BECLABATION OF PRINCIPLES. 



Second We heartily indorse the motto : &quot; In essentials, Unity ; in non- 

 essentials, Liberty ; in all things, Charity.&quot; 



Third We shall endeavor to advance our cause by laboring to accom 

 plish the following objects : To develope a better and higher manhood and 

 womanhood among ourselves ; to enhance the comforts and attraction of our 

 homes, and strengthen our attachments to our pursuits ; to foster mutual un 

 derstanding and co-operation ; to maintain inviolate our laws, and to emulate 

 each other to labor to hasten the good time coming; to reduce our expenses, both 

 individual and corporate ; to buy less and produce more, in order to make 

 our farms self-supporting ; to diversify our crops, and plant no more than we; 

 can cultivate ; to condense the weight of our exports, selling less in the bushel 

 and more on the hoof and in fleeces ; to systematize our work, and calculate 

 intelligently on the probabilities ; to discountenance the credit system, the 

 mortgage system, the fashion system, and every other system tending to pro 

 digality and bankruptcy. We propose meeting together, talking together, 

 working together, buying together, selling together, and generally acting to 

 gether for our mutual protection and advancement, as occasion may require. 

 We shall avoid litigation as much as possible, by arbitration in the Grange. 

 We shall constantly strive to secure entire harmony, good will and vitaj 

 brotherhood among ourselves, and to make order perpetual. We shall earn- 

 estly endeavor to suppress personal, local, sectional and national prejudices, 

 all unhealthy rivalry and all selfish ambition. Faithful adherence to these 

 principles will ensure our mental and moral, social and material advance 

 ment. 



fourth For our business interests we desire to bring producers and con 

 sumers, farmers and manufacturers, into the most intimate relations possible. 

 Hence, we must dispense with a surplus of middle men : not that we are 

 unfriendly to them, but we do not need them. Their surplus and their exac* 

 tions diminish our profits. We wage no aggressive warfare against any other 

 interests whatever. On the contrary, all our acts and all our efforts, so far as 

 business is concerned, are not only for the benefit of producers, but also for 

 all other interests that try to bring those two parties into speedy and econom 

 ical contact. Hence, we hold that transportation companies of every kind 

 are necessary to our success ; that their interests are intimately connected 

 with our interests, and that harmonious action is mutually advantageous. 

 Keeping in view the first sentence in our declaration of principles of action, 

 that &quot; individual happiness depends upon the general prosperity,&quot; we shall 

 therefore advocate for every State the increase, in every practicable way, of 

 all facilities for transporting cheaply to the seaboard, or between home pro 

 ducers and consumers, all the productions of our country. We adopt it as 

 our fixed purpose to open out the channel in Nature s great arteries, that the 

 life-blood of commerce may flow freely. We are not enemies of railroads, 

 navigable and irrigating canals, nor of any corporation that will advance our 

 industrial interests, nor of the laboring classes. In our noble Order there is 

 no communism, no agrarianism. We are opposed to such spirit and manage 

 ment of any corporation or enterprise as tends to oppress people and rob 

 them of their just profits. We are not enemies to capital, but we oppose 

 tyranny of monopolies. We long to see the antagonism between capital and 

 labor removed by common consent, and by an enlightened statesmanship 

 worthy of the nineteenth century. We are opposed to excessive salaries, 

 high rates of interest, and exorbitant per cent, profits in trade. They greatly 

 increase our burdens, and do not bear a proportion to the profits of produ 

 cers. We desire only self-protection and the protection of every true inter 

 est of our land by legitimate transactions, legitimate trade, and legitimate 



