The Georgia grange. (Atlanta, Ga.) 18??-1882, November 01, 1873, Image 1

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11 i
VOLUME I.
the
To Grangers and the Public Gener
ally.—The terms of subscription to The
Georgia Grange are two dollars and fifty
cents per year to members Os Granges, and
three dollars per year to outsiders.
We call attention to our club rates, and
schedule rates for advertising.
Our rates are exceedingly low, and we offer
inducements and facilities unsurpassed in this
country.
Read the announcements.
The Granger’s Crop Reports—From
the official returns of crops from forty-four
Granges in this State, we find the number of
acres planted in cotton to be 65,390, and the
number of bales of cotton that will be made on
the same at 20,878, or an average of about 3}
acres per bale.
The acres in c0rn—47,091 —probably yield
422,006, or an average of little over 9 bushels
per acre.
How Business Men Estimate the Crop
Reports of the Georgia Granges.—lt may
serve as a stimulus to the Grangers in giving ac
curate crop returns from month to month, to
know that the State Grange has already been
offered five hundred dollars for the same.
Granges should certainly aim at the highest
attainable accuracy, in forwarding estimates of
crops, which, when compared with data from
every cotton and grain growing State, will ma
terially aid the farmer in future plans and cal
culations.
Hypocrisy.—lt won’t do for any political
trickster, place-holder, or aspirant after the
money bags of our people, to talk “Grange
talk,” sleep in hay mows, and sprinkle their
breeches with cockle burs, in order to make
the farmers believe that he is “one Jof them,”
and has nothing in the world at heart but the
interests of the “dear |>eople.” These hypo
crites will do well to note the fact that their
hypocrisy is now too thin, and will fail to have
the effect it used to have. Farmers have be
come wiser. They have suffered in the school
of experience, but they have also learned.
Nor will the lesson be lost. All this mimicry
on the part of |>olitical apes is labor lost. Let
them slink back to their insignificance, and
remain there.
To Secretaries and Tteasurers of
Local Granges.—We have been requested to
publish the foil twing for the benefit of Secre
taries and Treasurers of local Granges :
“To prevent unnecessary labor and con
fusion, already pre .’ailing, your attention is
called to Art. VII., Sec. it. and Sec. 111.,
which make it the duty of the Secretary to re
port quarterly to the Secretary of the State
Grange (on/y) the names of all persons initi
ated or passed to higher degrees; and pay
(on/y) to the Treasurer of the State Grange the
sum of one dollar for each man, and fifty cents
for each woman, initiated during the quarter;
also a quarterly due of six cents for each mem
ber.”
Treasurers will see from the alx>ve that
they are not required to make any rejKirt to
the Secretary of the State Grange.
—■—•—-•
How to Purchase Seals for Subordi
nate Granges.—Address B. Z. Dutton, At
lanta, Ga., and enclose a postal order of $6.
Write plainly the name and number of the
Grange, when organised, and the county in
which located—and device. Don’t require too
many features in your device—they crowd your
seal t<x> much, and prevent distinctness of im
pression. Don’t fail to write plainly your
nearest express office, to which the seal must
be shipped. Granges, so soon as organized,
should agree upon their device, and have
everything in readiness for their members,
which they receive upon Dispensations from
O. 11. Kelley, Secretary. They can then for-
Jward order* for seals without any unnecessary
delay. At best, it requires about thirty days,
and sometimes seven weeks, to have them de
livered to you. Timely action in the premises
will save much delay.
' It is reported that Granges of Patrons if
J Husbandry are being organised in Missouri at
V’the rate of fifty per week.
To the Granger* of Georgia.
Should The Georgia Grange be adopted
by the Georgia State Grange as the official
organ of the Patrons of Husbandry, all circu
lars, announcements, reports, proclamations,
and other official matter, will be published free,
for the benefit of the Order.
The State Grange, therefore, will •be at no
expense whatever in the promulgation of its
official acts, or of anything else relative to the
business and progress of the Order. The col
umns of The Georgia Grange shall always
be open to every member who shall desire to
write on matters pertinent to the cause, and
conducive to the welfare of the Order. The
Georgia Grange will be a “ Farmer’s
Paper,” complete, as such, in every feature,
and claiming your patronage and support sole
ly upon its own merits.
“ Open to Conviction.” —Some who boast
of an extra amount of personal independence, or
take a questionable delight in “straddling the
fence” on important questions—say that of
joining their fellow-farmers in the Grange or
ganization —they will “ remain open to convic
tion.”
We hope they will not remain long in this
monotonous and undignified position. Let
thenr entift: TW'-n’ Tiefirrite deeiwion, one w«y or
the other. Common sense, the instinct of self
preservation, and palpable facts before all
eyes, we think ought to be “ conviction” suffi
cient that the Patrons of Husbandry are an or
ganization worthy the most earnest support of
every honest man who has an interest in agri
culture, and desires to see its best interests suc
cessfully sustained.
The Editor of the Hural Carolinian well
says: “ Those who are striving so persistently
to drag the Order of Patrons of Husbandry
into the filthy mire of politics are not the farm
ers’ friends, whatever their professions may be.
They would lead us to our ruin. But it should
be enough, with every good Patron, that our
Constitution strictly forbids not merely polit
ical action by the Granges, but even the dis
cussion of political questions. We must not
tolerate any departure from the spirit of this
wise provision. As Granges, we have other
means of making our power felt. Shall we be
made tools of by the demagogue ? God for
bid ! When it comes to that, we may well
close our gates and tie black crape around the
knobs.”
The following pertinent and sensible re
marks were recently made by the Master of
one of our Granges, in the course of an ad
dress :
“ In no one direction, and in no relation to
society, is the Order doing a more important
and fruitful work than in the education of
woman. Much as I love its beautiful and
symbolic ritual, as amply as I respect its power
to lift up a class long needing its aid, yet in no
one direction is it more important than in its
relation to woman It does not ask, Is she the
stronger or weaker vessel ? It does not ask
whether her brain or intellect is greater or less
than man's. It simply asks, Is she a human
soul? Answering this question in the affirma
tive, it says to her, whether as wife, mother,
sister or friend, you have equal responsibili
ties, rights and duties with man in the social
spheres of life, and we need and expect your
sympathy and aid.”
Rate of Increase in the Membership
of the Granges of Georgia.—From the
books of the Secretary of the State Grange we
obtain the following synopsis of the rate of
increase in the membership of subordinate
Granges in the State of Georgia. We find
that in the quarterly reports, received from
thirty-six Granges, a gain of eight hundred
and twenty-four members is recorded. This is
a gain of over 140 per cent, since their organi
zation, and gives an average of over thirty
five members to the Grange. Estimating the
number of Granges in Georgia at two hundred
and forty (240), we have, in round numbers, a
grand total of eight thousand four hundred
(8,400) members. Os this number, about two
thirds arc males and the balance female*.
The rapid and extraordinary increase in
membership of this beneficent Order, as proven
by the above figures, will give our outside
farming friends abundant evidence of the sym
pathy which their brother-farmers exhibit in
the work, and the high esteem in which the
Patrons of Husbandry are held in Georgia.
FRANKLIN PRINTING HOUSE, ATLANTA, GEORGIA, SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 1873.
Benefit* of Co-operative Purchases.
Among many other beneficial fruits of the
Farmers’ Organization cropping out in the
Western States, is the fact that a constantly in
creasing competition has sprung up between
wholesale dealers to secure the coveted custom
of the Grangers.
The purchasing agents of the Illinois
Granges, for instance, are buying every article
necessary for the use of members at wholesale
prices. In that section a good farm wagon,
compete, retails at SIOO. The agents of
Grange pay but S7O for it A Granger gets a
plow for sl6 which formerly cost him $32. The
same reduction holds good in other articles. A
Granger’s wife can get a sewing machine for
$39 which formerly, outside of Grange influ
ence, would have cost her $65, and through
the same agency those who desire it, can get a
parlor organ from S4O to S6O cheaper than
she ;ould a year ago. Thus, the system of co
operation among farmers works like a charm,
and facts like these establish its succes.
The Grange in Its Social Benefits.
The educational and social influences of the
Grange are ingredients worthy of consideration.
Farmers, through the peculiarities of their
avocation, have, as a rule, been denied
pleasures of organized social intercourse with
each other.
Scattered here and there in isolated locali
ties, without a common rallying point for socia
bility, with a lack of system and purpose in
every undertaking, it is not to be wondered at
that the peculiar polish and cosy grace charac
terizing urban communities, should have failed
to become habitual to the sturdy sons and
daughters of our rural districts.
The local Grange is an excellent corrective
of this condition. It brings the best social ele
ments of the vicinity together; it breaks the
ice of diffidence and constraint; it brings out
latent talent, and makes the membership feel
as one great family sssembled in friendly’ union
for the furtherance of every project which can
improve every individual—mentally, socially,
or pecuniarily. A broader, a brighter, and a
better view of life is thus afforded ; prejudices
and clanish habits are forgotten, and “the
Grange” becomes an excellent school of knowl
edge in experience and wisdom.
Grange Gossip.—The Grangers of Cham
paign county, Illinois, having shipped, in
their corporate capacity, nineteen car-loads of
corn to market, on their own account, made
five hundred dollars more than they could
have made by any other mode of shipment.
Owing to their success, the farmers have de
termined to forward their whole crop in a sim
ilar way.
One novel feature of the farmers’ movement,
which bids fair to become very popular and to
work great good in cementing the fanners to
gether more closely, is the harvest home pic
nic. These gatherings are largely social in
their character, but can not fail to advance the
political prospects of the farmers. Lately, at
a farmers’ meeting in lowa, sixty Granges
were in attendance, all in the regalia of the
Order. On the ground were 500 teams, and
from 8,000 to 10,000 farmers were present.
They were addressed by Mr. Dudley W.
Adams, Master of the National Grange.
The farmers’ gatherings throughout the ■
country this fall, have demonstrated an amount
of public spirit and intelligence which is grati.
ifying to all interested in the progress of agri
culture. They’ have developed the fact that a
general interest is taken in both public affairs
and political economy. The people are getting
opportunity to look at all sides of the same
question. The views obtained are not those of
two opposing political parties simply,but of men
standing in the position of publicists, outside
of the party harness. We rejoice in this, and
regard the future, politically, with more hope
than we have for a long time. It looks as if I
the filthy political stables were to be cleaned
and deoderized.
The Missouri Patrons of Husbandry are I
making arrangements to handle all the hog
product of that State through the agency of
St. Louis.
The annual meeting of the Illinois State
Farmers’ Association is to be held at D.catur,
December 26.
r Old Farmer Brown.
INSCRIBED to the patrons of husbandry.
From the harvest, field, old farmer Brown came home
with a look of care,
Hathrew his hat on the floor, and satdown in his old
splint-bottomed chair,
He wiped the sweat, iroin his dripping brow, and
pulled out his old jack-knife,
He whittled away to' himself, awhile, and called to
his little wife.
From her quaint and tidy kitchen, she came through
the open door;
With her sleeves pinned up to her shoulders and her
skirt pinned up before.
She loeked as faded, wrinkled and worn as the folds
of lier gingham gown,
When she saw the haggard and hopeless look on the
face of fanner Brown.
Then, down in her rocking-chair she sank, in a sort of
helpless way,
Nor spoke one word, but looked and listened to hear
what he might say.
“ Hannah, I’m sick a livin’ here, an’ a workin’ from
spring to fall
A raisin’ tatoes an’ corn to sell, that don’t bring
nothin’ at all.
Here we have worked together, for forty years, like a
pair of slaves,
An’ that old mortgage, ain’t lifted yet, that I owe to
Gideon Graves.
That judgment note o’ deacou Dunn’s will soon be a
failin’due,
An’ where’ the money’s a coinin’ from, why, I can’t
tell, nor you.
I’m kept in sech a worry an’ fret, by all these sort o’
thipgs,
That I have to sell the stuff that I raise, rite off for
what it brings.
It costs so much for my taxes now, an’ to keep the
woif
That I havn’t no chance to make a cent, an’ that is
what’s to pay.
Hannah, we’ve both on us grown old, an' our children
entail gone,
Thermal no one now that is left at home, for us to de
upon.
J hi 11 ut ns I used tu be. nor as able to work, I
KV >W,
But I've got to set these matters square, an’ the farm’ll
have to go.
“Half o’ the world lives idle, with plenty to eat an’
wear,
An’ the ones who work the hardest, have often the
least to spare.
The farmers work till their forms are bent, an’ their
hands are hard and brown ;
The workmen delve in the dust an’ smoke, o’ the
workshops in the town ;
The sturdy sailors bring to our shores the wealth o’
foreign lands,
An’ the other half o’ the world subsists by the work
o’ these hardened hands.
An’ this is one o' the reasons why I can’t pay what I
owe;
While you an’ I area gettin’ old, an’ the farm’ll have
to go.
“I’ve worked in the woods in the winter time, I've
plowed an’ sowed in the spring,
I’ve hoed an' dug through ;summer and fall, an’ I
hav’nt made a thing,
Sometimes I lie awake all night, an’ worry, an’ fuss,
an’ fret.
An’ never a single wink o’ sleep, nor a bit o’ rest I
get.
I think o' our grown up children, an’ the life they’ve
just begun—
They’ve gut to hoe the same hard row, as you an’ I
have done.
I think o’ the politicians, an’ the way that they rob
an’ steal,
An’ the more I think o' farmin', the poorer it makes
me feel.
The speculators buy up our cheese, our butter, our
wool an’ hay;
An' they sell ’em agin for more’n twice as much as
they had to pay.
They bleed us in transportation, they fleece us every
where ;
They cheat us on our provisions an’ the very clothes
we wear.
They live in their loity houses, on the best that can be
found,
Their wives wear dazzlin’ diamonds, an’ their chil
dren loaf around.
In the summer they go to the seashore, an’ the spring
to make a show.
An’ that is the way our butter an’ cheese an’ our corn
an’ ’taters go.'
“ We work in the sun all summer, raise turnips an’
corn on shares,
That the railroadsan* politicians may cheat us an' put
on airs.
They carry the reins o’ power, an’ will till we fill our
graves.
They rule and ruin the markets, an’ we are a pack o’
slaves.
What's to be done? God only knows. I’ve failed in
many ways.
In tryiif to lay a leetle by t<> ease my declinin’ days.
I never have been a shiftless man ; I've (tiggured, I’ve
worked an' tried,
While the old farm’s been a runnin’ down, since the
day that satber died
I’ve borrowed money to pay my debts, an’ I’ve watch
ed the interest grow,
Till its fairly got the start o' me, an’ the farm'll have
logo.’’
Then the little wife of farmer Brown stood up upon the
floor,
And she looked at him in a kind of way thatshe never
had before.
The furrows fled from her shrivelled cheeks, and her
face grew all aglow ;
“ I never will sign the deed, John, an’ the farm shall
• twr go.
There's jest one thing to be done as sure as you an' I
are born.
You must join the Grange an’ note, John, if you would
sell vour corn ;
Hope an prayer are good, John, for the man who digs
an' delves,
But Heaven will not help us, John, unless we help
ourselves.
I ain’t as chipper, an’ smart, an’ spry, nor as strong
as I used to be,
But I've got a heap o' tpunk, John, when it’s started
up in me.”
Over the old man’s furrowed face the tears began to
flow,
He never had felt more proud and strong, aince their
welding long ago.
A golden gleam of heavenly hope illumined his soul's
despair,
And. kneeling down on the time-worn floor, both
bowed their heads in prayer.
—Eugene J. Hall-
A wealthy farmer of Fulton has this notice
posted up in his field : “If any man’s or wo
man’s cows or oxen gits in these air oats, his
or her head will be cut off, as the case may be.
A man eye um, and pay mi taxes, but confooli
zation to a man who lets his critters run loose,
said eve.” *
States and Railroads.
“The Granger movement! What is that?
Don’t know anything about it; havn’t j»id
any attention to it.” Thus, something after
the manner of Pilate when he asked “What is
truth?” and would not stay for the answer,
Mr. Vanderbilt is reported to have commenced
an interview upon one of the most important
issues of the day—the relations which are to
be maintained between the State and the corpo
rations which it has created.
The moderation and caution of the Western
people have been conspicuous. They have
not displayed iconoclastic zeal, but have en
deavored so to deal with the railroads that
the legitimate and reasonable profits of
the latter should not be diminished. Accus
tomed to buy legislatures and judges, the man
agers of great corporations forget that in the
West their antagonists have elected themselves
to the Senate and Assembly, and seated them
selves on the bench.
There are railroad kings—though we are
glad to believe that Mr. Vanderbilt is not one
of them—who regard the railroad not at all as
a means of transportation, but simply as a
gambling implement. They forget that it is in
the power of the people to sweep their paper
millions out of existence. The effect on the
inflated stock of the railroad whose taxes were
doubled and whose receipts were diminished
one-half by an act of the Legislature would be
apt to be unsatisfactory to those who had “gone
long” on it. But when the judges whom the
railroads had elected declare that the Stat
may punish rebellious corporations by extinct
tion, when the most careful and conservative
public men of the West are found recommend
ing the wiping out of all “watered” stock, and
oven the making of the roads public highways
over which A, B, and C may run his cars on
payment of a moderate toll, it would seem as
if it were nearly time for Mr. Vanderbilt to
brush up his natural history and obtain some
information as to the habits and constitution of
those apparently unknown beasts,the Grangers
—otherwise the people.— World.
War and Finance.
There is some analogy between war and
finance in their defensive measures and in
the importance of alliances. There were
bits of genuine stratagem in the September
panic, and victories not less renowned than
war’s. The sudden shutting up of the New
York Stock Exchange was like exploding a
mine under besiegers. The issue by the
banks of loan certificates, to be used at the
clearing house in bank settlements, instead
of currency, was throwing supplies into be
leaguered forts. The league of the national
banks bound handfuls of loose twigs into
fascines. In Philadelphia, the enemy assem
bled in front of the Fidelity Trust Company,
and attacked it in force. Perceiving this»
and the strength of the position (a less de
fensible one had been abandoned to a rapid
fate), its friends poured reinforcements into
the Fidelity, the Pennsylvania Railroad
alone anticipating and paying it $175,000
not then due. It was the key of the finan
cial position in that city, and after a three
days’ assault the panic-stricken moved off,
while the bank stood intact. The finance of
the future might well study the strategy of
alliances and the methods of rallying and
concentration, to resist such attacks for the
common good. It might study the best
methods of guarding against such deadlocks
of foreign exchange as occurred in Septem
ber, whereby for a time the seaboard mer
chants could not realize on bills of exchange
at any price, and thus the moving of the
crops (that most important element in the
situation) was menaced and momentarily
checked. It might study the wisdom and
legality of interventions by the Secretary of
the Treasury in financial troubles for the
purpose of setting the government’s shoulder
to the wheel. It might inquire if any addi
tional security given to small deposits in the
savings banks, would lessen the tendency to
“runs” by the depositors— Philip Quilibet,
in November Galaxy.
There were 134,393 tons of rails exported
from Great Britain to the United States dur
ing the seven months ending with July, com
pared with 300,616 in the corresixmding period
in 1872, and 287,169 tuns in 1871.
To Merchants, Manufacturers, etc.
Georgia State Grange, )
COLAPARCHEE, GA. f
To Merchants, Manufacturers, and to Whom
soever it may Concern :
By authority of the State Grange of Geor
gia, the following circular is issued, and to
it your special attention is respectfully in
vited :
There is, in the State of Georgia, an asso
ciation of planters styled “Patrons of Hus
bandry.” By co-operative associations they
seek, through any and all legitimate and
honorable agencies, mutual protection and
mutual benefit. They aim not to antagonize
the rights of any class of our fellow-citizens;
nor will they peimit themselves to wage ex
acting and tyrannic crusade in their own in
terests. Hitherto, however, we have com
mitted the management of much of our busi
ness to certain classes of our fellow men.
For this we deem the commission received
disproportionate to the service rendered.
The necessities of the times demand rigid
reform alike in the varied detail of farm-life
at home and abroad. Otherwise the gaunt
form of bankruptcy and dissolution will
stalk in every rural pathway, daguerreotyp
ing woe upon every fireside, and Ichabod be
written upon the walls of of our once peace
prosperous homes.
You concede to Agriculture the position
of pre-eminence, the substructure underlying
every material interest. You tell us you
seek and rejoice in her prosperity. We are
before you to-day to most respectfully ask
you to verify your assertion, and share with
us your commissions, thus making the bene
fits resulting from the products of our daily
toil and care, in summer sunshine and winter
snow, mutual.
For this we think you have a 11 quid pro
quo" in the influence and cash patronage of
associated numbers. Be assured, we are no
mendicants at your doors, pleading for gratu
itous charities; for were it the will of our
Divine Master that we even die of poverty,
we would still expect to “die game!” We
ask your mutual aid in rendering prosperous
that interest upon which you say the pros
perity of yours depends.
Should you deem it advisable thus to deal
with us, address, (granting us the right to re
ject any and every offer,) giving terms, to
either—
L. F. Livingston, Covington, Ga.,) g x
J. 8. Lavender, Barnesville, Ga., >
C. M. Davis, Morgan, Ga., )
Or E. Taylor, Secretary.
August 18, 1873.
The Modern Newspaper.—Newspapers
are getting to be much more than mere tran
scripts of the news and gossip of the day. They
are pioneers in learned exploration; they are
foremost in geographical and historical discov
ery; they are the teachers of social science.
They are no longer satisfied with disseminating
the knowledge laboriously collected by savans,
by travelers, by experimenters in natural phi
losophy. They must pursue their own invest
igations, and send their agents into all the half
explored fields of science and adventure. The
reporter of to-day is the adventurer who pene
trates the desert and jungle; the scholar who
searches for relics of the forgotten past; the
courier who bears the news of victory to courts
and congresses across a wilderness and through
hostile armies ; the detective who pries into
public abuses and discovers hidden wrongs;
the pioneer who throws new countries open to
the world ; the philanthropist who unbars the
door of the torture chambers; the chemist who
detects adulteration in the spice-box; the inspect
or who seizes false weights and measures; the
auditor who exposes a public theft in the pub
lic treasury. Journalism busies itself now with
every thing that affects the public welfare. It
trenches upon the province once sacred to the
scholar and the man of science, and has made
itself the standard-bearer of modern civiliza
tion.
This is not a very auspicious time for the
opening of an exposition of products in this
country, but Chicago seems to have opened it*
great show with a great deal of edal. It has a
right to boast of its grand building, 800 feet
long by 200 wide, erected in ninety days, and
filled with objects which represent the r«ult*
of the prodigious activity of the Great Wert
NUMBER 1.