FARMERS' INSTITUTES. 113 



There have been many organizations of farmers; many of them have 

 been unsuccessful. It is not our purpose to speak concerning the causes 

 of failure further than to observe that they may all be found in a failure 

 to understand and appreciate the force of laws which were applicable to 

 the particular case. It is our puri)ose and happy privilege to speak 

 concerning an organization that has proved and is proving successful, 

 to examine its foundations and superstructure, to note its bulw\arks, 

 fearlessly point out weaknesses if we shall discover any, and finally to 

 hazard a prophecy concerning it. 



The Farmers' Club finds its energizing principle in the almost univer- 

 sal desire for progress; it finds its cohesive force in that it appeals to 

 human reason as being well adapted to secure the ends sought; its aim 

 is progress. The preamble to the constitution of the State organization 

 announces its purpose to be "the advancement of the social, moral, intel- 

 lectual and financial condition of farmers." 



I am confident that the framers of that constitution did not mean to 

 indicate the relative importance of these objects by the order in which 

 they are placed, but whether intentionally so or not, they have placed 

 them very nearly in the order of their accomplishment. 



Social, moral, intellectual, financial progress. Each of these results 

 is an object of desire to every well balanced individual. The measure of 

 desire attaching to each will vary in different individuals, their relative 

 importance will not be the same in the minds of different persons, but 

 the Farmers' Clubs have conformed to that law which decrees that the 

 results sought must be desired, and must be the subject of continuing 

 desire on the part of the membership if the organization shall endure. 

 Having found a compliance with this fundamental law, we are brought 

 logically to a consideration of the method of organization and methods 

 of work. 



It seems hardly necessary to speak to an audience of this character 

 concerning the methods of organization and work of Farmers' Clubs. 

 The Farmers' Club is open. It desires all people of every class to know 

 its purposes and methods, to the end that it may profit by intelligent 

 criticism. Intelligent criticism is valuable, but intelligent criticism 

 must always be based upon a thorough knowledge of the thing criticised. 



The evolution of the Farmers' Club movement has been in accordance 

 with natural law, from the particular to the general, from the less to 

 the greater. 



I am not informed which Farmers' Club may claim the honor of being 

 the oldest, nor do I know when it was organized. The ambition of the 

 local club is not to establish its antiquity, but to demonstrate its power, 

 and power is not measured by length of days, nor numerically. Some 

 of the smaller clubs, when measured by the power of their influence, 

 are the peers of some numerically many times larger. 



Of this, however, I am certain: the first Farmers' Club was born of a 

 desire in the hearts of those who promoted it, for progress along social, 

 moral and intellectual lines. 



Thoughtful men and women as they must have been, they were doubt- 

 less uncertain as to the result of their undertaking. They, basing their 

 deductions upon their knowledge of the general laws of progress and 

 upon their knowledge of man's social, moral and intellectual nature, con- 

 cluded that they were adopting methods well calculated to secure the 



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