146 CHAPTERS IN RURAL PROGRESS 



nated for all positions of trust; and to have carried out the 

 principle which should characterize every Patron, that 

 the office should seek the man, and not the man the office. 



To enumerate the achievements of the Grange 

 would be to recall the progress of agriculture 

 during the past third of a century. It has been 

 a motor force in many helpful movements, and 

 in many ways has organized and incorporated 

 the best thought of the most intelligent farmers, 

 about means for rural advancement. It has 

 been an integral part of, and a most potent factor 

 in, the expansion of American farm life. 



The greatest achievement of the order is that 

 it has taught the farmers of America the value 

 of co-operation and the power of organized effort. 

 The lesson has not been fully learned, it is true ; 

 but the success of the institution testifies that it 

 is possible for farmers to work in harmony. It 

 is worth observing that this result has been 

 achieved on conservative lines. It is compara 

 tively easy to organize on radical lines; easy to 

 generate enthusiasm by promising some great 

 reform; easy to inflame self-interest by picturing 

 millennial conditions, especially when the pocket 

 is touched. But quite different is it to arouse 

 and sustain interest in a large popular organiza 

 tion whose object is education, whose watchword 



