THE FARMER'S WAR AGAINST MONOPOLIES. 519 



do, it is customary for members of the medical profes- 

 sion to read papers for the entertainment and instruc- 

 tion of the assembled M. D.'s. 



" When railroad men have a convention, such per- 

 sons as have had active experience in railroad business 

 do the talking and have charge of the meeting. 



" Editorial conventions are attended by editors, and 

 they, as firmly as any other class of people, are of the 

 opinion that they are capable of managing their own 

 business, and they are not in the habit of imploring 

 the members of other callings to furnish the brains to 

 amuse or instruct them. 



"Shoemakers have organized themselves into the 

 order of St. Crispins, and consider themselves able to 

 paddle their own canoe. 



" Lawyers not only feel competent to address and 

 properly edify conventions of their own profession, but 

 their modesty does not forbid them from rendering 

 valuable assistance to less favored classes by a free use 

 of their surplus talent. 



" But, when the tillers of the soil have met in an 

 agricultural society of any kind, it has been usually 

 customary to select a lawyer, doctor, editor, or poli- 

 tician to tell us what he knows about farming. The 

 idea has very rarely occurred to the managers of such 

 institutions that it might be possible for a farmer to 

 have anything to say on such occasions which should 

 be either appropriate, interesting, or instructive. When 

 these professional oracles of our professional managers' 

 selection open their mouths, we are edified with a 

 rehash of such ideas as may be prevalent in the com- 

 munity, served up in a great variety of forms, and 

 presented in a great many different and beautiful lights, 



