. The Patrons fully 

 acknowledge the importance of the common schools, the 



