California Agriculturist and Live Stock Journal. 



[Dedicated to the Patrons.^ 



vozcxis or xzss: workers. 



THE NEWSPAPER OVERTURNS THE WORLD. 



Politics and Religion in tlie Granges— No. S. 



BY A. OAYiOBD SPALDINQ. 



As before qiiite clearly explained, politics 

 has two very plain and distinct features. One 

 is proper, commendable, and everywhere ap- 

 plicable, relating to the business affairs, com- 

 merce, and social arrangements of men. The 

 other is narrow and sectional, disturbing and 

 corrupting the morals and the peace and wel- 

 fare of society. This latter kind is wholly in- 

 compatible with Grange i^rinciplcs, and is 

 therefore rejected from the Order. 



Religion, too, is open to the same criticism. 

 There is the true and the false, the practical 

 and the speculative. Religion is natural, and 

 no nation is found without it — being mani- 

 fested according to mental and moral develop- 

 ment. But the sectarian quality cannot come 

 come into the Grange for obvious. The ele- 

 ment of principle and humanity is not its 

 all-pervading power. It cuts the people up 

 into antagonizing factions, under senseless 

 creeds and names, and consequently curses 

 while it blesses the world. 



THE FAMILY GKOUP 



of parents and children is a natural and beau- 

 tiful order of all grades of the human race. 

 Each family is a home, and most happy and 

 heavenly may it be. No such bliss exists 

 elsewhere on earth. The Grange is devised 

 and organized after the family pattern, in 

 larger groups. [Is not "a family in a larger 

 group," with children kfi out, an anomaly? — 

 Eds.] The idea is exceedingly simple and 

 practicable, and most intelligent, jierfect, and 

 attractive. No unselfish farmer or working- 

 man can fail to appreciate and accept it. 

 Hurrah! then, for the Granges! Multiply and 

 speed them over the wide continent. Every 

 interest of society comes under the head of 

 polities or religion, which must be freely and 

 fairly discussed, and fully understood. Ig- 

 norance is our ruin. 



THE BATTLE OF THE GKANGEKS 



is for labor reform, against a crusliing mon- 

 eyed aristocracy. Old parties and sects are 

 all under the leadership of such an aristoc- 

 racy — a combined money power with social 

 position and office-holding. They claim their 

 privileges as the rightful heritage of the up- 

 per-ten class, on the ground of custom and 

 lirecedent; and the brute force of sword, can- 

 non, and bloody armies stands ready to de- 

 fend them, while the working muscle of the 

 common peojUc is ground up for their use. It 

 is a world monopoly of ages, which a world 

 co-operation of Grangers and Sovereigns 

 must overthrow. It is the battle of Arma- 

 geddon. 



THE MONOPOLY AND COBKUPTION OF POLITICS 



in our country is well represented by such 

 men as dis-Hon. Bill King, of Minnesota. 

 How he gobbled up the votes in his district, 

 by the power of Durham bulls and subsidized 

 newspapers. He won the election, but is 

 bound to hang himself, Judas-like, as a com- 

 pensation. Shame on the jieople, and shame 



on the newspapers. They hang tlteiiKielves, 

 effectually, by such voting and disgracing the 

 ballot-box. 



THE SECTARIAN MONOPOLY 



and aristocracy is powerfully and proudly 

 represented. Money unstinted is invested. 

 But that first-class Brooklyn scandal, though 

 a black disgrace on civilized Christendom, 

 will fortunately do very much to break the 

 yoke of sectarian thralldom on the working 

 class. Thousands of similar cases may exist 

 around us, but they are plebian, and fail to 

 come to the surface, or get into the newspa- 

 pers. The character of our much-boasted 

 civilization may be judged by our police ga- 

 zettes as well as by the quality of high func- 

 tionaries. What Indian tribe can show a 

 worse moral record? Yet we send abroad our 

 pious missionaries, and talk of exterminating 

 the Modocs, and actually hang them ! 

 OUR COMMON EELIOION 



is threadbare with formalism. The religion 

 is hid away too far. It is sky religion. The 

 Grange brings things down among the people 

 — into their houses and home. A heaven 

 right hero at our door is far more convenient 

 than one up in the moon. How long will it 

 take to make earth a paradise by devoting a 

 hundred and fifty millions to splendid church 

 buildings in New York, while ninety thous- 

 and stout men there are unemployed, with no 

 potatoes in the cellar? A million j'ears won't 

 do it. And yet that is the sectarian method 

 all round, and party politics join in to help it. 

 It is a religion of professional aristocracy, 

 with Andover kid-glove graduates to pound 

 and expound in velvet-cushioned desks. But 



THE TRUE OBANGE BELIGION 



is better suited to the wants of plain, homely 

 and sensible workiugmen. 



" Hb who tnowB our gi'eatest needs' 

 Eei'kH not mau that counts his beads. 

 For rif^hteouKness is not in creods, 



Nor solfUiU faces; 

 But lies rather in kindly deeds 



And Christian graccR," 



We may well expect a blissful heaven in a 

 future life; but the important work of the 

 Grangers now is, to avoid the hell of monopo- 

 \y and aristocracy and political damnation. 

 Some contend that good men should stick to 

 the old parties and sects in order to purify 

 and reform them. But clearly that is bad 

 logic and poor philosophy, for a man can 

 never lift himself into a basket while standing 

 in it. And, as our new wine of reform needs 

 new bottles to hold it, so we must stand out- 

 side of the basket and outside of old parties 

 and sects if we would lift them uii. It re- 

 quires a machine more powerful than any 

 stump puller in the country. 



THE GRANGE MOVEMENT, 



then, is no mixture and no compromise, but 

 an entirely new departure, out and out. Not 

 in party interest of any kind, nor sect; but it 

 is a fanning-mill, a sifter, that is to separate 

 the cockle and chaff of politics and religion , 

 saving only the clean wheat of principk. That 

 is the farmer's gold. We may now discard 

 old names altogether, and be known only as 

 the Grange party. Then nothing is left am- 

 biguous, but all is distinctly understood and 

 boldly outspoken. 



No dependence for reform can be placed in 

 any but actual and responsible workers. None 

 of your lily fingers, that seek the easj' places 

 and shirk the hard. That style of business is 

 playing out. That is what spoils church and 

 state, and sets them tumbling. We are told 

 a hard story of the carpet-baggers at the 

 South; and however true, the North is sprin- 

 kled over thick with earpet-huggars in the 

 shape of dandy peddlers and traveling agents 

 for jiatent speculations, to gain quick and 

 easy fortunes, and avoid the sweat. Thous- 

 ands graduate from our colleges and strive to 



stand in public desks and professional offices 

 because such positions are easy, genteel, and 

 well paid. But the money comes out of far- 

 mers and workers. Two-thirds of the pro- 

 fessional men in the nation are so many two- 

 legged grasshoppers — and worse than the 

 little famine-breeding insects, because they 

 (the two-leggers) stay by, and enl all lite time. 

 They are always on hand for such fancy 

 things as require the least toil. They are 

 popular dead heads. But we find the true 

 emljlems of trust, honor, manliness aiul na- 

 tional prosperity are the ax, hoe, spade and 

 plow, with "hayseed in the hair." 



THE PBIKCIPLE OF FBATERSAL UNITY 



and co-operation is fundamental in the 

 Grange. This not only kills all monopoly, 

 but it will wipe away that old red dragon of 

 gory war — that most fearful and universal 

 scourge of mankind. Government otticers 

 and military men, under our present violi-iit 

 order of things, are interested in the pIundiT 

 of battle fields, and would therefore be slow 

 to accept any doctrine of permanent i)eaco. 

 Their trade is war. But when all shall ht- 

 come Grangers and Sovereigns, then human 

 carnage will be forced to stop. Othello's oc- 

 cupation will be gone. So roll on the glori- 

 ous Grange ball round the world. Itoll it 

 along ! 



WOMAN SUFFBAOE. 



The woman question now fills up the l>ook. 

 We speak of the Cirange as a family order; 

 but no family is without a woman. She is 

 mother, wife, sister, and does a great deal 

 wherever she is. In the hive, she is queen; 

 in sickness, she is the best nurse; and she 

 can tend the baby better than " any other 

 man." If we sleep well at night, a woman 

 has made the soft and downy bed. Every man 

 is proud of his table when a charming lady 

 pours the tea. Where woman is, there is 

 sweetest music and the i)erfume of roses; 

 and where happiness and love dwell, surely 

 woman is not far away. Then, would not all 

 these beautiful things be represented in her 

 vote? Indeed they would. Good govern- 

 ment is not wholly made np of bull dogs, 

 swords and guns, and the noise and smell of 

 gunpowder. Aurl the still, small, gentle voice 

 of woman's baUot could cert;iinly do no harm, 

 could it? 



Champun, Minn., April, 1875. 



Harrowing Wheat. 



The uniform testimony of all those who 

 have tried harrowing wheat in the Spring is, 

 says the RitnU U'dM, that it pays. One sub- 

 scriber saj's: "I have acted upon the advice 

 given by you, audi find the result at harvest 

 most satisfactory. I began the custom by 

 harrowing fifteen acres, or about one half the 

 usual number of acres that I sow. My 

 neighbors, who had never seen it done, in- 

 sisted that it would kill it imt. I shall con- 

 tinue the practice, as I have now i)rocured 

 one of the Thomas smoothing harrows, which, 

 in a great measure, enables me to dispense 

 with the roller, which I still use, however, 

 when the early Spring is an unusually dry 

 one. I think by using the harrow that the 

 wheat tillers — that is, stools — out better than 

 when it is not cnltiv.lted in the Spring." 



Another subscriber writes as follows: "I 

 find that haiTOwing wheat in the Spring pays 

 well. It gives the wheat a good start, and 

 the harrowed portion ripens as early as the 

 unharrowed part, and has hea^■ier seeds." 



Dk. Habel has arrived at the conclusion, 

 after mature study, that guano is not made 

 from the excrements of sea birds, as has been 

 hitherto supposed. Chemical treatment has 

 disclosed an insoluble residue composed of 

 fossil sponge and marine plants, and animol- 

 ciibB. Hebel's opinion is that guano is made 

 of fossil remains of which the organic matter 

 has been transformed into a nitrogenized sub- 

 stance while the mineral constituents have re- 

 mained unaltered. 



