The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-09-16
THE n1aNnRANTn FARMERS.

THE IGNORANT" FARMERS.
/ Although most of the members Of the indie
| pendent national committee are cooling them
| selves out of town, the work goes steadily
! forward at their headquarters in Nassau street,
and thousands of telling circulars are being
distributed among the country Republicans,
! who. in ordinary circumstances, would go I'M
enlightened regarding the Republican oOlec.
| tions to James g. Blaine. Thousands OF
farmers take no reading matter at all, and
| other thousands read nothing but the little
country weeklies, which carefully refrain from
4 publishing ANYTHING adverse to the candidates.
i To root out these people and supply them with
| live information is big task, but the COM
mittee is gradually accomplishing It, with re-
suits highly satisfactory. New York Herald.
So the young men are cooling themselves
out of town, down at Manhattan Beach, at
Long Branch, and elsewhere' But the work
goes steadily forward at headquarters just the
same, and the business of educating the
/ ignorant of 'the rowdy West through indie
pendent tracts is progressing very salts
factorily Either the business is extremely
well in hand or there is not much to do. But
the young men should hurry right back from
their cool retreats and securely muzzle the
| New York Herald. 1t is doing vastly more
harm than good, and as missionary would
hardly be success. Ignorant" country Re-
publicans, who, according to the Herald,
would in ordinary times go unenlightened,
are to be duly educated by the political dudes
of New York city, now cooling" themselves
on Coney Island. Their impudence is deal
cooler than any sea breeze they can find any
where. The Herald only publishes its
own ignorance when it asserts that
| thousands Of farmers take no read
| ing matter at all, and other thousands
read nothing but the little country weeklies. !"
Right in this direction the independent free
trade Republicans that have left the party to
go to the aid of the enemy are going to be
badly mistaken. The experience of 1872 is
going to be repeated in 1884. In that year
the Ignorance of the farmers was conf
IDENTIFY counted on to elect Horace Greeley.
But the thousands of farmers who took ssno
reading matter at alP seemed to be wonder
| fully well posted, somehow. Republican fam
lilies who for aquarter Of century held Mr..
Greeley in high esteem, were quick to realize
that he was but a fgurehead- mask for that
same party Of spoils and plumber that is now
anxiously seeking chance to GUST mot less
than $4,000 federal officials" to make room for
a like number selected haphazard from the
Democratic canaille At the same time Dem
ocratic farmers were not slow to realize that
Mr.. Greeley was not Democrat in any Of his
instincts or sympathies. The farmers were
no more fooled than those who "cool them
selves" at watering places, and who now
blandly propose to enlighten the farmers.
The farmers Of this country as much as
those Of any other, are well posted in all cur
rent events. Millions Of dailies are in cir
culation among them, supplemented by the
best weeklies, local and metropolitan. Com
pared man with man, farmers are as well in
formed as men who live in town. The man
who follows the pillow is as intelligent as he
who loafs around city hotels and is off down
to the beach, ye knaw, whenever the weather
becomes so beastly hot, ye knaw. The man
now busy sending out circulars to the 'signo-
rant farmer will probably discover that he is
not half 50 ignorant as the independent dudes
imagine, He will also learn that farmers
have known all about Mr.. Blaines record as
long as has any one else. They will
not be paralyzed upon receipt Of
the Dear Fisher letters, filched
by the man Mulhgan, and employed against
him in the hope of extorting black mail The
independent Ncrowd those getting cool and
those who pick their teeth at Delmonico's, are
welcome to do all they can with the farmer,
and by all means they should undertake his
education at once. 1t has been neglected too
long. But the record shows that the farmers
of New York have, with charming regularity,
voted in the opposition to the bummers in the
| New York slums How is that to be account
ed for, if the farmer does not readP The mis-
take made by the Herald is in thinking that
other dailies have no larger circulation among
farmers than it has There are other metro
politan journals that circulate among them in
a ratio of forty to one of the Herald
BLAINE declined to vote on the prohibition
question in Maine, because, in the position he
/