XII 



THE PLACE OF THE FARMER IN THE SOCIAL SCALE 



IT cannot be denied that there is a feeling, however 

 just or unjust it may be, that the farmer of the past, 

 and even of to-day, belongs to an inferior rank. This 

 feeling, of course, is not entertained by men and women 

 of culture and of broad views, but it is a common theme 

 exploited by the so-called wit and cartoonist. The 

 farmer is pictured, in the comic papers especially, as 

 the easy victim of the sharper and the faker. In point 

 of fact he is also the victim of the lightning rod seller, 

 the book seller and the nostrum purveyor. 



The character of advertisements carried in farm 

 journals is not always of a kind to elevate, ennoble and 

 purify country life. The baldest schemes of curing all 

 diseases, of furnishing wonderful seeds, of securing in- 

 surance, of fabulous profits from certain crops, and 

 other means of taking advantage of the unwary and the 

 unsuspecting, are exploited to a greater degree in the 

 country, than even in the city. While it is probably 

 true that the farmer with his average intelligence ranks 

 well up in the scale of social existence, it is true also 

 that by his lack of experience of men and affairs he is 

 less prone to suspect and therefore more open to ap- 

 proach than his brother who has become used to the 

 wiles of the city. 



THE FAEMEU EXPLOITED POLITICALLY. 



The farmer has also been exploited as a class for 

 political purposes. Appeals are made directly to the 



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