The Alaska daily empire., 1922-02-16
THE FARMER IN THE SADDLE.

Viewing the successes Of the agricultural bloc
in Congress, be admitted that it is the most
powerful body the National capital today 1t is
strictly bipartisan organization composed of men,
bers the Southern and Western States, the for
mer mostly Democratic and the latter Republican.
Coming from districts largely agricultural they have
interests in common which have served unite them
outside of party lines.
The source of their power be in the Ma
tional Farm Conference convened at Washington at
the invitation of President Harding itself an indca-
ton of the Importance being given the farmer Cor
respondents who familiar with the achievements
and power of the agricultural bloc after observing
the Farm Conference, taking the farmer seriously
but perhaps seriously than the farmer him
self is regarding himself. Newspapers in the east
anayzng the situation. The New York Herald
Republican, in editorial under the heading "po
litical Insurgency New Political Party appear
ing recently, admitted that the agricultural Doc has
seized control of Congress and characterized the bloc
unorganized aggregation that under Roosevelt
Wilson would be amalgamated in short order
into great political unit that would sweep every
thing before it,"
Mark Sullivan who has been watching events
in Washington closely for years, in article
in the New York Evening Post, declared that the
farmer is going 'to dominate the future Mr. Sui
nvan said:
If you watching things from here in
Washington if you could this conference
and be familiar with the strength of the
the power of the farm bloc in Congress- you
wouldn't have much doubt that the farmer
is going to be in the saddle. HI is going
is going to dominate the future. In the
chaos of postwar economic readjust-
ments this country might conceivably have
taken or yet take, any of several roads.
1t is now fairly certain that going to
take the path which recognizes the farm
our fundamentally and the alto be-consid-
cred basis of our future policy.
That policy, under the leadership of the
far friop
out in either one of two ways either
may become closely migrated strongly
self-contained, and less economically
isolated nation, with a high tariff and for
egn trade as secondary matter, and with
the farmer looking mainly to the domestic
market or we may take the other direction.
IT the farmers believe that their
best business prospects lie in a quick re-
sumption and extension of foreign
trade, they may express their power in a
greater kindness towards the idea of
closer association with other nations and a
review of the decision made by the 1920
election in favor of isolation
The one sure thing is that it is the
farmer, and a first consideration for the
farmers economic interest, that is going to
determine future course Incidentally
happen to know that day last summer
the British statesman Gen. SHUTS said to an
American who was calling him that not
only in America, but throughout the world.
the farmer is going to be the dominant
political factor for a generation to come
Inc farmers OF the United States only par
TALLY organized. They becoming better so
rapidly. They are keeping track of what Congress
Is doing. In the process of defation lacking shock
absobers they have been more completely debated
than possibly any other class. They are developing
shock absorbers and with them political acumen
The part they will play in the elections this wear
will not be negligible.