WORTHY MASTER WRIGHT S ADDRESS. 139 



doubts ? Has its success ever been surpassed in the history of any 

 secret organization ? And this too among* farmers, who, as a class, 

 are extremely cautious and slow to move. Had we not found in it 

 all the elements of success, we should long since have abandoned it. 

 But the better it is understood, the more popular it becomes. 



We find one of the most attractive features of our Order in this 

 fact: its growth is not confined to any section of our country. While 

 Iowa takes the lead as our banner State, with over 1,800 Granges, 

 the following figures show a corresponding increase of Subordinate 

 Granges in various Northern and Southern States, since the middle 

 of July: Kansas, from 315 to 597; Indiana, from 238 to 435; Ohio, 

 from 72 to 151; Missouri, from 416 to 879; Tennessee, from 50 to 

 175; Mississippi, from 149 to 378; Alabama, from 14 to 96. This, 

 recollect, is the increase during the last three months. Yes, our 

 brotherhood is equally valued in all parts of our land. It extends 

 from the granite hills of New England to the mountain-girt valleys of 

 the Pacific. Oar brothers and sisters are rallying from the rice and 

 cotton, and sugar lands, which are fanned by the balmy breezes of the 

 Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico, as well as from the grain and stock 

 farms that are swept by the bracing winds of our Northern lakes. 

 And we feel alike toward all the members of our brotherhood For 

 in the handling of our productions, and in supplying our wants, we 

 have suffered from like impositions and like oppression, and, on 

 common ground, we now seek the same redress, the same independ 

 ence, to be gained by lawful, peaceful means. 



Let our thoughts dwell for a moment on some of our principles 

 and purposes which are liable to be misunderstood and misrepre 

 sented. We do not make war against railroads and other internal 

 improvements, but against the spirit of their management. We 

 would rejoice to see in our valle}*s and mountains a network of rail 

 ways, and a thorough system of mining, irrigating and navigable 

 canals; they would support and give employment to millions of 

 happy people, and would, when seconded by deep plowing and 

 thorough cultivation, give absolute certainty to calculations on 

 crops and investments; yes, would truly make an earthly paradise 

 of our parched and suffering valleys. We wish to see them succeed. 

 But we do not wish to see them so endowed and managed as to 

 enable those controlling them, to grow rich by preying upon the 

 necessities of our people. We want the water of our State, as well 

 as the air, which the Creator has made the freest of all things on 

 earth, to be kept as free as human laws can make it, consistent with 

 the success of human enterprise, for impartial distribution to sup 

 ply the wants of our. producing classes. 



We do not make war upon mere concentrated capital, called, un 

 der some of its forms, monopoly. Capital and labor must go hand 

 in hand for the successful development of any country. But we op 

 pose the tyranny of all such monpolies as become oppressive. If 

 we cannot create a monopoly without making it oppressive, we say, 

 &quot; Don t create it.&quot; If we cannot correct any existing monopoly so 

 that it will cease to be oppressive, we say, &quot; Put it down, if it can 

 be done.&quot; 



We do not make war upon just freights and fair profits, but only 



