466 HISTORY OF THE GRANGE MOVEMENT; OR, 



An Order which can thus improve and elevate over five 

 millions of human beings is certainly deserving of the 

 encouragement of the nation. 



The Grange is the bitter and uncompromising foe of 

 idleness. It has no room for a lazy man. While it recog- 

 nizes the fact that frequent relaxation and indulgence in 

 innocent pleasures are a necessity of mankind, it 

 teaches that industry is the only sure foundation of 

 success, and that the idle or lazy man can be neither 

 prosperous, virtuous, nor useful. The Order aims to 

 accomplish a great work in the community, and it ac- 

 cepts only workingmen and women. Each one has a 

 part to play in the execution of its great designs, and 

 it will tolerate no idlers, no mere lookers-on. A power- 

 ful stimulus is thus given to its members, and it will 

 not be long before it will be as easy to recognize a 

 Granger by his prosperity as it is now by his habits of 

 neatness and order. 



As it is the enemy of idleness, so it is of vice. The 

 Grange will have no dealings with drunkards, swind- 

 lers, or immoral men and women. It demands a good 

 moral character as the first requisite for membership. 

 A drunken or dissolute farmer can have no sympathy 

 with an Order which teaches that all men should be 

 temperate and pure minded. A swindler can have no 

 fellowship with men who believe in honesty as the 

 basis of every relation in life, and who act upon this 

 belief. And so the Grange keeps unworthy men and 

 women at a distance, and its influence in and upon the 

 community is entirely in favor of virtue. 



Says a letter from Ohio : 



" This is what the Grange aims to do. Once in two 

 weeks (sometimes every week) its members meet in 



