24 THE AGRICULTURAL BLOC 



bankruptcy on their best friends, the store- 

 keeper and his family, who had even shared 

 their hardships with them, and were made 

 the goat; but they were soon glad to come 

 back to the storekeeper and ask him to set 

 things again on a trade basis, and the 

 Grange settled down to a quiet, ethical and 

 social institution. Then the American So- 

 ciety of Equity sprang up and undertook to 

 deal direct to the consumer and buy direct 

 from wholesaler, but they ran up against 

 the same snag and were glad to ask the old 

 line business men to pull their chestnuts out 

 of the fire for them. Lately another lot of 

 agitators have persuaded the farmers to 

 form a political party called the Non-Parti- 

 san League to take over all business out of 

 the hands of the regular dealer, and already 

 we are hearing the farmer say they have 

 found out that they have jumped from the 

 frying pan into the fire. I cannot help 

 thinking if we had such statesmen as our 

 great George Washington or Abraham 

 Lincoln contemporary with such a condi- 

 tion they would have set our national eco- 

 nomic condition in order. One thing we 

 know our beloved late Theodore Roosevelt 

 started to do the thing and got all the in- 

 formation together ready to take up the 

 question when he was superseded by a 

 party who was diametrically opposed to his 

 efforts. I was pleased to see an article 

 printed in one of our daily papers from a 



