THE FARMER'S WAR AGAINST MONOPOLIES. 527 



of the nation and otherwise, in proportion to their num- 

 bers and wealth ? Simply because we have not used 

 our brains. 



" The world pays homage to intelligence, to intellect, 

 and puts it in places of honor, of trust, of responsibility. 

 The world is not partial to lawyers, ministers, and doc- 

 tors, but the world wants to use brains, and accepts 

 them wherever found, and uses them to promote its 

 wishes ; and if we farmers want to be placed in the fore- 

 most rank in the nation and in the world ; if we wish 

 to be put in positions where we can have power to aid 

 our fellows ; if we wish to have influence and make our 

 mark on the institutions of the land; if we wish to 

 stand where we can do something towards governing the 

 price of our commodities ; if we wish to weigh according 

 to our size in the stale of public opinion ; if we want to 

 have farmers in demand for places of trust and honor 

 and profit, and for husbands for beautiful, refined, an 

 intelligent women ; if we want to escape from our pres- 

 ent vassalage, we must furnish some brains, sound in 

 quality, liberal in quantity, polished with constant use, 

 refined by study and thought. Show me such a farmer 

 as that, and I will show you a man whom his fellow- 

 men will want to use in places of trust. 



" I speak it in sorrow ; I admit it with deep and 

 burning shame, that the farmers can furnish but com- 

 paratively few men whose minds are fitted to organize 

 great enterprises. Look at the farmers in our Legisla- 

 ture. In numbers they are very small in proportion to 

 the population of the State, and smaller yet in the influ- 

 ence they have upon the legislation. When they come 

 in contact with men who are in the habit of close and 

 logical reasoning, they, with a few exceptions, prove 



