Agricultural Colleges, and the Press, as the great levers of progress, in making mankind and womankind thoroughly humane and enlightened.

One very significant resolution of the Iowa State Grange is: "That we specially urge upon our brethren the duties of fraternal arbitration in settlement of all difficulties without resort to legal tribunals."

The address of the Master of the Iowa State Grange contains the following precepts which the Executive Committee were instructed to publish in a circular for the use of the brethren and others:

First, the family relation or social phase-as represented in the the Subordinate Grange. The needs of farmers in this direction are plainly apparent to all. The Grange gives that social culture so much needed in our isolated condition. In the Grange room we meet to strenghten those social ties without which life is shorn of those enjoyments which vitalize existence and make labor become ennobling and honorable. The American people, and more especially those of us who follow agriculture as a profession or calling, pay too little regard to the social enjoyments. Coming into a new country, strangers to each other, urged on by the absolute necessity of making from the soil, homes and a standing in the community, we put all of our lives into the material work before us, forgetting that any life purely material in its character must be practically a failure. The Order of the Patrons of Husbandry aims to meet this want, and our past though short experience has shown us that in this direction alone it is worth infinitely more than it has cost.

The second phase of our work is the intellectual and educational one. No organization in the world has ever before opened such a field of opportunity for the men and women who avail themselves of its

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benefits. In the Grange room we learn how to compare methods; we teach each other the best way of arriving at results. Measures of both private and public interest receive that full and careful attention which is so much needed. Under the old system, each individual drew his knowledge and conclusions from his limited sphere of thought and observation. Here a fund of thought and study is brought into the common store, and ALL, according to their capacity, receive the full measure of benefit. As one instance of the good coming to us in this connection, it is estimated that among members of the Order in our State, nine out of every ten cases of dispute which, under the old system, would be litigated in the courts, are settled in subordinate Grange by friendly and fraternal arbitration. I do not suppose our friends of the legal profession will consider this a creditable feature, but, on the whole, I think we shall be able to stand it.

There is no computing the amount of knowledge which this educational feature of our work has brought to our members. The remark is made by business men outside the gate, "How much more the farmers know of business than they did two years ago."

Questions of a public nature receive their full share of attention, and our relations to each other, and to the government, are day by day becoming better and more clearly understood. To women, these two first phases of our work already have, and are destined to bring rich blessings. Nowhere else does woman meet her brothers on terms of absolute equality. Here her field of thought and action is only limited by the measure of her capacity. She may enter into the consideration of every question, and by her quick and fine intuitive reasoning, stimulate and help forward her slower and more plodding brother. I have at times been deeply touched at the expressions of thankfulness coming from a full heart from women, who fully appreciate the good which is coming to them through their connection with the Order; and I feel thankful to our founders, who were wise enough to incorporate this feature in our fundamental law.

Finally, we come to the material, or business phase of our work. One mistake sometimes made, is in supposing that the saving of money in buying and selling is the chief aim of the order. Persons who take this view of the objects and purposes of the Patrons, utterly fail to comprehend the scope and genius of the institution.

Such persons will do better to turn their energies and thoughts in the direction of acquiring money outside the gates of the Order.

The saving of money, the learning how to buy and sell, and to use the results of accumulated industry to the best advantage, is a part, but ONLY A PART, of the work of the Order. Co-operation in buying and selling has long been conceded by thinking men as the true secret of business success.

WHAT THE ILLINOIS STATE GRANGE BELIEVES.

The Illinois Patrons, at their annual session at Bloomington, December, 1873, asserted that they regard the various organizations with entire cordiality, and earnestly invite their fraternal co-operation. They put their opinions strongly on record concerning the denudation of forests, in its relation to meteorological changes, and the consequent changes of atmospheric conditions; denounced the infamous salary grab; and accepted as a compliment the opprobrium sought to be cast upon the Farmers' Movement by ascribing to it the late panic in stocks, and otherwise, in the centers of speculation, even though involving the legitimate business interests of the country in temporary disaster.

On the question of the power of Congress to regulate inter-state commerce, the Illinois State Grange declares the right of Congress so to do, and approves the recent action in this direction. The entire inadequacy of the present system of transportation is pointed out, the improvement of natural channels, and the opening of new railroad routes is demanded, not, however, to be constructed by government except as a last resort. The resolutions conclude with a strong denunciation of the civil service system of our government as now administered.

Is there any thing revolutionary in this? Does it look like an expression of views from the stand-point of "communism." Is there any "red republicanism" in all this? Are the

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Patrons "immersed up to their throats in partisan politics?" If so, it is concealed with a Machiavelian subtlety, which would prove the "Patrons " worthy pupils of that class of journalists who have so accused them. On the contrary, is not the entire absence either of partisan politics or political action of any kind, except the broad ground upon which all may unite who truly love their country, commendable?

ACTION OF THE ILLINOIS STATE FARMERS' ASSOCIATION.

As distinguished from the action of the two representative bodies of men composing the Granges just noticed, the Illinois Farmers' Association, at their second annual meeting at Decatur, Illinois, took strong political ground. This organization is composed of delegates from both Clubs and Granges, but more largely of the former. The Patrons, however, did not attend under the auspices of the Granges, but as individuals representing constituencies. This body did not hesitate to express themselves emphatically upon the live political issues of the day, much to the disgust of both the revolutionary and monopolist organs, who, in the early days of the association, set themselves up as its mentors, and who have since sought by every means to guide its course. Various party "organs," too, fancy they see hand-writings on the wall that are particularly unpleasant.

Some of the latter are particularly anxious that the farmers should know that they themselves did not start the movement, but a lot of broken-down Washington politicians -the only grain of truth in which bushel of chaff is that the Order of Patrons of Husbandry was established at Washington. This organization, however, represents only one of the three great elements in the Farmers' Movement.

If the farmers were the stolid set that this class of journalists suppose, all this tirade might be well. But those who for years have been trying to stem the tide of corruption, and nullify the insane blindness of too grasping monopolists, will not accept the arbitrary dogma that they are controlled by a body of Washington politicians.

WHAT THE ILLINOIS FARMERS DID ASSERT.

The Illinois Farmers' Association, at its formation, did not organize a political party. It has, however, managed to succeed in placing representative farmers in various offices in a majority of the counties of the State. The Granges, on the other hand, have steadily kept themselves aloof from politics, and there is no present appearance that they will ever change their course, notwithstanding the efforts of certain journals to force them so to do by covert sneers and open vituperation. The leading minds of the Order know. well that such a course would destroy its influence in other directions. Its power is potent because exercised in an educational and business way. The Illinois Patrons are among the most conservative of the Order, from the fact, perhaps, that there is another distinct body in the State who may and do exert political power.

One of the great features of the Order of Patrons is, that their educational facilities will insure, at the proper time, the casting of the ballots of the fraternity in accordance with law and order, and against the usurpation of unjust power of any kind. Conservative men have always held that the only proper way for freemen to right political wrong is at the ballot-box. It is difficult to see how this is to be done without taking political action. For this reason, the Farmers' Association have now wisely resolved to cut loose from