ASSOCIATION OF FARMERS' CLUBS. 675 



could have been wished for, yet do they amply justify the belief that 

 the State Association of Farmers' Clubs does wield, and that it is 

 destined to continue to wield a powerful and a most beneficial influence 

 upon legislation, and that the immediate future will show by results, 

 this to be true. But to most surely and fully accomplish this it is essen- 

 tial that every local club unite and work with the State Association 

 and that it shall show in the future as it has shown in the past suffi- 

 cient radicalism to be progressive, while possessing sufficient conser- 

 vatism to be just. 



While a careful review of the past, discovering both its success and its 

 failures — if there have been any failures — with the immediate cause 

 or causes therefor, is often one of the best means by which to make 

 suitable preparations for the future; yet it is not well to linger in the 

 past, though pleasant its memories may be, for while retrospection may 

 afford us this of real value, yet life and living are of the present which 

 demands our first attention, and our faces should be turned ever to- 

 ward the future with its labors which wait our doing. But before invit- 

 ing your attention to the lines of work which it may be deemed best to 

 take up in the immediate future, I desire to refer briefly to the great 

 unanimity and promptness with which the local clubs from all portions 

 of the state responded to the request of the association to forward peti- 

 tions to the legislature asking for the favorable consideration of those 

 measures by the legislature which were introduced and advocated at 

 the instance of the Association of Farmers' Clubs. It has been said^ 

 reiterated and insisted upon as being true, that the farmers will not 

 unite — that they cannot be united — but abundant proof is at hand to 

 show that the farmers isolated in scattered homes though they be, yet 

 when important measures affecting their interests and the best interests 

 of the people, are at stake and in jeopardy, the farmers can be united 

 and can bring their united force to bear for the accomplishment of the 

 object sought. And hereafter let none regard the agriculturist as unable 

 to care for his own interests and for those interests entrusted to his 

 care. The farmer of this day, unlike his predecessors of a few genera- 

 tions past, is taking his proper place in affairs, and this place is well 

 to the front. No longer does he humbly say as said the reprimanded 

 soldier of the first Napoleon: "It is yours to command and mine to 

 obey," but instead he has become properly self asserting, and this is 

 as it should be. The bread producer is the prime factor and cannot be 

 ignored if correct results are to be reached, but do not understand me 

 as advocating "classism" for it is with a feeling of commendable pride 

 that attention is called to the fact that the State Association has not 

 descended and I trust that it never will descend to the plane of advo- 

 cating "class legislation." Just measures must not be deemed "class 

 measures." 



I cannot forbear the calling of your attention to the fact that one of 

 the most forceful and essential agencies for the accomplishment of all 

 this in which we so justly and truly rejoice, is the Farmers' Club Depart- 

 ment in The Michigan Farmer. To the proprietors of that ably conducted 

 and widely circulated publication, through whose generosity the asso- 

 ciation has become possessed of the essential benefits of an official organ. 

 so vitally necessary for the accomplishment of its purposes, the gratitude 



