Politics for Farmers 



Union must state their policies, each member 

 must bind himself to vote as the Union directs, 

 and use his whole influence in that manner. 

 Unless he does this nothing avails. 



The recent success of the Labour party in 

 England, with the promise of greater achieve- 

 ment in the immediate future — when the balance 

 of our two great parties is more evenly held — 

 throws a lurid light on the political impotence 

 of the farmer. Landowners hold their own in 

 both Houses of Parliament, Labour is pushing 

 forward, but the farmer is unrepresented, and 

 bids fair to be ground with others of the middle 

 class between the millstones. 



There is no working farmer in Parliament. The 

 nearest approach to agricultural representation 

 is a landlord, who, however altruistic, does not 

 touch the question. Bricklayers send a brick- 

 layer; not a master builder; they have more sense. 

 Miners send one of themselves, not a mineowner. 

 But farmers send landlords. 



There is no need to depreciate landlords. 

 They, like other people are human, and some of 

 them, especially the greatest, are feudally pro- 

 tectors of their tenants, so that it is good to be 

 under them. Still, that does not make them ideal 

 representatives for farmers. They must send one 

 of themselves, one who knows where the shoe 



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