The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-09-02

President Clayton's opening address
10 the congress Of American farmers
dwell at length on the magnitude of
agriculture in our industries and the
slight figure they cut in politics ana
In legislation The farmer rs eunm-
Grated in the tables of population, but
expunged from statistical lists of the
nations representatives. He is enroll
ed on the tax lists, but Cancelled in the
catalogue of those who levy taxes
OF 444 congressman but thirty-t1ve are
enrolled as farmers in the house list
and but one in the senate. The COM
mittee on agriculture in the senate has
a. LAWYER for chairman, and the only
farmer is at the foot of the committee.
Eight Of the eighteen members of the
same committee in the house are farm
ers. and the chairman is not one OF the
eight, while the only craftsmanship
given the farming representatives is
that of the committee on acoustics and
ventilation He might have illustrated
this further by the situation in this
state where, of the five districts that
are almost purely agricultural, where
the farmers form an overwhelming ma
1ority, not a farmer is a representative.
One is an editor, one a teacher, and
three are lawyers.
In legislation the farmers fare as
badly, For years the fetch Of one po-
litical party has been manufacturers.
To that small class every measure has
bent, where it has not been directed
to their benefit There has been plenty
of pretentious legislation for the farm
er but it assumes an ignorance on his
part that cannot distinguish the real
from the fictitious; a childish smplic-
ity in him that finds satisfaction in
the glittering bauble and lets shrewder
heads take the substance. 1t has given
him free garden seeds, with a
flourish of pretense for his in
terests that reflects but little
credit on him. He has received
a protective duty on his wheat, barley,
accept it as a full compensation for
the burdens put upon him by taxes on
everything he buys. In spite of all his
past experience, he allows the schem-
ers to pull the wool over his eyes and
imagines that he is enriched by a tax
on that article. Nothing could more
clearly indicate the contempt in which
the farmer is held than does all this
mass of legislation enacted in behalf of
agriculture, and apparently accepted
by it as satisfactory.
If there is one thing that experience
should teach even the dullest witted
man that ever turned a furrow, it is
that he "is not in it, in the game Of
legislation. He plai lly is not in it in
the selection of representatives. Hav-
ing the power of selection, he does not
use it except as an implement Of
shrewder men in the ratification of
their choice. He sees himself either
baffled or deceived in every effort to
get legislation that would benefit him.
and he meets annually in congresses
and bemoans the injustice of his fate.
or he gathers in political conventions
to organize new political parties.
adopts platforms demanding and de-
nouncing, and finds himself again the
catspaw Of cunning men of other yo-
cations, who think they can find per
sonal profit or advancement in farm
ing the farmers. The Grange, the Pat
rons of Husbandry the Alliance were
instances of serious, Well-launched at
tempts at organization for mutual ben
eft that soon fell into the hands of the
political demagogue and went to ruin.
And still he pursues the elusive legis-
lative will-o'-the-wisp, floundering
through the morasses it leads him into,
ever hoping to catch it and extort from
1t substantial benefits for his class. If
experience can teach men anything, it
should be their dearly bought lesson
that it is not legislation the farmer
needs, but the denial of it, the repeal
Of existing, instead of the enactment OF
more laws. Himself the chief victim
of all class legislation, he should be
the constant and sturdy opponent OF
It in whatever form it appears. Taught