The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1896-11-06
EXPLOITING THE FARMER.

EAT LOfHtNG THE FARMER.
The farmer refuses to be exploited
By the farmer we typify the mass of
agriculturists who, as a whole, turns
his back on the man who would make
game of him. Some of him has been
the victim of the demagogue, just as
some Of him fall an easy prey to the
lightning rod man, the vendor of pat
ent rights and the fake medicine man,
who vends his cure-aH to the accom-
panirnent of footing horns and tinkling
cymbals.+ But that is only saying that
human nature is no different on the
farm than it is elsewhere, for the plau-
sible swindler in politics and trade finds
his easy victims in the crowded city as
well as among the green fields. Every
where yet there are folk who believe
that the moon: is made of green cheese,
slices of which are to be had for the
asking. Simple folk, gullible as chill
dren, with mental organs Of digestion
like those of the amoebae, without
whom governments would have little
to do, and socialism no reason for ex-
istence.
But the farmer, viewed in the aggre-
gate, is not the simpleton the para
graphists and cartoonists like to pic
ture him, and the demagogue tries to
make him act as if he were. He has
learned, in his contest with nature on
the soil and in the air, that he cannot
get something for nothing, a lesson,
when well learned, that stands all men
in good stead. He knows that what
he gets he has to work for, and when
men come to him Offering him some
thing for nothing, he very properly
looks on them as incipient swindlers,
and will have nothing to do with them.
| That is not the way things come to
him, he knows, and he has no reason to
believe that they come to any one
else that way. 1t is singular, however,
the tenacity of this idea that the farm
er is an easily gulled fellow, caught
by anything that glitters, and prone
to try to get something for nothing,
without much consideration Of the hon
esty Of the transaction. Particularly
is it the stock in trade of certain
class Of politicians. Sometimes the idea
has possessed political parties, and
sometimes, for time, they have felt
| justified by results in holding this low
opinion Of the farmer, both as to his
intelligence and his honesty. Witness
the apparent success of the Repub-
licans in beguiling him with their home
market humbug, and, now, the pro-
lection Of a national campaign by the
Populist-D Democrats ono the same sup
position.
One of the good things that has come
out Of this political compost heap is
the vindication of the farmer Never
before has his attempted exploitation
/ been carried on so audaciously. Never
/ before had the prospects Of fooling him
| been SO good. He was in debt, and
| prices Of his produce ruled low. Prices
/ shrank and debt and interest rose
proportionally. He was where chances
! to scale his debts and raise produce
! PAANCS WC4C ESPECIALLY &. he
was told that he was the victim of
| injustice, that his condition was the act
of conspirators, and that the only way
| to fight the devil was with fire. Surely,
| il he is the sf1npleton of the wits or the
rogue of theIpol4icians, he would have
stampeded to the party that made him
| the tempting offer Of these illicit gains
! in exohange3forl his simple ballot. He
would have been unanimous for cheap
money. And, WHO could have rebuked
him? Has he NOT seen men making
profit out of legislation, and not only
escaping censure, but lauded as bene-
factors? In 5this7very campaign did he
not see one party avowing it's purpose
to restore to some the privilege of MAX
ing exactions from him without COM
pensation? Would it have been Won
derful had he concluded to play in the
same game? But, and all honor due
to him for it, he rejected the bait, re-
fused to be exploited, and remains the
mainstay Of the republic, the simple,
honest, sensible American farmer.
1