FARMERS' INSTITUTES. 115 



There is going to be the most determined effort, however, on the part of 

 the interested parties, to effect its repeal at the next session. 



farmers' institutes. 



The Farmers' Institute bill also met with opposition, and I want to say 

 that the opposition came from the. very class of men it was intended to 

 benefit. Why is it that farmers will strike at their own one little ewe 

 lamb, and let the flocks of everyone else go? Are they so distrustful of one 

 another, that they are afraid some one will get a little advantage? Some 

 one who is a farmer? Why one man said to a lady of my acquaintance 

 after one of the Institute meetings, "I have had all I want of that 'ere 

 thing; I have been there about three hours and I haven't received a par- 

 ticle of benefit. That $5,000 might just as well have been wasted." At 

 the same time, he took an old pipe out of his mouth and held it in his 

 hand. He could not see where the people of the State were receiving any 

 benefit from such meetings as these. But in all the meetings I have 

 attended, I have to say that 95 per cent of the people with whom I have 

 talked, have assured me that it was one of the best things that ever hap- 

 pened in their locality to have that Institute come among them; and one 

 of the most helpful features, is the spirit of inquiry engendered. 



Some regard it as an innovation that should be dispensed with. They 

 say times are hard — we are willing to admit that ; and also that taxes are 

 burdensome, but is that any reason why the farmers should build up 

 every other industry to cut down on the appropriation which is intended 

 to afford them the information necessary to better their condition ? 



So far as unity of action by the State Grange' is concerned, I want to 

 say that through the influence they exerted on the last legislature, these 

 three bills were enacted into laws. Anything which you ask in reason, 

 you, as farmers, can get. As I once heard James Gordon Bennett 

 of the New York Herald say: "If farmers would put their ears to the 

 ground, and the politicians do likewise, and ask for what is in line with 

 their interests, and ask unitedly, they could get what they wanted, and 

 there was no end to the possibilities. If the conditions which surround 

 farmers are not what they like, the farmers are largely to blame for it." 



You ought to see to it that in all primaries and political conventions, 

 men are nominated who are pledged, not to support the interests of the 

 farmers alone, but the interests of all classes, and when the interests of 

 all classes are served, your interests are protected. 



OUR LEGISLATURE. 



People talk, of course, about the legislature. Up at Whitehall, where 

 I spent Sunday, I went to church, as a good member of the legislature 

 should, and it happened to be a Methodist church which I attended, and 

 the pastor said, "I have been told that down there at the legislature the 

 chaplain made a prayer like this: 'Oh, Lord, I pray Thee to bless the 

 government of the great State of Michigan, bless the State officers, bless 

 the families of the members of the legislature, bless the members them- 

 selves, give them wisdom to enact laws that shall inure to the benefit of 



