IMPORTANCE OF RURAL INTERESTS 



felt as a solid factor in American civiliza- 

 tion, always to be reckoned with, opposing 

 in every appropriate way the rule of brute 

 Mammon and the sway of those decadent 

 and effete elements always so active in great 

 municipalities? How can we establish 

 country life and character so it shall be 

 a beneficent safety valve, fly wheel, or gov- 

 ernor to our vast social machine? 



i. Good legislation is called for 

 directed not to the financial profit of the 

 farming class, which would be class legisla- 

 tion and therefore wrong; but calculated in 

 a large and enlightened manner to render 

 stronger, happier, and more cheerful the 

 people who live out upon the land and fur- 

 nish the bone and the sinew, also in great 

 part the brain and the character, of the 

 American people. Laws in this spirit 

 would not deserve condemnation as class 

 legislation. Their fundamental aim would 

 not be the welfare of a class. They would 

 not have in view the good of the country for 

 its own sake, but country prosperity for the 

 sake of the entire nation, the idea being that 



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