164 CHAPTERS IN RURAL PROGRESS 



For it is not at all an exaggeration to assert that a 

 positive revolution often comes about from the 

 planting of a Grange in a neighborhood where 

 no such organization has ever existed. It finds 

 most of the women diffident, many of them with 

 restricted views, few of them with the instinct 

 for social service developed beyond the needs 

 of friendly neighbors. In the Grange these 

 women find new acquaintances, learn the power 

 of concerted action, meet the responsibility of 

 office, get to their feet for a few words unheard- 

 of courage ! Such speech is usually brief and 

 perhaps not ready, but it is likely to be cogent, 

 because it is born of experience and "stops 

 when through." County and perhaps State 

 Granges add their experiences. And so on 

 through the years these shy, reserved, possibly 

 narrow, lives come to flower. And the Grange 

 has furnished the dynamic. Strong leaders 

 among farm women have been developed by the 

 opportunities the Grange has afforded them. 

 And thousands of other women in all parts of 

 the country have by this same means grown out 

 of their narrowness, "discovered themselves/ 7 

 and become comparatively cultured, well read, 

 able to take a woman's place in this day of 

 woman's power as a public factor. It is safe 



