1889.] PUBLIC DOCUMENT — No. 4. 289 



elsewhere? I do not see how any one can answer Yes, and 

 justify his words. My answer is the other way. 



It may be said that there is danger in the Grange. It is 

 liable to fall into the hands of bad men , l)e turned aside from 

 the beneficent uses for which it was designed, and its mis- 

 directed powers be made to work evil, I do not deny the 

 possibility of this. If any one requires of me a guarantee of 

 absolute security against a wrong use of the power of the 

 Grange, I shall decline to give it. I know of no other asso- 

 ciation in regard to which such guarantee could be given. 

 "Eternal vigilance" is the price, not of liberty alone, but 

 of most other good things as well. I invite farmers to join 

 the Grange and entrust their interests to its keeping, not as 

 passengers on board of a luxuriously appointed train, having 

 no relation to its movement except to pay their fare and be 

 carried to their destination. Themselves and their precious 

 interests will be carried safely, if the conditions of safety are 

 fulfilled. These conditions require that every person upon 

 whom a trust is devolved shall be faithful to that trust. On 

 board the Grange train, its members are not passengers alone, 

 but engineers, brakemen, switchmen and trackmen, as well. 

 They run the train, as well as ride upon it ; and, if it runs to 

 wreck, they alone are responsible. If this fact is an objec- 

 tion to the Grange, it is equally an objection to almost every- 

 thing else in life, and indeed to life itself. There is risk in 

 everything ; there is danger everywhere, and no escape from 

 its presence is possible. In that presence the cowardly 

 policy is the worst conceivable policy. Trying to run away 

 from its presence, we fall into its power. Facing it with 

 manly courage and vigilance, we may live in its presence and 

 resist or turn aside its power. " Out of the nettle danger 

 we pluck the rose of safety ; " and he who shrinks from the 

 nettle may never wear the rose. 



My thought of the future of agriculture never makes the 

 farmer's life one of ease and luxury. It never dispenses 

 with the homely virtues of industry and economy. But it 

 does bring to the farmer just recognition and compensation. 

 I want the land upon which he works to recognize him as its 

 master, and yield to him from its store-house ample returns 

 for his toil. The land will recoffnize its master when he 



