Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 8.djvu/846

 826 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

hood among ourselves. To enhance the comforts and attractions of our homes, and to strengthen our attachments to our pursuits. To foster mutual understanding and co-operation. To maintain inviolate our laws ; to emu- late each other in labor ; to hasten the good time coming. To reduce our expenses, both individual and corporate. To buy less and produce more, in order to make our farms self-sustaining. To diversify our crops, and to crop no more than we can cultivate. To condense the weight of our exports, selling less in the bushel and more on hoof and in fleece. To systematize our work, and to calculate intelligently on probabilities. To discountenance the credit system, the mortgage system, the fashion system, and every other system that tends to prodigality and bankruptcy.

We propose meeting together, talking together, selling together, and in general acting together for common protection and advancement. We shall avoid litigation as much as possible by arbitration in the Grange. We shall constantly strive to secure entire harmony, good-will, vital brotherhood among ourselves, and to make our order perpetual. We shall earnestly strive to suppress personal, local, sectional, and national prejudices, all unhealthful rivalry, all selfish ambition. Faithful adherence to these principles will insure our mental, moral, social, and material advancement.

We shall advance the cause of education among ourselves and our chil- dren by all just means in our power. We especially advocate for agricul- tural schools that practical agriculture, domestic science, and all the arts which adorn the home be taught in the courses of study. We emphasize and assert the oft-repeated truth taught in our organic law, that the Grange is not a political or party organization. No Grange, if true to its obligation, can discuss political and religious questions.

From these quotations one can see how high the aim and how broad the scope of this movement. There is always some diffi- culty, however, in working out the ideals of an order, and it was so with the Grange. An undue emphasis was put upon the eco- nomic function of the order, at the expense of the cultural inter- ests. Many entered it merely for quick financial gain. A kindred organization was founded for political purposes and for combating the so-called monopolies of the railroads. Farmers everywhere were swept into the movement, but as it was based on illogical principles, it soon fell, carrying down the Grange with it. But the Grange quickly recovered, readjusted its activities, and is now more prosperous than ever. Its chief work today is on cultural lines. According to one of its promoters, "it is ambitious to take a place beside the school and the church as one of a trinity of forces that shall mold the life of the farmer