FORM OF BY-LAWS OF SUBORDINATE GRANGES. 193

sary returns for the State and National Granges; to report to the Treasurer at the end of each quarter the amount due the State Grange; to keep accounts of members with the Grange; to receive and pay over to the Treasurer all moneys, taking his receipt therefor; to draw and countersign all orders voted by the Grange, and to perform such other duties as may devolve upon that office.

Sec. 8.-Gate Keeper.-It shall be the duty of the Gate-Keeper to see that the Gates are properly guarded, and to perform such other duties as may be required.

ARTICLE V.-Applications for Membership.-Applications for membership must be made in the form prescribed by the National Grange, and when made shall be announced in open Grange, and referred to a Committee of Investigation, consisting of three brothers or sisters, two appointed by the Master and one by the Overseer, which shall take the application in charge, and report at the next regular meeting.

ARTICLE VI.-Fees and Dues.-Section 1. The fees for conferring four degrees, for males, in this Grange shall be two dollars for the First degree. and one dollar for each subsequent degree, which shall accompany the petition.

The fees for conferring the four degrees on women shall be fifty cents for each degree, the money to accompany the petition in all

cases.

Sec. 2. The regular dues of this Grange shall be ten (10) cents per month for each member.

ARTICLE VII.-Committees.-Section 1. All special committees, unless otherwise ordered, shall consist of three members each.

Sec. 2. The Master, on the night of his installation, shall appoint a standing Committee on Finance, to consist of three members.

Sec. 3. It shall be the duty of the Committee on Finance to audit all bills and accounts previous to their being passed upon by the Grange, and they shall be authorized to examine the books and accounts of any officer, or member of any committee of the Grange, whenever they think proper, and shall report, as speedily as possible, on all matters they may have on hand.

Sec. 4. At the first regular meeting in each year there shall be elected by ballot three Trustees, who shall have charge of all property of the Grange, as well as all business in which the Grange shall have an interest.

ARTICLE VIII.-Charges.-Section I. If at any time it shall appear that a member, by his or her general conduct, either morally or otherwise, shall be working against the best interests of the Order, charges may be preferred against the offending member, in accordance with the provisions of the following article, and they may be expelled, or subjected to such penalties as a majority of the Grange may direct.

Sec. 2. In no case shall members of a Grange enter into litigation with each other, until they shall have presented a plain statement of their differences to the Trustees of their Grange, and shall have allowed them an opportunity to adjust them, if possible.

ARTICLE IX.-Suspensions, Withdrawals, etc.-Section 1. No brother or sister of this Grange shall be suspended or expelled from membership unless charges be preferred in writing, duly specifying the offense, presented by a brother or sister in good standing, and the accused being allowed full opportunity to make his or her defense.

Sec. 2. Any member desirous of withdrawing from this Grange must pay all indebtedness thereto, and obtain the consent of the Grange.

ARTICLE X.-Amendments.-All propositions for amending or repealing these By-Laws, or any part of them, shall be presented in writing at a regular meeting, and shall lie over until the next regular meeting, when it may be acted upon, if agreed to by two-thirds of all the members present.

RULES OF ORDER.

1. When the presiding officer takes the chair, the officers and members shall take their respective stations, and at the sound of the gavel there shall be a general silence. The Grange shall then proceed to open in regular form.

2. No question shall be stated unless moved by two members, or be open for consideration unless stated by the Master. And when a question is before the Grange, no motion shall be received, unless to close, to lay on the table, the previous question, to postpone, to refer, or to amend. They shall have precedence in the order in in which they are arranged, the first three of which shall be decided without debate.

3. Any member may call for a division of a question when the sense of it will permit.

4. The yeas and nays may be ordered by the Master, on the call of any member, duly seconded.

5. After any question (except one of indefinite postponement) has been decided, any member who voted in the majority, may, at the same or next meeting, move for a reconsideration thereof; but no discussion of the main question shall be allowed unless reconsidered.

6. No member shall speak more than once on the same subject, until all the members wishing to speak have had an opportunity to do so, nor more than twice without permission from the chair. And no member, while speaking, shall name another member by his or her proper name, but shall use the appropriate designation belonging to his or her standing in the Grange.

7. The Master or any member may call a brother or sister to order while speaking; when the debate shall be suspended, and the brother or sister shall not speak until the point of order be determined, unless to appeal from the Chair, when he or she may use the words following, and no others: "Master, I respectfully appeal from the decision of the Chair to the Grange." Whereupon the Grange shall proceed to vote on the question : "Will the Grange sustain the decision of the Chair?"

8. When a brother or sister intends to speak on a question, he or she shall rise in his or her place and respectfully address his or her remarks to the Worthy Master, confining him or herself to the question, and avoid personality. Should more than one member rise to speak at the same time, the Worthy Master shall determine who is entitled to the floor.

9. When a brother or sister has been called to order by the Worthy Master for the manifestation of temper or improper feelings, he or she shall not be allowed to speak again on the subject under discussion in the Grange, at that meeting, except to apologize.

10. On the call of five members, a majority of the Grange may demand that the previous question shall be put, which shall always be in this form: "Shall the main question now be put?" And until it is decided, shall preclude all amendments to the main question and all further debate.

11. All motions or resolutions offered in the Grange shall be reduced to writing, if required.

12. When standing or special committees are appointed, the individual first named is considered as the chairman, although each has a right to elect its own chairman. Committees are required to meet and attend to the matters assigned them with system and regularity, and not by separate consultation, or in a loose and indefinite man

ner.

13. The Worthy Master, by virtue of his office, may attend all meetings of committees, take part in their deliberations (without voting, however), and urge them to action. In the appointment of committees, the Worthy Master, who should ever preserve a courteous and conciliatory deportment to all, not overlooking the humblest member, has many opportunities for bringing humble merit into notice, and of testing and making available the capabilities of those around him. He should carefully avoid both petulancy and favoritism, and act with strict impartiality.

CHAPTER XVI.

THE MOVEMENT TOWARD CO-OPERATION.

WHAT ARE THE FARMERS' GRIEVANCES?

The question has often been asked, What are the farmers' grievances? These have never, at the conventions, been fully defined; but they may be summed up in a few words: The agricultural classes suffer, and always have suffered, from the rapacity of capital, aggregated and centralized.

There are two principal ways in which capital is employed to overreach them. The first is through the combination of those who buy their produce, thereby creating a protected monopoly, limited, it is true, but, nevertheless, uniformly successful. In this class I do not mean to include the ordinary country merchant, who buys produce, or trades and barters for it, but those rings, great and small, which are formed to gamble in the necessaries of life in our cities. · Their ramifications sometimes extend to the regular dealers in the principal railroad towns, and sometimes even to the leading railroad officials themselves, but oftener are confined to a few of the great distributing centers, as New York, Buffalo, Cincinnati, Chicago, St. Louis, etc. The minor combinations in the ordinary railroad towns are merely local and of short duration, so that the intelligent man may hold his produce, and thus assist in breaking them. If farmers were

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even partially organized, these lesser combinations would be impossible.

FARMERS' TROUBLES OF MODERN GROWTH.

Up to the breaking out of the war, these grievances were principally confined to the exactions of local dealers, and the commission men at the distributing point, or, as they were called, middle men. During the war, and, more especially since then, a variety of schemes to centralize capital for the purpose of fictitiously lowering or increasing values, has led to gigantic combinations, which have always tended to enrich the wealthy and impoverish the poor. While these combinations have operated against all classes, the farmers have been the greatest sufferers, and especially those of the West, since, from the nature of the situation, and the limited amount of manufactures, they have been compelled to sell their produce in foreign markets.

Lands were granted by the government, in the most wholesale manner, toward the building of railroads in every direction. Combinations and consolidations were formed, stocks were watered, the Credit Mobilier was put in operation. At last, the fact was painfully unearthed that even some of our most eminent statesmen (without respect to party, and men who had been heretofore regarded as of the strictest integrity) had become implicated. As to the rank and file of mere politicians, that class was always rotten to the core; they always lived on corruption, and they expected always to do so.

OPERATIONS OF RAILROAD RINGS.

Railroad combinations and consolidations were formed, operated by a few individuals in Wall Street, who virtually