FARMERS TO THE FRONT 21 



holdings; furnish new homes for millions of fam- 

 ilies in sections of the country where the conditions 

 are most favorable for social enjoyment and in- 

 dustrial success. True, this plan may not be of a 

 great benefit to a few railroad corporations and 

 other powerful interests, but will benefit many mil- 

 lions of the common people, and add untold mil- 

 lions to the wealth of our country. 



The fact is that there are practically no laws for 

 the benefit of the farmers, and it is the intention of 

 the corporated powers, through the political ma- 

 chines, that there shall not be any. Ours is a gov- 

 ernment by the people in theory, but by corporations 

 in practice. The people have won their way with 

 little help from the federal government. In the 

 very article under consideration we are reminded of 

 the futile efforts of the farmer to get favoring legis- 

 lation. "Once in a while," it is said, "there is a po- 

 litical insurrection, and a Farmers' Alliance sweeps 

 the boards, sending farmer legislators to frame 

 super-partial laws, which later are blasted by 

 courts." So it is, and so it must ever be until the 

 farmers learn how to exert their strength in practi- 

 cal ways and for practical ends. But we are told 

 that "the settler demands the Indian's land and 

 gets it." : 'That he demands the ranchman's grazing 

 territory and obtains that." Of course this is true, 

 and it would be true if there were not a government 

 in existence. For the natural evolution is from the 

 savage state to the pastoral state, up to the agri- 



