the affirmative. It is
at least worth while to endeavor to describe several means by which the
woman of the farm can keep pace with her urban sister, and under
conditions not so discouraging as many may suppose.

Probably no movement has had such a profound significance for the farm
women of America as has the Grange movement. We have already discussed
the general aspects of Grange work. It must be remembered that the
farmer's wife is practically equal with her husband in Grange law and
practice. She votes, she may hold office, even the higher executive
offices. A delegate to the State Grange is always two--a man and his
wife if he has one. The wife serves on committees and votes as she
pleases. This equality extends throughout the order. The woman bears her
share of work; she reads papers; she directs the social phases of the
Grange; she talks on farm topics if she wants to; she debates school
affairs; she visits neighboring Granges. All this means education, and
education of a very valuable sort, the effects of which permeate so
thoroughly those communities where the Grange has long been established
that one hardly realizes the work that has been accomplished. For it is
not at all an exaggeration to assert that a positive revolution often
comes about from the planting of a Grange in a neighborhood where no
such organization has ever existed. It finds most of the women
diffident, many of them with restricted views, few of them with the
instinct for social service developed beyond the needs of friendly
neighbors. In the Grange these women find new acquaintances, learn the
power of concerted action, meet the responsibility of office, get to
their feet for a few words--unheard-of courage! Such speech is usually
brief and perhaps not ready, but it is likely to be cogent, because it
is born of experience and "stops when through." County and perhaps State
Granges add their experiences. And so on through the years these shy,
reserved, possibly narrow, lives come to flower. And the Grange has
furnished the dynamic. Strong leaders among farm women have been
developed by the opportunities the Grange has afforded them. And
thousands of other women in all parts of the country have by this same
means grown out of their narrowness, "discovered themselves," and become
comparatively cultured, well read, able to take a woman's place in this
day of woman's power as a public factor. It is safe to say that the
Grange has been the greates