at a very large number
agreed with him. Bradley sat silently through it all. It didn't mean
very much to him, and he wished they'd sing again.

The chairman again came forward. "Napoleon said 'Old men for counsel,
but young men for war.' But our young men have listened patiently to us
old fellows for years, and mebbe they don't think much of our counsel.
I'm going to call on Milton Jennings, one of our rising young men."

Milton, a handsome young fellow with yellow hair and smiling lips,
arose and came forward to the rail, feeling furtively in his coat-tail
pocket to see that his handkerchief was all right. He was a student at
the seminary, and was considered a fine young orator. This was his
first attempt before so large an audience.

"Ladies and gentlemen," he began after clearing his throat. "Brothers
and sisters of the Order: I feel highly honored by the president by
being thus called upon to address you. Old men for counsel is all
right, if they counsel what we young men want, but I'm for war; I'm for
a fight in the interests of the farmer. Not merely a defensive warfare
but an offensive warfare.

"How? By the ballot. Mr. President, I know you don't agree with me. I
know it's a rule of the Order to keep politics out of it, but I don't
know of a better place to discuss the interests of the farmer. It's a
mistake. We've got to unite at the ballot box; what's the use of our
order if we don't? We must be represented at the State legislature, and
we can't do that unless we make the grange a political factor.

"You may talk about legislative corruption, Mr. President, and about
county rings, to come near home. (Cheers and cries, "Now you're getting
at it," "That's right," etc.) But the only way to get 'em out is to
vote 'em out. ("That's a fact.") You m'say we can talk it over outside
the order. Yes, but I tell you, Mr. President, the order's the place
for it. If it's an educational thing, then I say it ought to educate
and educate in politics, Mr. President.

"I tell you, I'm for war! Let's go in to win! When the fall's work is
done, in fact, from this time on, Mr. President, the farmers of this
county ought to organize for the campaign. Cut and dry our tickets, cut
and dry our plans. If we begin early and work together we can strangle
the anacondy that is crushing us, and the eagle of victory will perch
on our banners on the third of November, and the blood-suckers trouble
us no more forever."

With this remark