Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1891-07-17
A Practical Question.
"Ought the Farmer 60 Have n Polite,
EducatIonl,'

Ky, ~ +. A. FIrCH OF Victory Grange. Pub
lshed 10y requestl
In this age of enlightenment, when edu-
cation is the portal through which all must
pass to success in every department of hui
man affairs, it seems almost superhuous To
discuss the question "Ought farmers TO
have political education?" Let me saw.
that depends. The answer is no AMI YES.
No, if it means simply that he may be bet
ter prepared to play the tricks of the willy
and unprincipled politicians; no, if it is to
be but an aid to the tfme-serving, place
hunting demagogue; no, never if it does
not mean higher and better than the emol-
uments and spoils of office! And no, a
thousand times no, if the object sought is
not nobler and grander than the gratifica-
ton of an Unfortunately selfish ambition for
place, prefement and power
This insane greed, this eager scramble
for Office, high and low, great and small,
runs through our whole fabric of govern
ment from top to bottom, from centre to
circumference. 1t is the cancer of our
body polite and is slowly but surely eating
away its life. The woods are full of this
class of politicians, and state and nation
have already an over supply. Like dogs
they stand ready to seize the smallest
crumbs that fall from any and every politi-
cal table. ObscQuous beggars. Conscience
less to the last degree. Poor souls! 1--WE
! speak after the manner of men, and not
with any assurance that the average politi-
cal shyster has any soul.) He never knows
the pleasure of a single sincere sentiment.
| There is no room in his bloodless, shrivelel
! heart for an honest conviction. And do
not suppose he ever for one moment feels
the thrill of a genuine, self-respecting. in
! dependent individuality. No, we have
quite enough of this class already. Adj
mOntion and rebuke cannot penetrate their
thick hides, and education only makes
them a little more so than they were before.
There is no regeneration or reform for the
born demagogue. He does his work as the
coyote and vulture do theirs, and when, if
ever, in the logic of events, he passes out
of the world, instinctively all respectable
people feel that his Groom is vastly better
than his company
! And right here truth cOmpels me to say,
and | believe it is generally allowed, that
| the sturdy farmer is rather poor material
! for the manufacture of this pcStilential
! type of politician. He has breathed too
much free air. He has done too many
| honest days work. All too early he has
been sharply taught that merit alone is de
serving. that worth is the true passport to
recognition. and also that there is certain
relation existing between the earning of a
dollar and possession of il. His ear has
lain so near the great heart of nature that
he could not fail to be taught great lessons
in equality, justice and humanity. As a
result he has character and character has
long ago become as obsolete to the ''profeS-
sional'' in politics as eyes to the fishes of
Mammoth cave. Indeed, they seem to
have as little use for the sturdy integrity of
tbs farmer as the ''tinnies'' of those Styg-
ian waters have for eyes. A good fat Of
flee, in which they are mere sinecures, is
the height of their ambition and the acme
of their desire. Let not the noble band of
husbandmen that has furnished Webster,
a Lincoln, and their like, be guilty of re-
cruiting the ranks of this vast, though UNI
savory army of Adventures. Don't let
farmers lose what reputation they have for
integrity of heart or astuteness of intellect.
Now understand further that no farmer
or farmers son should be educated into be-
ing the mere tool of any political party.
Even here in breezy old Vermont we have
plenty of blind partisans in politics, who
puppet-like, vote as the party whip dictates
without SO much as a question raised as to
the Brightness of the transaction. We
believe a wel-informed conscience should
come in, and hand in hand with the per-
sonal secusion guaranteed 10y our new vot-
ing law, enter the voting precinct as one
would enter a shrine. No chains for our
limbs and no shackles for our minds. Sol
diers have, on Bunker Hill and at Gettys-
burg, fought out our civil liberty and es-
tablished constitutions and framed laws
that stand guard over physical freedom.
Let us see to it that no power, however in
snuating in manner or plausible in preteXt,
puts gives on our freebOrn souls. Parties
are the servants not the masters of the peo-
pie, and whenever they assume the func-
ton of authority they are even more in
tolerant and despOtic than governments
and monarchs themselves and should be re-
sisted. A true political education will wipe
out this blind servitude to party and lift
us up into the high and dry light of the UNI
derstanding, that we may, in deed as IN
name, be free.
Briefly, then, we have outlined the OBJ
iectionable and now yes to that kind OF
political education that makes the farmer
more man, better tiller of the soil, a
more careful guardian of the rights and
privileges pertaining to his high calling
that enables him to think and let think
subject only to the requirements of reason
and conscience; in short, that kind of pc
ltical education that removes us as far "a
possible from the ranks of those WHOM
Longfellow describes and abjuTes in his
psalm of life, "Be not like dumb, driv
EN- cattle" but exhorts that we "Be heroes
in the strife"
Now real hero is not dominated by any
motive of personal gain; he is master o
self and superior to seltishness. No hero
past or present, is ever second or third
cousin to the blind partisan. 1t was no
bility of character that made Washington
hero 1t has been admirable qualities OF
heart and brain that have always gemmeC
the tiaras of the immortals
Now we we may never all be heroes IL
the sense that Washington or Garabald
were heroes but we can all be hero voters
we can all be hero citizens. We can all b'
heroic men. But to be that we must al
be intelligent conscientious and fearless
Such a man is the legitimate result of thu
right kind of political education. He
stands erect while freedom imperial splen
doris fall around him. Above party, supe
or to clique, he is neither bought nor sold
neither frightened nor cajoled, nor in an!
way swerved a hairs breadth from the patti
of well apprehended duty. The right KIM
of political education "evolutes" maj
out of the partisan into the clear light o
I LII xUrnn gfanH nnhAg