CHAPTER XV 



If farmers were only half as persistent 

 As politicians are wholly inconsistent, 



What a different footstool ! 

 They walk up to the secret voting booths, 

 The aged and younger and hopeful youths, 

 And vote for men that others may choose 



Over them to rule. 



The farmer produces the wealth of the land; 

 In framing the laws he should take a hand — 



Insist upon his rights. 

 He feeds the whole world by sweat and toil, 

 Forces great crops from the resisting soil, 

 From famine a safe and shielding foil, 



And no wrong incites. 



Something has been said of the influence that the 

 farmer can exert through organization on the poli- 

 tics of the country. One of the purposes of the 

 American Society of Equity is to enable him to 

 exert such influence. Here, again, it is not because 

 the farmers, organized, need to look to politics for 

 relief or strength on their account, but for the gen- 

 eral welfare of humanity. The farmers, through 

 their society, not only intend to do equity, but to get 

 equity; not only to give equity, but to demand 

 equity. It is not the object of the society to become 



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