90 The Tariff and the Fanner. 



the National Grange, forty-first annual session, 1907, 

 occurs this passage : 



"The development of manufacturing, transportation 

 and commercial interests is not only an advantage, but a 

 necessity to agriculture, but those interests have no claim 

 for public recognition that takes precedence over the 

 claim of agriculture. This statement holds true in regard 

 to the estahlishment of policies and the enactment of 

 laivs. If conditions exist under which the manufacturer, 

 the railroad manager and the merchant can pay prices 

 for labor in the transaction of their business that the 

 farmer cannot afford to pay, there is reason to investi- 

 gate the cause of such conditions. The advice of those 

 ivho ivould limit the work of this great fanners' organ- 

 ization to a study of crop production and stock feeding, 

 important and necessary as these may be, is not suggest- 

 ive of a deep sincerity for the farmers' interests. It is 

 not luise to leave the management of public affairs affect- 

 ing agriculture to others, inasmuch as ours is the basic 

 industry, upon the prosperity of which prosperity in all 

 other industries depends. The field of study and investi- 

 gation open to the farmers through this organization is 

 as broad as the field open to any other class of people 

 without infringing in the least upon partisan or sectarian 

 ground. It is not only the fanner's right, hut his duty, 

 to engage in a discussion of public matters." 



The main object of producing more of an article than 

 one consumes is to obtain the means of buying the prod- 

 ucts of other industries. In such exchanges the grossest 

 injustice may be perpetrated. Civilized man has rarely 

 scrupled to take advantage of the savage, often obtaining 

 for a mere bauble that which was of great value. Not 

 because he was a savage was he cheated, but because 



