The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1893-12-28
THE FARMERS SLAVERY.
Held in Bondage by That Ally of Pow
erty the So Called Country

farms and hold in trust our farming
interest. They being the great
artery between the producer and
consumer, their precarious condi-
ton has made our food market their
dependent, so much so that sur
plus at the crib is no safeguard
against the consumer having to pay
famine prices, for one rainv day SO
jeopardizes that source of our COM
merce that prices fuctuate accord
ing to the length of the shower.
The subjugation Of the farmer to
his road is more strict than the serf
to his master. If his harvest is
ready to deliver, instead of study
ing the markets to make an advan-
tageous sale, he must consult the
mud holes and clay hills on his
haul. His road dictates to him how
many days his children may 60 to
school, whether he may attend
church and when he may receive
his mail, and at times even forbids
his physician to pay proper atten-
ton to his sick. For weeks it may
isolate his family even from their
nearest neighbors, contracting their
social life to the confines of their
own hearth, under little less than
the restrictions Of prison, while
their privations at times reach actual
want.
Is it any wonder that this slavery
has created chatting and discon-
tent among our farming class? Is
it any wonder that the more spirited
of the country progeny prefer the
crowded tenements to the swampy
adventures of farm life? Or the
more fortunate, who can raise few
hundred dollars, seek the villages
to become merchants? And is it
any wonder that such large per
centage of our bountiful soil lies in
idleness while other pursuits of life
are swarming with idle working
men?
This dispirited state of our til
lage has significance of no little
Importance. They are not desert
ing the farms because there is no
market for the crops, nor is the oc-
cupatlon unhealthy. 1t is simply
that the Ill condition of our roads
not only calls for early and late
hours to be spent in hardships and
exposure not to be borne and trebles
the expense of moving the harvest,
which leaves little or no profit, but
it lays such restrictions on social
life, making the conditions of reach
ing either mental or physical pleas
ure so severe, and so suppress the
cultivation of the mind, which is
their right to enjoy with other
human being, that their existence
is merely one of drudgery. And
when they see the town people en-
vironcd by superior comforts, in
touch with everything that cult
Yates and enriches life, and feelingly
known that the distin ction between
the two classes is becoming more
marked every day they uncon-
sciously flee from the odium of "old
hayseed, leaving our great abund-
ancc of rich soil that should be the
happy homes of millions to be i'm
proved only so far as necessity
pushes us on.
Successful farming can only fol-
low thoughtful study. II requires
accurate Judgment and foresight,
and wider range of knowledge and
experience is applicable to its sphere
than any other industry that we
have. Can We afford to let those
in charge of this industry live
within such narrow confines as to
dwarf their intellects, keep them
shut out from the ILLUMINATION of
the world and bow them down IN
acquiescence to condition that is
suiclde.to the greatest interest of
our country? don't wish to be
understood that the farmer is of an
unintelligent class, for when we
take in consideration the way we
have Disseminated against him in
opening the paths of progress he
has kept wonderfully close in the
race. But he is not the broad
mined successful and satisfied
worker that he would be if he had
unbroken schooldays and free in
termingllng with the more progress
sive people. And as proof of this
we have only to refer to countries
where roadbuilding has lifted the
drudgery off of country life and
made farming pleasant science
and compare their yield per acre to
ours, even in crops with both soil
and climate IN our favor. Charles
ton News and Courier.
How to Xiii Canada ThistIes.
Would You give me little space
to say IA few words to our farmers