THE DISCONTENT OF THE FARMER. 123 



determination is an essential prerequisite to any intelligent 

 or useful discussion of the causes of discontent in any class. 

 What ought the farmer to get from his farm? Is his discon- 

 lent reasonable or unreasonable? If the latter, we need pay 

 no attention to it; if the former, there must be a remedy. 

 But certainly before we can consider a remedy we need to 

 know the exact nature and extent of the injustice. Otherwise 

 we at once sink in a quagmire of muddy thought. The 

 farmer on rich bottom land is discontented because his smaller 

 neighbor will not sell out to him. Ought his farm to yield 

 him the means of offering a temptation which his neighbor 

 can not resist? The farmer, on some poor hillside is discon- 

 tented because his farm will not pay off a debt improvidently 

 incurred for unremunerative improvements. Ought tlie poor 

 farm, or society at large, to be held responsible for the un- 

 wisdom of its owner? What is a reasonable standard of life 

 for the farmer? What ought to be tlie reward of the thrift 

 by which means to buy and stock the farm were provided, 

 and the physical and mental capacity required for its successful 

 management? And since the satisfactions of the farmer must 

 largely come from the sacrifices of other cLasses, we can not 

 determine the measure of the injustice, if any, which the 

 farmer endures, without considering what is due also to others. 

 And if we do not know the exact injustice we can not know 

 the real cause of his just discontent, much less intelligently 

 discuss a remedy. What is the rational standard of life for 

 all of us? What ought we to have the means to procure? 

 Ought the standard to be uniform for all? If not, what ought 

 each class to get, and individuals, according to their ability 

 and thrift, within their class? Can we improve on nature's 

 method of letting us all fight it out among ourselves? It is 

 easy to make a list of things which farmers do not like, and 

 call them the causes of their discontent; but are they causes, 

 or are they mere manifestations cf some deeper cause? 



I think the latter, and that in this country the one cause 

 of unreasonable discontent among farmers is the absence of 

 any well-defined ideal of a standard of life such as most 

 farmers may reasonably hope to reach and maintain. Our 



