The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1889-04-16

situations, as a rule; but he must say
after having travelled over and pretty
carefully inspected both countries, thai
the English farmer seems to have the
advantage. He certainly is in better
spirits. The writer has rarely heard
Il am a farmer" spoken in England
except in a tone of manifest pride
although probably coming from the
lips of a mere leaseholder. Owner
ship of the soil there gives an impor
lance that to an American seems posi-
lively comical. England is ruled by
her agriculturalists. Her greatest
statesman, Gladstone, is a farmer
Her leading Parliamentarians belong
to the landed gentry. Agriculture
interests are their interests; and they
study them closely. District agricul,
tural meetings in England are grand
affairs. The noble Lord This or the
noble Duke That-the biggest man in
the neighborhood-is called to the
chair, and the speeches are reported
in all the local papers, and quite often
in the metropolitan press.
Nowhere, perhaps, is the contrast
in conditions more strikingly shown
than in the comic EDITORIALS. The typi-
cal farmer in American Puck is a
scarecrow. He is a lean, sallow Great
ure, ~coatless, jacketless, his pantaloons
barely reaching his knees, a ragged
and tattered hat of straw half hiding
his unkempt locks, and wearing a
visage as sour and pinched as a crabs.
The farmer in British Punch is just
the opposite. He is a portly individ-
ual, with a countenance beaming with
roast beef and good-nature, clumsily
but superabundantly clothed, and
altogether respectable.
The same contrast appears on the
stage. "Only a Farmers Daughter"
has been a popular American play.
We see nothing homogeneous in the
title; but in England it would be as
meaningless as among us would be
"Only a Bankers Daughter or "Only
a Railroad Presidents Son."
And is it any wonder that the
British farmer holds up his head He
is an equal before the law. He is not
Disseminated against. Nobody is
protected at his expense. He gets
at least a third more for what he sells,
and pays a third less for what he
buys; and two thirds make a big
difference in a result. His interests
are sharply watched over by his gov
ernment-not to give him an undue
advantage, but to secure him fair play.
True, he is heavily taxed by his gov
eminent; but nothing like so heavily
as the American farmer. We Ameri-
cans pay the heaviest taxes in the
After directly paying for the
town or city, the county and the
State, for roads, for schools, and for
bridges, we then indirectly and osten-
pay for the support of the gen
eral Government, and in a way which
makes us support not only it, but a
of specially favored inter
besides. England's Queen and
personages are expensive luxu-
ries; but they cost much less than our
kings-the iron-manufacturers, the
sug~ar-refners, and the other poten
tates for whose enrichment we are
taxed through our revenue laws.
And when we cross the Channel to
France we again encounter what is
substantially free trade; and there we
find a farming population which has
not only paid the heaviest indemnity
known to history, but has been able,
its surplus accumulations, to
send from the country millions of
francs in aid of as wild a project as
the Panama Canal.
But how has it happened that the
farmer-intelligent, natu-
rally shrewd, always jealous OF his
and with the political power in
his own hands-has permitted such
an unequal division of the benefits and
burdens Of the government as virtually
to make him a newer of wood and
drawer of water for a comparatively
small privileged class? The story is
a simple one. Captivated by the
promise of a home market as the re-
suit of manufacturing development,
which hewas led to believe would buy
products at the highest prices, and
sell him in return at the lowest, he
to a departure from the only
true republican principle-of strict
equality in public privileges and bur-
dens. He consented to be taxed to a
limited extent for the encouragement
of the manufacturer; but only upon
understanding that the arrangement
was to be but temporary-only while
. infant industries" were struggling
for a foothold. The interest thus
aided was then so weak and insignif-
can't that he never dreampt the day
might come when it would dispute his
supremacy, and, taking him by tie
demand as a right what he had
granted as q favor That mns4 ho IN