140 ANNALS OF STATE GRANGE OF CALIFORNIA. 



upon those which are made exorbitant and burdensome by the men 

 who handle our productions and supply our wants. 



We do not wage war against fair rates of interest. But we do not 

 think it is right for the moneyed men of our land to get from twelve 

 to twenty-four per cent, upon their loans, and spend their days in 

 tapestried homes and luxurious offices, while the hard-fisted sons of 

 the soil cannot realize two per cent., nay, cannot realize any profits, 

 as the reward of that earnest and unceasing labor, which furnishes 

 bread for millions of our race. 



&quot;We would like to see such a division of profits made, that while 

 it would take nothing from the welfare and happiness of the capital 

 ist, it would enable our producing and laboring classes to supply 

 their homes with more of the comforts and enjoyments of life. 



We make no war on labor, for the whole Grange movement is in 

 friendship to our laboring, as well as our producing classes. 



The truth is, we wage war on no other interests. W T e only de 

 mand our rights, without wishing to trample on any rights of our 

 most exalted or humblest citizens. We are merely unwilling for 

 our farming interests to remain the only ones unprotected, while we 

 have all the bills to pay. It is the inequality, the want of equity, 

 the preferences and privileges of the few over the many, to w r hich 

 we are opposed. A proper equality, equity and fairness, protection 

 for the weak, restraint upon the strong, in short, justly-distributed 

 burdens and justly-distributed power, are American ideas, the very 

 essence of American independence, and to advocate the contrary is 

 unworthy of the sons of an American republic. 



Our Order, as has been repeated, is not a political organization. 

 We do not even allow the discussion of political questions inside the 

 Grange; but as farmers, who in the past have been an oppressed 

 class, and have borne our oppression too silently, we are allowed to 

 say this much : If our present system of trade and our present po 

 litical organizations can be so modified and controlled as to secure 

 what we justly require and demand, we shall be content: but if we 

 find that any system of trade or any political party stands between 

 us and our rights as farmers, we say, in imitation of our brothers in 

 Illinois, &quot; Let them all die.&quot; We wish always to bear in mind that 

 we do not expect to accomplish our purposes, as producers, by our 

 own unaided efforts, but we hope our demands will appear so just, 

 when properly understood, that every reasonable and ungrasping 

 capitalist, banker, trader, representative of the press, railroad man, 

 grain-buyer, warehouse-keeper, ship-owneryes, all who are en 

 gaged in the development of our industries every professional and 

 laboring man; nay, more, every uncorrupt and incorruptible po 

 litician and office-holder, will heartily aid us in our work. We need 

 their co-operation; but we candidly confess that, as ours is pecu 

 liarly a farmers institution, we want the aid of most of these classes 

 outside the gate. If they really have the will to help us, they can 

 do so quite as effectually and perhaps more so without being 

 allowed to enter the sacred portals of the Grange. 



We wish to remove from our hearts all jealousies, and hatred, 

 and bitterness of feeling toward others, and to co-operate cordially 

 with all associations, and men who will sincerely labor with us for 



