Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1922-01-27
THE FARMER, WITH BELLS ON,
ARRIVES TO RUN WASHINGTON
An Alert, Informed. Aggressive lndlVid-
ual, Most Unlike tho Humble
Person Of Melodrama

TT HAS been divertng to watch the sue
l. ccsslve spasms Of anxiety that sweep
through Congress whenever any one mem
tons the Farmers Bloc or the Farmers
Congress. The subdued moaning Of con-
scrvativcs In the House and Senate Is
clearly suggestive Of general state Of mind
in the industrial East. The East, always
fond of the lights of melodrama. has been
disturbed by dream vision of q vast man
in ovcralls, with corncob pipe in his teeth,
dumping up the steps of the White House
TO shove an ultimatum into the hands of
the President.
The farmer indeed! why, murmurs
Washington, doesn't he stay at home and
hoe his apples and prune his wheat? What
knows he OF the affairs of State? Shall We
give the country over into the hands Of those
fellows that you see chewing straws and
buying gold bricks In the movies and on the
stage and quaverIngly waiting for the absent
con TO return from Wall street with the
money necessary to save the old homestead
and keep pa and ma from being, as We say,
strceted2
Hasn't the wise East always directed the
helpless and groping farmer In the way that
he should 60?
OF the Farmers Bloc and the implied de-
mands of the Farmers Congress In Wash
ington there may be two opinions. There
may be three. There may be twenty. But
IL will be useless 20 attempt to minimize
the fact of the farmers arrival as a politi-
cal factor of the fret dimension.
If the aggressive arr J of the Agricul-
tural Bloc and the surety of the modern
farmers manner and the high polish of his
mind and the stunning cut Of his clothes
have astonished the East, the East has only
Its own traditional righteousness to blame.
Motorcars are plentiful enough and railroad
travel costs less even now than the jazz
and the underground red liquor that absorb
so large a part Of the material resources Of
this part of the country. So there has
been no reason why the East shouldn't have
become better acquainted with the West
and the Middle West. where for years tho
farmer has been making himself ready for
political conquest.
Agriculture and the agrlCulturist have
been undergoing q spectacular change. This
Is due partly to scientific evolution and 10
the march of opinion. But there would have
been no advance from the farms to the pOr-
tails of the Capitol IL the farmers had not
learned 70 organize, TO pool their interests
and to seek for themselves the advantages
of shrewd leadership. They have learned all
that Is TO be learned at the knee of labor
and the knee Of capital.
One learned journalist, writing gloomily
from the Senate press gallery, said the other
day that within few years the policies of
our Government will be dictated from the
farms and iresides of Missouri Iowa, Kan
sas, Minnesota and such like places.
That would not be a prophecy to worry
over until you dropped in on the Senate to
listen TO the voice of organized agriculture
rs It booms commandingy through Senator
IlErn rIN i Z
feel like retiring somewhere for q few mo-
ments of thought-and prayer.
The farmers, il seems, want national iso-
lation-and small navy. They want high
prices for their products-and high tariffs
on imported food products. They want first
consideration from the banks--and virtual
guarantees Of Government help In their
effort to keep up the prices of essential
foods
When the farmers have been longer in
Washington they will learn that one cannot
have all these things in the present state of
the world. II we are isolated we shall have
to have large navy. II capital Is 20 be
diverted largely 10 the farms. the people who
live in cities and labor in factories may
have some difficulty in paying top prices for
their food.
The farmers are as alert, SIS frankly self
interested, as determinedly led as any other
major industrial group, and almost as
tightly organized for political action. Since
all men are more or less alike under the
surface, it is safe to suppose that Alfalfa
Kings or Iowa Corn Wizards may in future
find the prospect OF twin-s!x motors and
trips TO Europe as attractive as it always
has been TO the brethren OF Wall street.
Eye witnesses say the farmers are as
wise now as the shrewdest Of Eastern bust
ness men. They will have 10 be a little
wiser If the country is ever to be quite
comfortable.
Suppose, for example. there should be
combination OF monopolistc forces to re-
strict crops. II would be pleasant, wouldn't
it, to wake up some day and find that the
national supply OF wheat had been brought
under the sort of restriction that now ap-
plies to the coal supply?
How the movies and the melodramss have
been lying about the farmers