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Section IV
The Grange Tomorrow

To worthy families-rural and urban-The Grange extends an invitation to participate at a time when there is ever-increasing need for a rededication and united support of the principles of individual integrity and fair dealing among men at home and throughout the world.

The Grange offers the opportunity to worthy individuals to use their abilities as part of a united effort to expand freedom at home and abroad, to speed progress, and to enlarge the horizon of the American family for service and abundant living.
-HERSCHEL D. NEWSOM

Pattern for the Second Century

In the foregoing pages there has been briefed-often too much condensed-the dramatic story of the soul-satisfying, enjoyable, personal growth, and service-to-others features of Grange membership and the almost-beyond-belief local, state, and national services that the Grange has performed for nearly 100 years to improve communities, states, and the national well-being; and to influence our government as a servant of all Americans.

The question is paramount now as to whether this "First Century of Service and Evolution" should, without modification, become the foundation for the Grange's second century.

While it is clear that much of the character, development, and achievement of this second century is already cast, members of the Grange during this Centennial Year need to think deeply, discuss at length, and act courageously to extend the effectiveness of all Grange principles and activities.

Not only must the Grange keep on doing better the splendid things it has been doing, but members and leaders must seek to recognize and reclaim lost opportunities to improve the effectiveness of all Grange units as community builders.

Here, gleaned from recent statements of a few of the many Grange leaders who have thought deeply about the future of the Grange, are quotes which should be pondered-not alone by Grange members but also by all who live in this great country which the Grange influenced in the past-and which this same Grange will doubtless be seeking to direct or influence in the future to the very limit of its ability to do sol Space does not permit use of all, and the selection by the author has been cruelly restricted by space limitations.

Five Features o f the Grange of Tomorrow

1. The community center for an area-the one spot where people of a common concern and interest, from nearby homes can come together as a group.
2. The Grange will have to be a recreational center in a much bigger sense than it is, depending upon its "community."
3. The Grange will be known for its public forum-a debating place on any or all issues; a legislative action center with candidates really seeking an invitation to be interviewed; a center where major local problems will be solved by local people in a democratic way.
4. The Grange will be the "service eye" of the area. Those truly down on their luck will be stimulated and assisted back to self-sufficiency; the forgotten will be remembered; the handicapped will be assisted to places of self-support.
5. The Grange will lead a crusade to appreciate U.S.A., to keep it free, to improve our image abroad.

Increased Devotion Needed

The Grange has served the family farm, but linked the villages and the ruralists into an urban life. Through its family memberships of adolescent youth and parents, it helped to bring about a family stability which developed individuals to higher potentialities by rubbing elbows with their peers in discussion, in debate, in committees. Taking the message of the Grange to legislative bodies, local, state, and national, it promoted the community and today, hundreds of our new cities in America owe their creation and support to the Grangers out in the hills where the creek forks.

The Grange tomorrow will continue this history of the past. Grange leaders and patrons will learn to adapt its formula of community service to the changing end of the 20th and the beginning of the 21st Centuries. Its voice is needed, as it has been for a century, in the legislative halls and business assemblies.

In order to fulfill its date with destiny, the Grange must have increasing devotion from its members-new and old, young and adult-in helping to put ideas into words and to receive ideas from others and to transmit them back at the Grange halls in thousands of communities. Information travels best on a two-way street, and the Grange must continue to give and to receive information in the public interest.

To Raise the Level of Human Existence

On the National Scene, with headquarters in the nerve center of the mightiest nation in history, the Grange will advance new ideas for national growth. It can represent workable plans for world-wide activity that will raise the level of human existence in every corner of the globe.

Developing Leadership and Understanding

Perhaps never before has the need for a vigorous Grange effort, and of broad American community understanding, and effort to develop leadership, been so great.

It is essential that we accept our proportionate responsibility to help develop a sound and intelligent concept of the proper and appropriate role and function of our agricultural and rural life, in the minds of our fellow Americans.

Perpetuation of Mutual Concern, Fraternal Friendship

The greatest challenge to "The Grange of Tomorrow" will be the preservation and perpetuation of "Mutual Concern" and "Fraternal Fellowship" in a world that expects to buy everything (including their soul's salvation) with cold cash.
"The Grange of Tomorrow" through its Fraternal, Family, Social, Educational, and Legislative structure will prove that "The best things in life are free"; that our motto, "In essentials unity, in non-essentials Liberty and in all things Charity" is the very essence of self-government with a maximum of individual freedom.

Be Ready for Youth

The "avalanche" of young adults is exploding into our midst! The Grange can be ready for them and should be ready to accept them into membership. The Grange must be prepared to offer them a "choice." Some will choose the Grange. Others will not. Those who do choose the Grange will do so only if the Grange is a vehicle which demonstrates its ability to serve in modern times, which demonstrates its readiness for the questions, the curiosity, and the restlessness of young people.

Continue Work Upon the Immortal Mind

The Grange tomorrow will be the instrument which will bring understanding and close association between the rural and urban people as together they teach the Grange ritualism. Old as it is, it still teaches us that there is a Supreme Being who provides a seed time and a harvest time and that the most important thing to work upon is the immortal mind. As our ritual states, "If we work upon marble if will crumble; if we work upon brass time will corrode it; if we rear temples, they will crumble into dust; but if we work upon the immortal mind, imbue them with just and true principles, the reverence of God and the love of our fellowman we engrave upon something that will brighten unto all eternity." This we are doing in the Grange and will continue to do in the tomorrows that are before us.

Venture into New Fields

With more young people leaving the farm and the farm population diminishing, the Grange must accept the challenge to meet the needs of all its members. In our second century we will venture into new fields. One of these will be new ideas in education. As more and more Granges find themselves within urban areas in our second century, we will need to develop a greater understanding between the rural and urban people.

A Forum for Leadership Training

The Grange can be a forum in every Grange community from which real down to-earth-grass-roots-leadership is trained and the individual developed. Some of the great rural leaders of the past century have been Grange-trained men and women! This has been especially true in recent years in the Home Economics work of the Grange over the nation. This development of the individual in the Grange is evidenced by the fact that these Grange-trained individuals are so often chosen as leaders by other groups.

Every person who has a rural mail box or receives a parcel by mail is indebted to the Grange. These came as the result of organized effort. The appeal of the single individual has some effect, nationally. The appeal of a large, respected, and recognized group multiplies this effect many, many times. This will be truer than ever during the years ahead. The Grange furnishes a powerful "line of communication" direct from the community "back home" to the national capital.

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