THE FARMER'S WAR AGAINST MONOPOLIES. 289 



of large capital, which has enabled them to conduct 

 their operations on a scale which compelled large 

 returns. The average farmer, however, is a man of 

 limited means, and it taxes all his energy to make 

 " both ends meet " at the end of the year. He may 

 dream of great wealth, and, in his mind's eye, may see 

 himself a capitalist, able to carry out his theories upon 

 a proper scale ; but the golden harvest never comes to 

 him, and he ends his days where he began, a strug- 

 gling man, vainly grappling with a difficulty that is 

 too great for him. Yet he labors as hard, as honestly, 

 and as intelligently as the merchant or manufacturer. 

 He has, perhaps, quite as much capital invested as 

 they, and yet in spite of his efforts, in spite of his in- 

 telligence, in spite of his honesty, he cannot keep up 

 with them in the race for wealth. He is distanced by 

 men of less ability, and he cannot help himself. The 

 most that the majority of farmers are capable of achiev- 

 ing is to become the absolute masters of their property. 

 He is a lucky man who can do this, who can keep the 

 farm clear of mortgages and himself free from debt, 

 and earn enough to educate his children and afford his 

 family the refinements and comforts of our present 

 civilization. 



Now here is a real grievance ; here is a most singu- 

 lar state of affairs. The most useful class in the land, 

 that which should be the most fortunate and indepen- 

 dent, is becoming the most oppressed, the hardest 

 worked, and the poorest paid. There is no necessity 

 for this state of affairs. It should not exist. But it is 

 a reality, and the farmers know it, and their efforts to 

 remedy it have thus far been without success. Every 

 year the trouble is becoming more serious. The young 



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