CO-OPERATION. 97 



Satan when he took our Saviour up into aij high mountain and 

 showed him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them, 

 and said " all these will I give you if you will fall down and 

 worship me." 



So when capital sees the Patrons of Husbandry organized to co- 

 operate in all that pertains to the welfare of the farmer — as Satan 

 quoted scripture, so it quotes agriculture, and in the shape of the 

 money lender says : " Your mission is a glorious one : — if the far- 

 mers will do away with credit and make money king, even I will 

 bow down and worship at the shrine of the farmer." In the shape 

 of the railroad king it says to the farmers of Maine : " If you will 

 stop raising bread and buy it all in the West, so that I may re- 

 ceive tithes on all you eat in the shape of freights, I too will rise 

 up and worship the farmer." In the shape of the professions, it 

 says: " If you will keep your sons and daughters from a desire 

 for education, and grind them down to hard, uneducated labor, so 

 that all the money appropriated for schools may be used for our 

 benefit, we will sing pastoral songs in praise of the farmer, that 

 shall resound from the Atlantic to the Pacific coast." 



Were the competition of credit with capital done away, money 

 would be king, and such a king as would not strive to dignify 

 labor. Were the credit system done away, in twenty years we in 

 Maine would be a community of lords and serfs. There is per- 

 haps in Maine, an average amount of property among farmers ; 

 and yet, should we adhere strictly to the cash system the coming 

 season, a very large amount of land prepared for a crop would lie 

 idle for want of seed. The young men, instead of buying land, 

 and becoming tillers of the soil, would have to commence a life of 

 servitude, at the number of hours per day, and rate of wages, 

 dictated wholly by capital. 



Thus we see, that however desirable individual cases of the cash 

 system may be, the great business of the world, in order to bring 

 general prosperity and protect labor, and the productive industries 

 from the tyranny of capital, must always be done very largely on 

 credit; and just so far as the farmers co-operate to do away with 

 the credit system, they co-operate against general farming and in. 

 the favor of landed estates and capital. 



