THE FARMER'S WAR AGAINST MONOPOLIES. 427 



harmony with each other, and consistent with the 

 objects of the Order. Therefore, to secure this general 

 harmony and consistency, it is necessary that each sub- 

 . ordinate and State Grange should submit its plan of 

 work to the approval of the National Grange, otherwise 

 it might enter upon a field of work totally foreign to 

 either of the foregoing principles. Again, the exaction 

 by the National Grange, from other Granges, of an 

 annual due for each of their members, and each degree 

 conferred on members during the year, seemed to me 

 to be an imposition a well-planned scheme for extract- 

 ing money from the unsuspecting farmer. Why are we 

 not allowed to keep all our money in our own Grange ? 

 Surely we can use it to better advantage than any 

 other body of men ! When, however, I began to think 

 of the functions of this Grange, its portion of the work 

 of this immense body of societies, of the vast amount 

 of information, covering every subject of interest to the 

 Order, daily being collected by it all over the country, 

 to be handed over -to the printer and afterward re-dis- 

 tributed, in a printed form, to the Granges in every 

 section, it occurred to me that to do all this requires at 

 least one office, and one or more secretaries and corres- 

 pondents. How is the rental of that office to be paid ? 

 These secretaries and correspondents must be paid for 

 their time. How, also, are their salaries to be paid ? 

 And, more important than all, how can it pay for this 

 large amount of printing? Besides, the postage on all 

 this material must foot up handsomely at the end of the 

 year. A new member of a subordinate Grange, after hav- 

 ing taken four degrees, has paid into the treasury of the 

 Grange five dollars, besides his regular monthly dues. 

 Of this sum, the treasurer of his Grange pays the secre- 



