Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1881-09-08

In the new world. Great as was the farmers
part IN the achievements of that era, not less
| has been his share of their benefcent results.
From that time dominion of the soil has
| been his; and his tenure made secure. His
labor has yielded its return to his own hands;
| to him its seed has borne its increase.
| No steward descends upon his harvest
| fields to sweep the profits into the granary OF
| his lord.
No 1.-THE collector snatches for the dignitaries
the OF church what the landlord has shared.
He may lift his prayers direct to the God Of
natures; and the bounty with which nature
blesses his seed is all his own.
But not alone in the riches of his tillage
has he realized the benefits of independence.
| Better advancement still has been his in the
social and political relations he enjoys. With
| ownership OF the soil has come
THAT EQUALITY OF CASTE
which belongs to dominion. There is no lord
and master above him. There is no rank or
| grade of social life which is his superior.
| speak it with the full meaning Of the words
employed. And affirm again that beyond the
farmer there is no business, no avocation, no
grade of sociel life, and no higher class of
men in the States of America.
| It is not meant that all farmers reach the
full plane OF their class. In the providence
| of God, there has been ordained an infinite
variety of intellect, character and capability
among men. "One star differeth from another
star in glory" Farmers are precisely as other
men. They are not and cannot all be equal;
neither in strength of muscle or fibre of brain.
Among them, as with Others, the gradations
of intellect and power are almost infinite.
Their achievements must vary accordingly.
| No laws of men, no institutions of society,
can alter this ordination of heaven. All that
laws and constitutions, all that social opinions
and usages can do, is to open the road, with
equal access to all. This the farmers of Amer
lea have accomplished for their class. The
way is open. Many have already travelled it..
They are examples to the race.
| Do any doubt their social rank? Look
about you here in Minnesota! Cannot you,
your borders, numerous farmers, the social
equals of the best in your commonwealth? l
am but stranger, yet am confident to chal-
lenge the test. On the fields of your neigh
boring Wisconsin, l claim the honor of friend
| ship with scores who are the social and in
tellectual equals of the highest of
other classes. In some, I know a
pride of manhood and degree of power,
riches of intellect and integrity of character,
which are the honor and adornment of hui
mainly. Nor is the farmers place less, or less
important in political circles. His voice has
| ever been potent-his influence commanding
| in all affairs of State and nation. It could
not be otherwise under the constitution of
our political society. Where the majority of
votes appoints the holders of every public
| trust, the wielders of that scepter of power
must hold sovereign influence. The farm
| er's class Outnumbers any other; and when
you add those Immediately independent on it,
perhaps all others. 1t is the great substratum
| and
| FOUNDATION RANK OF THE REPUBLIC.
The farmer holds his place in every govern
ing board and through all gradations of Of
flee, in town, county, State and nation. In
most of the administrative subdivisions oil
government he is nearly supreme. Town and
+! county boards are almost wholly controlled
by him, and in every legislature his represen-
tatives outnumber those of any other order.
And, let it be remembered, these are the
bodies which mainly rule the prosperity and
| welfare of the people in the ordinary affairs
of life. Places of national trust have more OF
splendor and honor in appearance as the scope
of their authority is more extended.
But except in extraordinary emergencies
their influence and effect on the business, con-
dit1ons and affairs of our citizens is far less.
Two-thirds of our taxes are expended by our
counties, towns and local bodies. Substan-
tally all our laws which define and sustain
the rights of property and OF persons, which
| adjust the social and domestic relations, which
secure our peace, our liberty, our happiness,
are of State authority alone. In national
affairs, moreover, the farmer has always en-
joyed a large, if not a full, share. Presidents,
Senator's and Representatives have been often
called from the farm, and oftener still from
among the farmers boys. cannot dwell to
recapitulate the proofs. Recall to mind the
illustrious men who have honored our land,
and you will name majority who sprung
| from the farm. To sum it,
| AGRICULTURE IN AMERICA
has been paid the genuine honors, which in
other countries have but been sung to it. Our
| constitution, laws and usages have opened
wide the door to all to achieve whatever ma
ture has given ability to attain. The farmer
has been exalted to dominion of the soil, to
social rank and political power, equal to that
of any other class or order.
Let any one who would justly measure his
great advancement and present condition cast
| his eve abroad. Let him read the history Of
rural labor, and view it as it is in other eoun
tries. Where is the land under the sun in
| which the tiller of the soil has so maintained
himself against the greed and craft of mem
Look to Great Britain. There among more
than 10000, ownership of lands is absorbed
by few thousand, whose hands put no touch
of labor to increase its product, but with re-
lentless greed draw from the toilers on the
fields the better portion in rents, by which
alone can labor be allowed the privilege to
earn subsistence. The farmer there must be q
rent payer; he can have no title but lease
The farm laborer must be a hind; he is fec
and sheltered. The father of one can have nc
Inheritance but a rent charge; of the other
but the patrimony of the beasts Of burden
The church shares the benefit and lends to
this the sanction of her spiritual authority
Feudalism is gone, indeed but it is not YET
for Englishmen to own the lands they till,
nor "enjoy the kindly fruits of the earth''-
which their hands gather from seed they SOW
except in the Litany.
Or consider the melancholy state of poor
Ireland! There sit Irishmen, poverty-bound
to the spot, whose fathers were robbed OF
title to the rich wales and fertile meadows of
that bright and beautiful Isle. They still
plant the seed upon its surface; they nurse its
growth; from early morn to dewy eve; they
ply the implements of husbandry to nourish
it's increase; their eyes linger on the rich pro-
| ducts which natures lavish fountain abund-
1 antly bestows to their labor; themselves reap
| ing the plentiful harvest, they must bear it to
their masters ships to furnish out replete
luxury in foreign land; and then, return to
the miserable cabin to hear their children cry
for bread. Again and again the world has
heard and
| FITTED THE VAIL OF FAMIsHED IRELAND.
Yetin every year when famine has swung the
scythe of death among the toilers of that land,
the lavish bounty of nature sacrificed to pam
pered greed has been abundant to have fed
every 1rishman, every starving wife and child
| Ships laden with the succor of humanity met
| in their ports others bearing off the plenty of
| Irish fields.
For there, with all their cries of hunger,
Generous nature never failed of enough for
Irishmen; she has only refused to satiate the
avarice of the foreign land-holder.
| Let him who repines in unreasoning discon-
tent in this happy land but stop to think how,
| within but few months, the Irish husband
| man has been forced TO see the flesh dry up.
| the bones protrude and the eyes sink back, in
the starving faces of his wife and babes, in his
own beautiful and bountiful Ireland.
A more extended survey must still further
enhance orr comnarafiye satisIactinn The