THE NEW CALL TO THE FARM. 47 



other men, equals, in the employ of the same company; su- 

 periors, possibly, who must be consulted and argued with ; that 

 often his desires, his strong convictions even, must be shaped 

 and shorn, and not unfrequently that they are entirely aborted. 

 Jealousies are ever present to defeat his ends and embitter his 

 life. Presidents and vice-presidents of great corporations are 

 often under the restraint of influential stockholders. In po- 

 litical life it is even worse. High officers, governors of states 

 and mayors of great cities must frequently be deaf to the rea- 

 sonable complaints of a long-suffering public, stifling at the 

 same time their own personal convictions, and be blind to the 

 misdeeds of the heads of departments who are ostensibly sub- 

 ject to, but are in fact contemptuously independent of, the 

 chief executive. He must all too frequently grovel to his 

 political boss and stand before the people as in the plenitude 

 of power while submitting to the most humiliating dictation 

 from the rear. Who shall say to the farmer, "Plant this field 

 with corn" when in his judgment it should be planted with 

 some other grain, or should not be planted at all? Who may 

 dictate to him in any other particular? He may be proudly 

 aware that no one expects him to confess any creed or main- 

 tain any view that is not in accordance with his deepest convic- 

 tions. Nor has he to yield to the opinions or to defer to the 

 prejudices or placate the jealousies of any man or of any set 

 of men, save only as the spirit of a broad humanity may lead 

 him in the paths of peace. His tolerance and self-restraint 

 may be exercised without the sacrifice of a jot or tittle of his 

 self-respect without the impairment of his dignity or the dep- 

 rivation of the consciousness that he is essentially a gentle- 

 man. 



There is not a section of the broad land which does not to- 



