FARMERS TO THE FRONT 115 



nights pulling levers, turning wheels and opening 

 spigots. And thus it is that the farmers and the con- 

 sumers alike are robbed and squeezed. 



YVe have seen that the farmer does not get high 

 prices, that his annual average income is pitifully 

 small, that the returns on his investment are meager, 

 and that, not getting high prices for himself, he is 

 not responsible for the high prices the consumer 

 pays. And yet, confronting such a situation as this, 

 all that the farmer asks is equity. Shall he not have 

 it ? Ought any man, with a proper sense of obliga- 

 tion to himself, to his family and to his country, to 

 be satisfied with anything less than equity? Is it 

 not what we all pretend to want for ourselves, and 

 profess to be willing and eager to grant to others? 

 The American farmer is very patient — proverbially 

 so. He has been compared to Issachar, of whom we 

 have this record in the Bible : 



"Issachar is a strong ass crouching down between 

 two burdens, and he saw that rest was good and the 

 land that it was pleasant, and bowed his shoulder to 

 bear, and became a servant unto tribute." 



Rest may be good, and the land may be pleasant, 

 but he who consents to become "a servant unto 

 tribute" will know little of what is good or pleasant. 

 It is on the patience and docility of the farmer that 

 the capitalists and politicians have traded. And even 

 now they are predicting the failure of the American 

 Society of Equity, because, as they say, the farmer is 

 contented and happy, and don't need it. Are they 



