Norwich bulletin., 1920-09-03
THE PATIENT, LONG SUFFERING FARMER

and {; complain. Especially at election times we spend considerable hot air de- nouncing the other fellows-whichever they happen to. be. And that ends it. We waste good breath, which might be devoted to turning windplflls,. and then duly wonder why the windmills don't go! 's ,s F
 I've got pig 4out in the pen who grunts and growls and makes almost as much fuss between meals as a minority politician. You'd sometimes think, to hear him. that he was going to tear up the paving of his pen and denounce war upon humanity. especially upon me, his feeder But, when the swill-pail ar rives, he takes whatever is poured into his trough and gobhles it down as if he liked it. l am forced to assume that he does like it is satisfed with it-for ,he time being, thar is,
 Nor. have l any doubt that lIs man. ners of expression and of conduct are quite appropriate--to a hog. But how about men? Are they different? Or aren't they?
 When the apostle advised that patience should be allowed to have it's perfect work, do not understand that he meant 1t should be run into the ground. If he did he didn't express the same feeling as was shown by his Master who when he found that the money-changers and the poultry peddlers had turned His Fla | ther's house into a den of thieves whip ped them indignantly out of 1t 'Did He, ] therefore show lack of patience? fan | cy few will maintain that argument l For don't know how many years the farmers. of the country have been serving as helpless pawns in the fingers 1 of the sharpers who have moved them and checked them and swept them off l the board. if their own selfish interests l and the winning of their game so seemed l to demand. l They have raised. crops ard sold them at any old price the sharpers might see around and bought whatever the sharp CTS had to sell at whatever price the lat 1 ter saw fit to ask. They have been rob i bed coming and swindAd going And l they have stood for it" so patiently as ! almost to excuse the apparent assump- ton of their exploiters that they were 1 just dumb driven cattle, content with chewing any old cud that might be con temptuously flung to them.
 They have been required to feed the cities with steadily increasing rations, at the cost of constantly increasing la | Dor and. often, in the facl of proven loss
 
 veyors. not only of the cities food and supplies, but also of the cities popula- 1 ton. For scores of years the tide of emigration has flowed from farm to city with no corresponding ebb tide in return ] Instead of spending money in luxuries or even in conveniences. most farmers have turned the larger part of their | scanted incomes into the purchase of machinery and tools with which. if pos eible. to accomplish single-handed the work they could find no helpers to as l sist in.
 And now 1t is demanded of them tha l they shall work fourteen to sixteer hours 2 day that other already higher [ paid workmen may obtain still bigger l wages for eight hours work. They shal not only make more bricks than evel before, but they shall be forbidden theil | dole of straw wherewith to ease the la bor.
 ii has been bad enough to be spoiled by the Egyptians of big business. Nov to have fellow workingmen, engaged il 1 different fields of production turr against us and volunteer aid in riretin; our shackles seems a little too much eves for our amazing patience. Hop much longer will it stand the strain?
 We must have living wage is thu cry of one hand of strikers after an
 other So they demand increase afte
 increase till the burden on the nation
 industries becomes like an over-turl
 pyramid insecurely balancing on it: