476 A GRICUL TURE. 



decline, national decay, and ultimate and inevitable ruin. The glory of our 

 civilization cannot survive the neglect of our agriculture; the power and 

 grandeur of this great country cannot survive the degradation of the American 

 farmer. 



" Struggle, toil, and suffer as he may, each recurring year has brought to 

 him smaller reward for his labor, until to-day, surrounded by the most won- 

 derful progress and development the world has ever witnessed, he is confronted 

 and appalled with impending bankruptcy and ruin. Crops may fail, disaster 

 may come and sweep away his earnings as by a breath, prices may go below 

 the cost of production, but the inevitable tax-collector never fails to call upon 

 him with increased demands. Is it any wonder that these struggling and 

 oppressed millions are organizing for relief and protection ? 



"THE CAUSES. 



" We protest, and with all reverence, that it is not God's fault. We protest 

 that it is not the farmers' fault. We believe, and so charge, solemnly and 

 deliberately, that it is the fault of the financial system of the government a 

 system that has placed on agriculture an undue, unjust, and intolerable pro- 

 portion of the burdens of taxation, while it makes that great interest the 

 helpless victim of the rapacious greed and tyrannical power of gold: a 

 system through which, despite the admonitions of history and the experience 

 of all countries, in all ages ; despite the teachings and warnings of the ablest 

 men in the science of political economy, in this and in all countries ; our 

 currency has been contracted to a volume totally inadequate to the necessities 

 of the people and the demands of trade, and with the natural and inevitable 

 result high-priced money and low-priced products." 



Such is the condition of American agriculture at the present 

 time, as given by the president of the greatest farmers' organi- 

 zation the world ever saw. And here we will leave it, hoping 

 that those who shall come after may be able to give a more 

 gratifying statement of the condition of agriculture in America. 



