The Daily Argus

Not in Politics.
The Illinois State Grange decided that
it ought not to have anything to do with
politics, as a grange—that the object of
the order are social, intellectual and mor-
al elevation. Its next step was to plunge
up to the ears in politics, by adopting a se-
ries of resolutions "favoring a system of
free banking, condemning the increase of
congressional salaries, declaring that con-
gress should control inter-state commerce,
asking a repeal of the tax on foreign ships,
favoring the improvement of rivers and
canals, declaring the right of the people
to control corporations, and asking the
legislature not to meddle with the present
temperance law." This is politics, and
nothing else, and the Grangers have be-
come politicians even while resolving they
wouldn't.
It is not their fault. In this country
all popular questions are, and of necessity
must be, carried into the political arena
for discussion and adjudication. The man
or the body of men who say they will not
have anything to do with politics, waive
all right to participate in the determina-
tion of great questions, and to assist in the
redress of their own grievances.
The
Grangers and Farmers have already done
some good in politics, and they will proba-
bly do more in the future.—St. Louis Re-
publican.