1889.] PUBLIC DOCUMENT — No. 4. 277 



by virtue of superior ability, can take them ; and who, in 

 taking them, wrest them away from the weaker contestant, 

 as really as victory is wrested from the weaker side in battle. 

 The silver-tongued orator who declaims against war and 

 pleads for universal peace, is victor on a field of strife as 

 truly as is the soldier whom he denounces. 



It is right that this should be so. By this method of selec- 

 tion humanity is served in the most important matters by 

 those best fitted for such service. We know no other way 

 to single out these servants and give their work into their 

 hands. And it is only when these questions of supremacy 

 are settled that we come to an abiding peace. Our own late 

 civil war furnishes a most striking illustration of the way to 

 peace through strife. Only those who participated in it, or 

 lived through those awful years in vital sympathetic connec- 

 tion with it, can form any conception of its horrors. But 

 we could not avoid it, — we could not escape it. That is 

 what we say who were on the side which won ; and those 

 who were on the side which lost say the same thing. Our 

 great commander's invocation, "Let us have peace," could 

 be uttered and answered after that tremendous struggle had 

 been fought out to the bitter end. But its results will justify 

 it. All its cost is to be repaid many times over, not alone 

 to those who won, but to those who lost, as well. 



I am now to apply these general considerations to the 

 questions raised by the theme assigned me. How does the 

 farmer stand related to this principle of associated life and 

 work? Should he make use of it, or no? If yes, to what 

 extent, under what limitations, through what forms, and by 

 what rules ? 



To the first question, an affirmative answer must be given. 

 I anticipate no dissent in this matter. The farmer cannot 

 neglect an agency capable of producing results of such im- 

 portance to himself and to the great interests committed to 

 his charge. Just think of it a moment. Agriculture is the 

 mother of all industries ; and, although the children to whom 

 she has given birth and nurture have grown to vigorous matur- 

 ity, the mother-industry still equals in importance all others 

 put together. In this country, agriculture gives employment 

 to half the population ; and here, as elsewhere, the work she 



