The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-12-07
"MUsT BE TAUGHT TO THINK

sion to have accurate understanding of
facts.
"MUST BE TAUGHT TO THINK"
On page IA of the report of Mr.. Will
son, present secretary of agriculture, is
an observation that is profound and
pregnant with significance. 1.-THE farm
er must be taught to think" he says.
This assumes, Of course, that the farm
er does not think, for If he does he
needs no teaching There is an impress
sion in the mind and on the memory of
those who have spent any part of their
lives on farm that there is no indus
| trialist who does quite as much think
| ing as does the til1er of the soil. Why
''Tama Jim" should think farmers do
not think is difficult even to conjecture.
Possibly Iowa farmers say IT reckon"
or Il calculate" instead Of 81 think"
but even reckoning or calculating i'm
plies thinking. Farm life Is one con-
tinual round Of thinking All seasons
demand it. From the time the roosters
| forewarn the coming day and the Sleep
rested farmer says to his drowsy
spouse, Il reckon it is time to get up"
until the nights chores are done and
he remarks, II guess I'll turn in"
he keeps a steady stream of thinks
running through his head. If, in addi-
ton to all his work, he has a mortgage
on his farm, any spare time he may
| have between thinking about his work
is occupied in thinking about the mort
gage. .3t
There are, however, some affairs that
| concern him about which we agree the
farmer should be taught to think, for
he has shown a remarkable capacity
for letting others think for him; gulping
down their thoughts and acting on them
without the least apparent considera-
ton, whether the thoughts are sound
ones or are merely the flim-fam of a.
confidence man. 1t is not of such mat
tiers that Mr.. Wilson would have the
farmers taught to think, we are sure,
for if they had been so instructed and
| had got to thinking right, he would not
now be adjoining the office of secretary
of agriculture, and when they ever get
so to thinking the political party he
embellishes will be laid away in the
graveyard with it's mother, the Wing.
and it's grandmother, the Federal par
ty. 1t was not about matters politi
cal that the secretary would have farm
ers taught to think, whatever else he
may have counseled.
What would happen, for instance,
should farmers go to thinking straight
about the markets they sell in and
those they buy in? Suppose they should
all get onto the hard fact that thew
sell in markets that are open to all the
farmers Of the world, and that they
must buy what they need in a market
from which the worlds makers of those
things are either shut out entirely or
made to advance a smart tax on their
wares to enhance their cost and that of
similar ones Of domestic make. which
increase the farmer has to pay. Might
they not demand that they have the
right to buy in the same kind of a mar
ket in which they are compelled to sell?
And then where would the secretary's
party be "at?" Suppose, again, thew
should get to thinking correctly about
the effect of policy professedly in
tended to keep UP a high wage rate
upon the price of wages on the farm. so
high now that no ordinary farmer can
afford to employ the help he really
needs and would gladly hire If the
profits of the farm would allow it,
Might he not conclude that he had been
working against his own interests in
supporting such policy?
Then he might think profitably about
that SIRENS song of his Home Market
THAT was to compensate him for the
burden ne carried in helping the men
of the shops and mills, by creating a
home market that would consume all
he raised. e'might calculate how long
he had been helping build up that mar
ket, how little progress had been made
in it, how far in the future it yet is and
fore the millennium. He might compute
what it has cost him so far, and he
would be pretty apt to conclude that he
was paying dearly1for his whistle. He
might get to 1easking why the men in
the shops and mills could not make and
sell their goods under the same market
conditions in which he inescapably
made and sold his produce. All
these and many more matters he might
get to thinking about if he were
taught to think and there is no ques-
ton if he did that the result would be
very disconcerting to the party now
served by the secretary of agriculture.
On the whole, we think he would better
with draw his advice.