PLACE OF THE FARMER IN THE SOCIAL SCALE 91 



yielding an equally bounteous harvest in October, I 

 then have faith in the future. 



This is one of the chief reasons why I would make 

 the country more attractive than the city, so that coun- 

 try life would be the ambition, the very highest ambi- 

 tion, of the American citizen. In such a condition of 

 affairs I see no danger to the institutions of our land. 

 On the contrary, I see those foundations which are 

 eternal and on which the permanent civil structure of 

 government can be erected. I see a land of peace, and 

 yet of positive action ; a land of plenty, and yet not one 

 of luxury ; a land of contentment, instead of a seething 

 mass of strikes, turmoils and emeutes. I see no one 

 class of our people arrayed against another, but all of 

 our people in one class, namely, patriotic citizens, each 

 in his way striving for the benefit of himself, his fam- 

 ily and his native country. I do not see the struggle of 

 one class against another to wrest the activities of the 

 government. I do not see a president elected because 

 he is a farmer, a lawyer, a laboring man, a minister 

 of the gospel, or a college professor. But I see a coun- 

 try where those who occupy the offices are the true serv- 

 ants of the people whom they serve, and who are ele- 

 vated to the positions they occupy solely upon indi- 

 vidual merit, and not by reason of class affiliation. 

 Such a condition as this is the one which we all should 

 strive to attain. To do this agriculture must be made 

 more attractive. The great cities must be to a certain 

 extent depopulated, and the people of our country must 

 live nearer to nature. 



