64 ILIilNOIS DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION. 



wise interested in its employment, and who are indifferent as to whether 

 any return is ever earned or made, will not the fact deter further investment 

 in the same thing ? 



However arrogant, purse-proud, and overbearing the millionaire, his 

 money is sensitive, diffident, apprehensive and filled with fear. It hides in 

 dark and secret places ; it buys iron bands and safety vaults to prevent 

 intrusion and pillage. But mooey burglarized from an iron safe or a safety 

 vault is not more lost to its owner than is money taken by the legalized lar- 

 ceny of legislative confiscation, and to threaten it with this danger is to 

 drive capital to eafer quarters in safer enterprises. You cannot have both 

 sides of the bargain — the two ends of the stick — and you cannot get stranger 

 aid to build a railroad to your farm, if you announce in advance your inten- 

 tion to deprive its owner of his ownership in it. 



Capital has not yet become so imbued with the true missionary spirit as 

 to be willing to sacrifice itself utterly to the good of others, and whoso- 

 ever shall count upon procuring for himself the advantages capital is com- 

 petent to supply, must first consent to a fair division of the profits as 

 between himself and the actual proprietor. The owner must have a share 

 in the profits of his investment, or no investment will be made, and his 

 corroding dollars will lie indolent and useless, while the besiness of the 

 country suffers such stagnation and depression as is sure to follow the 

 locking up of capital from active employ. 



This is one of the results to be apprehended from an enforcement of 

 what is known as the policy of the Grange. Its adoption as a settled policy 

 of the country must operate to cripple and obstruct that system which has 

 proven the most helpful and powerful aid yet discovered for the develop- 

 ment of the material interests of the country, and the grandest and most 

 beneficent influence ever operative in the cause of American civilization. 

 It conquers by peace, it unifies by mutualizing interests, it consolidates by 

 erasure of local and sectional differences, and, in short, makes of all the 

 people of the nation one family, and of all its powers one force. 



And in the case under consideration — let it not be forgot — the unfor- 

 tunate and unusual thing happens, that the threat made is just as bad as the 

 threat executed. The hunted stag flies from attack not only, but from dan- 

 ger, and timid capital, like the timid hind, flees from impending peril, 

 whether near or remote. And so it eomes about that, without pushing your 

 policy to adoption, and without reaching any of the advantages hoped and 

 claimed for it, you have by recommendation only, defeated enterprises cal- 

 culated for your advantage, and postponed that general prosperity which 

 is the sure prophecy and promise of our extensive territory, varied climate, 

 diversified industries, and above all, of our free and labor-encouraging insti- 

 tutions. 



It will be urged that governmental interference does not propose to go to 

 the length of assuming proprietorship, but stops at demanding control of the 

 roads. To this I reply, that to take control of property is to take the prop- 

 erty itself, for control is of the very essence of ownership. It is the one 

 thing that gives to ownership any value, and to the word a meaning. One 

 cannot conceive of ownership without the right of disposal, and it is a con- 

 tradiction to say that proprietorship may reside in one person, and control 



