8 AGRICULTURAL ORGANIZATIONS. 



zation properly constituted. Members of the organization may 

 die, but the organization continues. The aggregate business 

 intelligence of the whole membership is used, and not the single 

 ideas of one. Organizations go on, live on ; gathering expe- 

 rience which is stored up ; gathering special information which 

 is safely put away ; increasing in wealth of which the outside 

 world has no knowledge ; using their power when least expected, 

 and for objects that require years of patient waiting and calcu- 

 lation to perfect and mature. These considerations not only 

 recommend a system of organization to all progressive minds, 

 but make them absolutely necessary for success in modern busi- 

 ness. One thing is certain, organization as a factor of our 

 modern civilization has come to stay. It cannot be eliminated, 

 but may be, to a greater or less extent, confined in its operation 

 within legitimate bounds. Its benefits will be sought under all 

 conditions and by all classes of people, and those who ignore its 

 power or underestimate its strength are sure to have cause for 

 regret in the end. 



The difficulty of organization among farmers is not wholly 

 confined to a want of information, but shows itself in neighbor- 

 hood factions of numerous kinds, individual or local jealousies, 

 family or political differences, and a multitude of other insig- 

 nificant but annoying obstructions that have to be avoided, 

 smoothed over, or settled. These are never met with among 

 men who organize from a business standpoint. The farmers, as 

 a class, have been betrayed in almost everything, with a regu- 

 larity truly astonishing. They have struggled against all odds, 

 and have submitted to the result with a fortitude absolutely 

 wonderful, but the time has come when something must be 

 done. Some united action is demanded in defence of their own 

 rights, and the maintenance of agriculture. This fact is too 

 plain and too imperative to be longer ignored. It is a question 

 now between liberty and serfdom, and must be decided without 

 delay. Some will ask : What shall we organize for ? For the 

 same reasons that our enemies do ; for individual benefits 

 through combined effort. Organize to watch them, to consider 

 their motives, and, if possible, checkmate their designs, when 

 aimed at you or your business. This is a selfish world, and 

 they who fail to realize this fact are quite sure to find it out 



