FARMERS TO THE FRONT 31 



prejudices. But he knows quite as well that when a 

 capitalist or a labor leader calls on him at Washing- 

 ton he has back of him a great and powerful organi- 

 zation which is able and ready to punish its foes and 

 reward its friends. He has learned, too, that the 

 farmer can be made to believe that he himself is pro- 

 tected by the very taxes that are levied on him for the 

 benefit of others. But the main point now to be con- 

 sidered is, that the farmers are isolated, and incapa- 

 ble of concert of action. In these days men do not 

 get things unless they go after them. The farmers 

 do not go after them, and so they do not get them. 

 Men in public life have to be coerced or persecuted 

 into doing things. It is so much easier to drift 

 along without doing things, that the statesman, who 

 is always looking for the line of least resistance, is 

 never disposed to champion any cause that demands 

 affirmative action, unless the representatives of that 

 cause force it on his attention. It is easy to ignore 

 and forget the farmer on the lonely and far-distant 

 prairie. It is not easy to ignore the rich lobbyist and 

 his champagne and terrapin, in Washington. 



My purpose in all this is, frankly, to make the 

 farmer discontented, not so much with conditions 

 as with himself for allowing them to exist. Discon- 

 tent breeds action ; action, investigation ; investiga- 

 tion, knowledge ; knowledge, the remedy. There- 

 fore, be discontented. Here we have a class of men, 

 the most numerous in the country, who fail to get 

 what they ought to have, simply because they do not 



