The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1893-09-28


and aspirations rugged, comprehen-
sive and cosmopolitan in physical,
moral and intellectual strength A.
perfect manhood, No. l hard speci-
men Of humanity. Silently, slowly
and almost unnoticed the process Of.
assimilation goes on, but surely and
inevitably, and as to-day we can ten
der and show the most perfect of agri-
cultural products, SO in the far distant
future viii our State yield and furnish
the most perfect and cosmopolitan of
mankind. But must pass from this
interesting problem of the future.
There is another view of the farmers
sphere of function-to my mind q
most important one, that I desire to
suggest and call your attention to, and
in reaching it l shall have to be brief
historical. Agriculture is one of the
oldest and most important of human
pursuits. It's growth, expansion and
prosperity is the measure to very
large extent of the growth, expansion
and prosperity of our race. Anciently,
and until comparatively recent pc
riod, The tiller of the soil labored un-
der the greatest disadvantages and
now subject to the most grievous of
burdens. For centuries he was serf,
or at best mere tenant at will. AS
necessity he was tolerated. Was in
some form, either of defense, conquest,
or mere plunder, was the one great
fashionable employment of the early
and middle ages. The military chief
and his followers were the leading ell
ement and aggrandized all political
power in the State, such as it was,and
these military chiefs and their leading
subaltrens assumed the ownership,pos-
session and control of all the lands
within their respective territories, and
such territories as they subdued and
conquered, and the masses of the peo-
pie were forced 9aolens v0leats to till
these lands as serfs or tenants without
any political rights or power. Polit-
ical power became an appurtenant OF
the ownership of land, and it is Gu
rious but we'll established historical
fact that political power as general
rule always rests with that body or
class in the community where the own
ershipof the land rests. During the
feudal and middle ages the ownership
of the lands was in the great barons,
marquises, -earls and dukes, and in
these was vested all the political pow
or in the Stete. The great mass of
the people had no voice in affairs of
State and bat few, if any, of political
or personal rights. In Germany and
all it's numerous large ana petty
states, in Italy lin Russia and in France
such was the case. In all these great
States the great mobiles owned the
land in huge estates, and in like man
ner owned and exercised all political
power to the utter exclusion of the
masses. Switzerland aud Norway were
alone an exception. In these countries
the land was cut up into little farms,
and was owned by the men who titled
them, and these men, the peasants of
Switzerland and Norway, were never
serfs, never tenants at will and never
wholly deprived Of their political and
personal rights. 1t seemed as though
their land was their one great shield
and protection. In France one of the
leading causes that provoked and lead
to the great and bloody revolution in
the country, was the fact that the
great mobiles owned allthe land while
the mass of the people-the tillers of
the soil-had none, and one of the
main results of that revolution was
that the large estates of the mobiles
were broken up, and the land was dis
tributed in small farms among tho
French peasantry, and with them it
has thus remained ever since, and ever
since that great upheaval, ever since
the French peasant became land
owner royalty and monarchial institu-
tuions have been unable to obtain
firm foothold-Napoleon the First, the
Bourbons, couple of them, and Ma
poleon the Third, have each had their
brief day and been unceremoniously
hustled off the stage by the French
people and to-day they have sober
and conservative republic which seems
to be in harmony with the people and
to rest on a permanent and endur-
ing basis. In Russia until compar-
atively recent period the mass of the
tillers of the soil were but mere serfs,
sort Of personal chattel, appurten-
ant to the land and passing with title
of the land either by purchase or de-
scent as a mere fixture, and even now
though the serfs are in a measure free
they are as landless as ever. The lands
are still the property of their great
aristocracy. You all know that bust
ness is and always has been one of the
most absolute and arbitrary of all gov
ernments, aspiring and claiming to be
called civilized. But nihilism, discon-
tent and restlessness prevails among
the people and will continue until
as in France the Russian peasant be-
comes land owner, and when that
dav comes absolute government will