562 THE GROITNDSWELL. 



If the farmers were the stolid set that this class of journal 

 ists suppose, all this tirade might be well. But those who 

 for years have been trying to stem the tide of corruption, 

 and nullify the insane blindness of too grasping monopolists, 

 will not accept the arbitrary dogma that they are controlled 

 by a body of Washington politicians. 



WHAT THE ILLINOIS FARMERS LID ASSERT. 



The Illinois Farmers Association, at its formation, did not 

 organize a political party. It has, however, managed to suc 

 ceed in placing representative farmers in various offices in a 

 majority of the counties of the State. The Granges, on the 

 other hand, have steadily kept themselves aloof from politics, 

 and there is no present appearance that they will ever change 

 their course, notwithstanding the efforts of certain journals 

 to force them so to do by covert sneers and open vitupera 

 tion. The leading minds of the Order know well that such 

 a course would destroy its influence in other directions. Its 

 power is potent because exercised in an educational and 

 business way. The Illinois Patrons are among the most 

 conservative of the Order, from the fact, perhaps, that there 

 is another distinct body in the State who may and do exert 

 political power. 



One of the great features of the Order of Patrons is, that 

 their educational facilities will insure, at the proper time, the 

 casting of the ballots of the fraternity in accordance with 

 law and order, and against the usurpation of unjust power 

 of any kind. Conservative men have always held that the 

 only proper way for freemen to right political wrong is at 

 the ballot-box. It is difficult to see how this is to be done 

 without taking political action. For this reason, the Farm 

 ers Association have now wisely resolved to cut loose from 



