Published by 
The Rural Publishing Co. 
333 W. 30th Street 
New York 
The Rural New Yorkef 
Weekly, One Dollar Per Year 
Postpaid 
Single Copies, Five Cents 
VoL. LXXVI. 
NEW YORK, OCTORER (!. 1917. 
No. 4450 
The Farmer Says “ Forward—March ! 
You See It in the Daily Papers 
VERY mail brings letters from reader.s who en¬ 
close clippings from daily papers, all containing 
bitter and malignant attacks upon farmers or the bus¬ 
iness of farming. Farmers are puzzled at this sud¬ 
den outbreak. Formerly these papers assumed a 
condescending tone, full of ridiculous advice or poorly 
concealed contempt, but now they suddenly break 
out into 'open,' bitter attacks against farmers as a 
clas.s. What has happened, and what does it mean? 
Thus far this work is mostly confined to the papers 
printed in the larger 
cities. In the smaller 
cities closer to the 
country there is less 
of it. 
For the most part 
the “great” daily pa¬ 
pers of this country 
have ceased to repre¬ 
sent anyone or any¬ 
thing except their 
financial backers and 
the “interests” these 
backers represent. 
Years ago a few of 
these daily papers 
really represented 
public opinion, or 
something like it. but 
with the coming of 
great wealth concen¬ 
trated into a few 
groups of bankers 
and manufacturers, 
the plan has been to 
dominate and control 
public opinion rather 
than to serve it. 
Many of these 
“great” papers make 
a remarkably good 
bluff at shouting for 
reform, “patriotism,” 
and the rights of the 
people, and some¬ 
times they “get away 
with it.” They can 
club the dust out of 
a small rogue and 
make a cloud which 
hides a bigger one. 
During the past few 
months these papers 
have begun to attack 
the farmer and his 
labor demands with 
a bitterness never 
known before. For¬ 
merly these papers 
reserved these fierce 
attacks for the woi-k- 
inen or labor unions, 
especially when these 
unions were trying 
to establish them¬ 
selves. Up to this 
year most of the 
daily papers adopted the “dear old farmer” style 
when referring to country people. The farmer was 
a very good citizen, “the backbone of the land.” just 
as long as he behaved himself. He must keep right 
at work—just as his grandfather did—and pay no 
attention to those wicked workmen who were making 
all sorts of labor demands! 
Now and then a farmer began to a.sk question.s. 
Why should he Avork 16 hours a day, as grandfather 
did. Avhen other men, by combining, secured an eight- 
hour day? Why should he stand still and see his 
children pulled away from the farm? What was 
there about his business which singled him out as 
the “goat” and forced him to make the hired man 
the poorest-paid laborer in the country? Up to last 
Fall the city dailies thought these questions could be 
answered by a nice little combination of ill-con¬ 
cealed ridicule and taffy. Then two things hap¬ 
pened, and they are to do more in changing indus¬ 
trial history than anything else between the ending 
of the Civil War and the beginning of this one. 
The dairymen hung together and won their de¬ 
mand for an increased price, and* a candidate for 
President, backed by a large share of the money and 
manufacturing power of the country, was defeated 
becau.se he could not realize that Westeni farmei's 
have broken away forever from the old political 
issues. The daily papers no longer represent or 
understand true public .sentiment, and they have been 
Availing for these farmers to “come back.” It bas 
been slowly beaten in upon them that there is no 
coming back, but, instead of that, a further drift 
away from the good old days AAiien the farmer 
grumbled a little, but. in the end, took his bone of 
ridicule and bis crust of taffy and folloAved the 
crowd. The bitterness uoav apparent in these great 
daily papers is the finest evidence Ave have yet setm 
that the big politicians and the big money interests 
realize at last that intelligent farmers knoAV them 
for AAdiat they are; and, knoAving them, Avill no 
longer serve them Avithout a fair shoAAing and a 
stpiare deal. Thus there is little left for these papers 
but to attack farmers and attempt to array city peo¬ 
ple against them. That is Avhy they claim all farm¬ 
ers are getting rich and preparing to starve out the 
cities. 
Thus Ave find this in the New Haven Register: 
Today tho farmer is protected more than any other 
class. He is the dictator, and knows it, and Avhat is 
more, he exercises this power in a manner which disre¬ 
gards all the principles of square dealing 
And this is taken from the Boston Transcript: 
But the farmer was insistent. As a class he is pow¬ 
erful enough to command a flock of United States Sena¬ 
tors to hurry post haste to the White House, on the first 
errand that had taken some of them there for many a 
day. They went to protest, mayhap to threaten, in the 
interest of their constituents, the devil take the luckle.ss 
folk who live, in these day of high meat, very largely, 
by bread alone. . What other class would be able to mus¬ 
ter a corporal’s guard of Senators at a time like this? 
This idea is .suddenly appearing in all the large 
dailie.s—apparently all taken from one dominating 
.source—the little group of men aa'Iio have for some 
years controlled the money of the country. These 
men realize that 
A\hen the farmers 
really Avake up and 
apply themselves to 
a clear study of eco¬ 
nomic conditions, the 
present system of 
distribution of money 
and of profits AAfill be 
torn apai't. 
T’p to Avitbin re¬ 
cent times most 
farmers have been 
kept from a clear 
study of the.se things 
in .several AA*a ys. 
Whenever a man 
talked about a fairer 
show for the com¬ 
mon people you could 
always call him a 
“Socialist.” That 
AA’as a term of re¬ 
proach Avhich kept 
most men quiet until 
in the stress of AA'ar 
conditions our gov¬ 
ernment is forced to 
put into practice 
many of the “social¬ 
istic” plans in order 
to carry on the Avar. 
Then it has been 
quite easy to control 
“education” and to 
see that most books 
on political economy 
Avbich farmers read 
Avere very sane and 
safe. Another very 
potent plan jias been 
to “fix up” e\'ery 
man Avho showed 
poAA-er of leadership 
or i 11 d e p e n d e n t 
thought by giving 
him some public job 
or honorary office. 
Call the roll of men 
Avho have sold out 
their birthright of 
independence for a 
mess of political pot¬ 
tage and the line 
Avould stretch out 
into the thousand.s. 
We do not wonder 
that these daily papers and their backers thought 
they could afford to laugh at the farmers and pass 
them a feiv compliments. We hardly blame them 
for their bitterness Avhen at last they find that the 
end of this has come. 
For it /t(/s come. It has heen .said that%is Avar 
Avas engineered and encouraged hy a groin) of manu¬ 
facturing financiers AVho saAV great profits for them¬ 
selves. This is not entirely true, though unques¬ 
tionably this class did AA'ant the trade in AA'ar ma¬ 
terials. In any event, this Avealthy cla.ss has mis¬ 
calculated. This is now a war of the plain people, 
and conditions arising out of it Avill bring economic 
truths home to the farmers so poAverfully that they 
Avill get together at last, and put over a programme 
Avhich Avill make this country a better place to live 
in than it has ever been before : Thk R. N.-Y. has 
.seen this coming for years. It has now started, and 
Farmer: “It Seems to me You Fellows are Going a Long Way for a Little Exercise. Come in here and Try the Hoe.” 
