FOURTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK -PART VIII. 523 



In setting the dates of our institute it is a good plan, il' possible, 

 to set them at about full moon, or, as our ancestors would say, "set them 

 in the moon." For our evening session this would be more pleasant, 

 for the young people find it more convenient to drive by moonlight, and 

 the older ones surely would not object to this privilege. 



Perhaps it would be an improvement to place a young lady or two 

 from certain townships on our program, giving them the subject of "Neat 

 Housekeeping." All the boys from the township would be sure to come 

 to hear that paper. It certainly would be an improvement if some of our 

 progressive farmers would write an article occasionally for our local pa- 

 pers, expressing their views upon certain subjects in which they are in- 

 terested, thereby interesting others upon the same line of work, or upon 

 different lines of institute work. 



To prepare a program that is satisfactory to a majority of our farm- 

 ers is no easy task. It would be a great aid and perhaps an improve- 

 ment upon the present plan, if many who are interested in institute work 

 would send to the secretary before the time of preparing the program 

 any questions they would like to discuss or hear discussed. As it is 

 the make-up of the program is usually left to the officers and is looked 

 upon as an official duty. But this is your institute, farmers, and we want 

 your hearty co-operation along all lines of the work. 



SHOULD FARMERS ORGANIZE? 



Hon. Chris Marti before Scott County Farmers' Institute. 



The question allotted to me, "Should the Farmers Organize?'" has 

 been discussed time and time again. The voice of the organizer has been 

 heard in almost every schoolhouse and public hall in our rural districts. 

 Organizations have been called into existence here and there, such as "ti e 

 grange" and "farmers' alliance." Both have done some good work ia 

 their time, but their life, generally speaking, was short, and great results 

 could not be exepected. But today new conditions confront the farmers 

 of the country, because as civilization comes creeping down through the 

 ages new forces are being discovered almost daily, and within the last 

 few years the industrial world has been revolutionized through the force 

 of combination, both in capital and labor. The new forces have been 

 well exemplified, and have yoti noticed how quickly one follows the 

 other? Not from choice, but necessity. And while the invading army 

 of organized capital and labor confronts the farmers of the country with 

 problems and possibilities which in the end may prove very unfair for 

 us, because I believe that unfairness has already been clearly demon- 

 strated during the past year in our live stock market. 



In fact, we have reason to believe that competition, the very essence 

 and life of trade, is a thing of the past, and that prices are agreed upon 

 and fixed by that combination known as the packers. 



