1 84 AMERICAN FARMS. 



testations (should he choose to make them) are not to 

 be heeded, if it can be avoided, though he make them 

 ever so loudly.' 



The same old story is repeated over and over again. 

 We tacitly decide that either one or the other despotism 

 will rule, and rule in its own way, in defiance of the 

 objections and threatenings of the victimized. Our 

 whole political and social morality must be degenerating 

 under this regime.^ 



' A few days ago the writer suggested to a legislator that we should 

 have more farmers in our Parliaments. He replied: "It is a hard 

 place for a farmer, for the moment he rises in the House in their be- 

 half he is set upon by a half-dozen lawyers." The Farm and Home 

 expressed similar views recently when referring to the action of one of 

 our legislative bodies — views which apply well to the general feelings 

 of politicians toward the farmer who runs the gauntlet of presuming 

 to mix in political matters — ' ' Whenever the Senate could see a farm- 

 er's head, it hit it." 



'^ Recently said the Quebec Chronicle (Conservative): " There are 

 honest men in both political camps, but the difficulty is to get them to 

 enter public life. It is the tactician who eventually comes to the 

 front, and success only crowns the efforts of the man who possesses an 

 elastic conscience. In tlie old days there used to be a strong public 

 opinion in the country. When the politicians went wrong there was 

 such a thing as keeping them from power and putting into their places 

 men of sterling integrity. Alas ! we have no public opinion nowa- 

 days worth the toss of a copper. Self-interest is the first law of 

 nature, and the premier who knows his man and understands the art 

 of buying, can have little difficulty in maintaining himself in power as 

 long as he has a mind to reign." 



On the foregoing the St. John Telegraph (Liberal) remarks : " Has 

 it really come to this, that an honest politician cannot succeed, and 

 that there is no public opinion worth the toss of a copper ? We trust 

 it is not yet so bad as that. There is, no doubt, less honesty in poli- 

 tics than there was a quarter of a century ago, and vastly less of 

 public opinion. . . . What fate is in store for a country that will 

 not have honest men for rulers ? " 



