Tin-: DTsroxTKXT OF Tin-; farmer. 121 



suffer ill the estimation of nuinkind from the utterances of 

 their self- constituted champions. As with workingmeu, the 

 mercantile class, and even lawyers, the capacity of farmers for 

 public speech is often in an inverse ratio to their practical 

 wisdom, and the desire to engage in it is very apt to be in such 

 ratio. The deliverances of men and organizations in whose 

 judgment the substantial farmers themselves have little confi- 

 dence, are assumed to be the opinions of the great body of 

 farmers, from whom, in fact, we really hear very little. 



So far as the farmer is discontented it is because he is 

 unable to obtain from the products of his farm the satisfac- 

 tions which he desires. This covers the entire subject, and so 

 far as the mere statement of the causes of his discontent is 

 concerned, this chapter might well end here. When I. have 

 said all that I shall say, this will be the final summing up. 

 But in this the farmer is not peculiar. The majority of man- 

 kind are in the same condition. The workman — skilled and 

 unskilled — is also discontented because the sum of his possible 

 sacrifices will not secure the aggregate of his desired satisfac- 

 tions. So is the merchant, the lawyer, tlie doctor, and the 

 money lender. 



If it be said here that I should confine myself to such 

 causes of discontent as afi'ect only the farmer, I may say that 

 if I am to deal with real causes, and not their mere operation 

 or manifestation, I know of none which do not operate upon 

 all classes alike, nor do I believe there are such. One law 

 seems to me to govern mankind. Its violation always, and 

 sometimes its fulfilment, causes suffering ; and suff'ering, discon- 

 tent. Through all nature runs the grim stoiy that the strong 

 survive and the w^eak perish, and that discontent lies mostly 

 with the weaker. I do not find that well-to-do farmers, or 

 shop-keepers, or workingmeu suffer very much, or that they 

 are possessed of any but that rational discontent which we 

 usually call ambition, and which is tlie mainspring of progress. 



It is tiien with the poorer farmers that we have mostly to 

 deal in considering the causes of such discontent as is the 

 result of real suffering from economic causes. Almo.st inva- 

 riably these will be found in debt beyond their ability to pay. 



