The Dalles daily chronicle. [volume] (The Dalles, Or.) 1890-1948, 1894-09-08
THE FARMER rs KING.

Under the above title our esteemed
contemporary, the Evening Telegram
says:
Commenting on a recent editorial in
The Telegram concerning the desirable
ity of farm life. The Dalles Chronice
takes issue with us by saying that farm
ing is the least satisfactory of all occu-
pations, and Is far from being the poetic
dream that writer's paint it. We admit
that the farmer has all the annoyances
incident to any sort of industrial occu-
patton. He has his taxes to pay and
his bills to meet, and he must earn his
bread by the sweat of his brow. Yet in
spite of all these troubles his living is
assured, and that is the main thing.
His work and his worries end with the
day. The night tine, the season ap-
pointed for rest, is his, and he can al
ways lie down under his own vine and
fig tree to enjoy the rest that he has
earned, with the comfortable thought
that his family is provided for. Fur
thermore, the farmer is conscious that
he holds the key to the whole financial
and industrial situation of the world.
Agriculture is the basis of all industry
and commerce. The price of farm prod
ucts is the unerring index to the world g
prosperity. Hence his position is not
only one of independence, but it is one
of sovereignty. The farmer is king, in
the highest and best sense. Just now
he may be reduced to temporary state
of political vassalage, but in time his
sovereignty will be reasserted and those
who have rebelled against his rule will
be punished for their rebellion. It was
decreed in the beginning that the tiller
of the soil should subjugate the earth,
and go it will be. Commerce and
finance are merely handmaidens, and
are dependent on him. The industrial
depression of these present times is the
result of rebellion against natures i'm
mutable law. The servants have risen
against the master, and are trying to
make a vassal of him, and abnormal
conditions will continue as long as this
rebellion is in progress. But in time it
will come to an end. It will exhaust
itself in its fight against divine decree.
In his claim to sovereignty the farmer is
backed by the great Jehovah, and he can
afford to stand still and wait to see the
salvation of the Lord. 1t is coming
through the travail of these calamities.
The bitter experiences of these troub-
lous days tend to the exaltation of ag-
riculture and to its restoration as the
recognized basis of all industry, and
when he gets back to that point the
dawn of n permanent prosperity will be
ushered in.
The Telegram is eminently correct in
theory, but the practice is different
thing. Tilling the soil should be the
noblest and grandest of all pursuits.
The pretty pictures of farm life as it
ought to be, but as it is in but few
cases, are pleasant to contemplate; the
shady hooks, the growing crops,
the lowing herds, the colts, the
calves, the chickens, the cute little pigs,
the bloom of clover, the hum of bees
these are all delicious on paper. But
alas the practical, every day life of the
farmer is not made up of such as this.
The picture our contemporary draws is
not true to facts. The farmer does not
lie down to rest at the end of his day Is
work confident that his family is safe.
On the contrary, he has as much worry
as any other man. Most of them are in
debt, and the payment of debt by money
made on a farm is slow at the best, and
most times impossible.
The farmer should be king; he should
be all our friend pictures him; but he
is not. Circumstances have changed
within the past thirty years, the change
being inimical to the farmer. The rapid
increase of agricultural productions, the
opening of new areas of fine farming
lands, and other causes have tended to
decrease the price of all farm products.
It is not the fault of laws, but of circum-
stances, and time alone can provide the
remedy. Farming is now at its lowest
ebb, from financial standpoint; but
nevertheless it is perhaps as satisfac-
tory as an other pursuit.
We would rejoice to see the farmers
able to live just as the theorist pictures
them, for if anyone deserves the graft
tude of the world it is the patient,
plodding, weary farmer who feeds it.