]i)18.] I'LACK OF Tin: l-AUMKK I\ Till-: nODV rOLITIC. 77 



soon as the farnuT begins to nse this dangerous weapon, a 

 shont ot' alarm g-ocs u\> from tliose wlio have advised it. If 

 the farmer anywhere nses the weapon of orji^'-anization he only 

 follows the i)rece(lenl <if indnstry and eommeree. This is to 

 say tha.t the weapons of industry and commerce arc then 

 turned a^"ainst themselves. The present mood to discipline 

 the farmer is l)Ut another expression of the old dispositi<jn — so 

 old as to he automatic — that the farmer must be kept where 

 he belongs. 



In fact, however, agriculture is yet relatively little orj^^an- 

 ized commercially or politically. Former attempts have failed. 

 We are watching the two movements now before us w ith new 

 interest; it is yet too early to measure their accomplishments. 

 It is now charged that farmers are withholding the sowing <jf 

 wheat in order t(^ hold up the prices. There is no organiza- 

 tion of farmers that can control this wheat situation. It is 

 impossible for farmers to control their production as manu- 

 facturers control their output. Whether a man sows more 

 or fewer acres of wheat, he does not know what his crop will 

 i)e, the unpredictable conditions that make the wheat crop 

 are too many. 



(Organization f(^r com.mercial offense, or even for defense, is 

 indeed a dangerous weapon. It is dangerous in itself; it is 

 dangerous because it forces government into compromises, 

 and also because it relieves government of its plain obliga- 

 tions ; it is dangerous because it sets one part of society 

 against another. In agriculture it is especially da.ngerous, 

 it has here all the danger that it has in any other realm, and, 

 besides, it cannot change a single natural condition. I have 

 hoped that the correctives of such commercial inequalities as 

 may exist in rural aft'airs would arise in the action of society as 

 a whole, that legislatures and statesmen on their own motion 

 would apply the remedies without pressure, and therefore 

 without compromise. I have been willin.g to wait, remem- 

 bering that we are here trying to develop a dem-vcracy anc 

 hoping that we may eliminate the antagonisms of differing" 

 interests. If such organization is necessary to perform the 

 office that government neglects to perform. I h(V_:.e that it will 

 not become a permanent movement, and, at least, ut^t politi- 



