The Irish standard., 1915-09-01
THE IRISH STANDARD

he is if only he has full consciousness
of his good fortune" The land is
continually rising in value. AS mere
investment, money put into acres is
the most secure; land is akin to the
treasures in Heaven; the moth does
not eat it; neither does the rust con-
sumo it, nor does the thief run away
with it-except the thief be the mort
gage-holder, the abiding enemy of the
farmer; against whom, however,
strong sense of economy is ever proof.
The products of the farm are ever
rising in value. The farmer need not
fear seeing again, in his lifetime, low
prices; his turn has come and come
to stay. Henceforward production
will have hard work to keep pace
with consumption. In Minnesota the
products of the farm are, if we put
our resources to good profit, so many
and so varied, from the old time and
perhaps too-trusted friend, wheat, to
corn and other cereals-from the
portly hog and the valorous steer to
the gentle eve and the too-despised
hen. Always there is product that
has not failed, however unpropitious
the season; always there is some
thing to bring revenue, however much
industries and commerce may Ian
guish-always enough to feed and
clothe ones self and ones family;
and always, if the farmer has Stunned
the saloon, the over-persuasive VEN
dor of machinery and the money
lender, a surplus to be carried to the
savings bank or to be enbosomed in
an adjoining forty-acre tract, or in
improvements in house and barnyard.
And the virile independence of the
farmer! Ever his own master, never
the servant of another, careless of
strikes and lockouts, working when
he wills, resting when he wills, sur
veying with beaming eye his land
his feudal home, which none may
stray over without permission from
him-this proud independence, the at
tribute of truest manliness, the source
of truest personal grandeur, makes
up, immensely so, for all the hard
ships of toll and isolation that the
farmer is tempted at times to COM
plain Of And were l to speak of the
children of the farmer, his chief care,
the chief purpose of his labor and
forethought, how he ought to rejoice
to see them removed from the lures
and pitfalls of cities, growing up
around him in health and honor, in
vigor of body and soul, helpers in his
toll, co-partners in his independence
and the gain begotten of it.
Time was when the farmer in Min
nesota might, with some reason, have
talked of trials and hardships, when
only men of stern fibre held fast to
the quarter section. That time has
gone by. Today it is comfort, it is
affluenre. Today it is intelligent
farming; it is variety of products; it
is good prices for everything the farm
produces; it is proximity to market;
it is the populous and refined neigh
borhood. And tomorrow everything
will be better than it is today. The
whole trend of farm life is towards
Improvement, greater comfort, great
er aff1uence; and with this improve
ment, which nothing can keep back
or retard, greater honor will be at
tached to the occupation of the farm
er, greater influence will be accorded
to him. Time was when the farmer
was the drudge, the peasant, the SER
want of his city cousin; today, and to-
morrow, he is the gentleman, the
feudal lord, the prince. Hencefor-
ward the farmers, the tillers of the
soil, will be the gentry of the nation.
Farmers of Minnesota, understand
the dignity of your calling; know the
security of an honorable livelihood
that is yours, the affluence within your
reach. Hold to your farms. They
are the blindest of the blind who
leave their country homes to seek
fortunes in cities. Our cities already
are over-crowded. There the few rise