FARMERS TO THE FRONT 45 



ful citizens, or as the most powerful combination of 

 citizens. Then it would be able to do equal justice 

 to all. And we should all realize that justice pays — 

 indeed that it is essential to the perpetuity of our 

 institutions. So, without doing one illegal thing, 

 or making a single demand on the government, the 

 farmers could, were they organized, work such a 

 radical and wholesome reform as would transform 

 our whole social order. All the people — and that is 

 what the government ought to be, and in theory is 

 — might conclude to fix a minimum price for the 

 necessaries of life, and say that no one should be 

 compelled to sell for less than that price, or that, 

 if the crisis were grave, any one who offered that 

 price should get the commodities. At least the gov- 

 ernment would realize that it could not afford to be 

 unjust to the farmers, the most numerous class in 

 the country. If we are to have a class government 

 at all, and this ought not to be, we should have a 

 government of the largest and most influential class. 

 If we are to have favoritism, it should be favorit- 

 ism, not for the minority, but for the majority. If 

 it be said that the scheme involves socialism, the 

 answer is that socialism for the many would be 

 better than socialism for the few. If the govern- 

 ment helps the manufacturer to make prices which 

 are often exorbitant — as it does by imposing tariff 

 taxes — it surely might help the farmer make prices 

 that are fair and just. So the result of the effort of 

 the farmers to organize to control their own busi- 



