been blessed with our usual harvest, and in many particulars fully satisfactory, and we come to the financial features of the year not mourning, but with hearts full of gratitude and peace. We do not come to the yearly settlement of our accounts with the sweetness of the grangers. We do not propose to do away with the evils we bear by holding dark lantern meetings and refusing to discuss political questions, but by the ballot, which Whittier describes as "Falling lightly as the snowflake on the sod, Which executes a Freeman's will as lightning does the will of God!" The time was when we cut our own grain, when we did our own threshing-when men used the scythe and the flail. Now Racine does our threshing-every two hours she finishes a thresher. Cohoes Falls cuts our grass-we no longer do that with the scythe that costs us but a dollar. Cohoes does that with her machinery, and we call it monopoly! We, as agriculturists, are prone to shirk labor; we feel too proud to use a flail, a scythe, or even a beetle! Hundreds of farmers endeavor to use machinery which they buy at exorbitant prices, and put money into the hands of manufacturers who become immensely rich from the toil of the farmer. Too many endeavor to farm with brains rather than work. Such farmers have bad bank accounts, while the farmer who works has his stores of produce, his stock, his home without mortgage, and he feels independent. We must look to the There never was an ener Labor is the life-blood of energy. We must have a generation with moral elements of character. mothers for a regeneration of our race. getic man without an energetic mother. She was no pampered doll in a parlor, but hers was an active, living energy that gave character to her children. We must think! we must act ! The Governor tells farmers to combine against monopolies. We are told to dig rifle pits, to fortify, to intrench against money. If President Twombly's doctrine is carried out, as set forth in his address before the State Agricultural Society, it is war, not civil government. When you sap and mine, and intrench, it is military. When the "Little Giants" their lamps and the "Wide Awakes" began their march, how long before the boom of guns at Fort Sumpter? What we need is an intelligent use of the ballot. We producers and farmers generally must pay the Governor, our Congressmen and the swarms of officers who are so ready and willing to scoop out the heart of our loaf and give us the crust. As farmers we must work for too many, try to farm with brains and no labor. Our intelligence should guard our wealth from wily politicians and monied monopolies - our energy relieve us from the evils we suffer. To my sister before me with bronzed hands, not ashamed to wash dishes, and able to perform the culinary duties of her household, we would say, you need not envy the butterfly who sweeps the street of the city with her ten dollar silk. Wait a few days and look upon her as they bring her husband's body from the river to the morgue. The coroner's inquest says "suicide;" I say, she murdered him! The work of reform is the renovation of public sentiment. The remedy for farmer's grievances is the ballot, not such collegiate education as President Twombly proposes. When he talks renovation, it is useless unless men have brains given them by their mothers. You cannot expect to educate the idiotic. My Granger friends propose to reform things by secret combination and dark lantern meetings. Railroads represent a capital of three billion dollars controlled by six men. They command, the telegraph wings their message, and their satellites execute their wishes as willing slaves. Farmers represent a capital of nine billions in the hands of millions of agriculturists, who cannot be combined as a unit. The Grangers do not have a proper conception of the vastness of these things. The American government has gathered within its limits men from all nations and kindreds-here they all become citizens with sovereign power vested in each one alone. Railroads and manufactures are essential elements of our coun try. What we need is legislation to control them. We must tell the railroads to carry our wheat for so much, just as we tell the miller to take only so much toll, or the money lender so much interest. When secret societies tell us to reform without political action it can not be done. We must educate to vote. Politicians are like the nightingale in Cowper's tale. She sang all day, when, feeling the pangs of hunger she looked around and saw the glow worm, who protested against being eaten by her indolent but musical neighbor. Politicians chant soothing strains to the farmers before election; when in office they remember their greedy appetites and at once fall upon the farmer and eat him up! Thus farmers are the victims on every hand, and our only safeguard is higher intelligence-better self-education. 29 |