What if Every One Should Do So? 229 



There is one great difference between the farmer and other busi- 

 ness men he is forever telling of his troubles and belittling his 

 business, while other business men say nothing. 



Ex-Governor Hoard says if his business of publishing a paper 

 will not pay it is not the fault of the business, but because Hoard 

 is not big enough to run it. Would that we were all as honest. 

 It is sometimes said that the great mass of farmers must go on as 

 they are now doing and must have relief from some other quarter, 

 from legislation, or something. This is a taking doctrine with 

 some audiences. The speaker will be cheered and made much of. 

 Why not have some special legislation for these nine business 

 men out of ten that fail? My friends, I would like to encourage 

 you to look for help in this direction if I thought there was much 

 chance, but it is precious little you will ever get in any such way. 

 Success awaits you, but largely in another direction. My friend, 

 Hon. John A. Woodward, of Pennsylvania, put it in this way at 

 an institute once : ' ' The farmer who does what his hand findeth 

 to do with his might, does more for his personal advantage than 

 all the organization and legislation in the world can do for him." 

 Each one work for your personal advantage, and the masses will 

 in time be all right. This book is certainly written with the hope 

 that it may encourage a good many individuals to greater and 

 more businesslike efforts, and the writer feels entirely certain that 

 excellent results would come from it if every single reader should, 

 as fast as possible, work up to as high a standard of farming as 

 has been laid down herein. 



We have a good many farmers who are in debt badly, and no 

 money to drain with or to get tools, perhaps, for better tillage, or 

 to employ labor to do anything like as well as they know how. I 

 am very sorry for them. Some things I have said may seem harsh 

 to them. But the business is not to blame because individuals 

 are so situated that they cannot run it so as to make it pay. No 

 other business on earth could possibly pay under the same cir- 

 cumstances. We have no moral right to demand that farming 

 done under such disadvantages should bring paying returns. It 

 never will. We must work our way up in some way. With every- 

 thing against one it is a slow job, but you can hardly read the first 

 chapters of this book without seeing that it can be done in time. 

 Where there is a determined will there is a possible way. If I 

 could see any easier road than the hard one we traveled, I would 

 most gladly point it out to you. But I cannot, and it is more than 

 useless to delude you with false hopes, although it might be a 

 more popular doctrine. Competition is here, and we have got to 

 meet it. We cannot shut out Dakota or Texas or any other sec- 

 tion. We must meet competition as other business men do, by 

 reducing the cost of production. 



I was talking with a well-known manufacturer in this county 

 not long since, and as he is an old friend, I asked him how they 



