18 
House & Garden 
THE FARMER COMES INTO HIS OWN 
O NCE on a time the world and his wife thought that war 
was fought by soldiers alone—men in glistening armor, men 
in chain mail, a multitude of spearmen and knights in all the color¬ 
ful panoply of battle. 
Nothing was more terrible than an army with banners! 
Then arose the great hoax that, at will, bankers could start, 
sustain and stop a war. God favored the battalions with the 
heaviest money bags. Wall Street, Lombard Street and the Rue de 
la Vrilliere were held to be the real battlefields. 
Nothing was more terrible than an army with bankers! 
In the course of the present conflict we have experienced a third 
readjustment of values; we have discovered that war is sustained 
and seen through to victory by the men in the furrows. God fights 
on the side with the biggest crops. Battles are fought and won, 
ideals attained or lost in the quiet, rolling fields. 
Nothing is more terrible than an army with farmers! 
♦ 
ERETOFORE the farmer represented, to some extent, a lower 
order of being. He was held 
to be unpolished, unsophisticated, 
unlettered — and hence negligible. 
He was a butt for jokes; stub¬ 
bornly the hayseed clung to his 
hair. Unevenly matched with ca¬ 
pricious Nature, he took what he 
could wrench from her, and was 
humbly thankful. 
As the attrition of war wastes down 
the world, we have begun to see that 
in the farmer’s hands rests the ultimate 
decision. And since we have come to 
consider his position seriously, we find 
that for generations he has been de¬ 
ciding many things besides the outcome 
of war. Back of political strife and 
the manoeuvering of diplomats, back 
of economic struggle and the com¬ 
plaints of a million workers has stood 
the farmer. 
The great difference between the 
present and the past position of the 
farmer is that previously he did not 
know that the destiny of nations rested 
in his hands. Today he is fully aware 
of his potentialities. No longer can 
legislation neglect him, no longer can 
bankers hold him in fee. He is in a 
position to demand attention and re¬ 
spect. But he has his weakness : he is, 
at present, the one great race of work¬ 
ers lacking in the ideals of solidarity. 
When the American farmers shall 
have banded together for their mutual 
profit and advantage—and signs in the 
West show that they are already doing 
so—the rest of the nation’s workers 
will appreciate the true value of the 
man who tills the soil. The man at 
the forge, the man in the mines, the 
man at the loom—these have demand¬ 
ed and gained a hearing. Certainly 
the American farmer, who never 
strikes, is as much entitled to regard 
as a Polish miner who has not even 
taken the trouble to be naturalized and 
is eternally demanding his “rights.” 
If the war will gain for the farmer a proper regard, then the 
whole farming situation here in the United States will take on a 
different aspect and present a different future. 
♦ 
I DEALS may be born in the soul of man, but the attainment 
of them starts in the soil. Back to that soil must man go to 
find the ultimate, fundamental things of life. We thought we knew 
where these were to be found—yet how limited was our vision. 
We have seen valleys of death where the rivers run crimson and 
men do noble and magnificent things; we have seen watery valleys 
down which mighty ships went to terrible destruction before the 
inexorable powers of the deep. But for grandeur, for strength, 
for nobility what can compare with valleys standing so thick with 
corn that they laugh and sing! 
We cannot fully appreciate this grandeur of the field until we 
understand the man who makes it possible. And when we under¬ 
stand him, new light will be shed on the movement which leads 
men back to the soil and keeps them there. 
One of the most serious problems 
we face in America is the tendency of 
the young people to become dissatis¬ 
fied with life on the farm. They will 
follow any legitimate lure for a change 
in life and more money. One can 
scarcely blame them. In the past, 
farm life has not been made attrac¬ 
tive, the farmer has not been given the 
position, respect and co-operation he 
deserved. 
Of late better roads and the auto¬ 
mobile, better schools, the newly in¬ 
stituted rural credit system and the 
ready co-operation of the national and 
state agricultural departments have all 
done their share toward making farm 
life more livable and more productive. 
It now remains for the nation at large 
•—the man in the street, the men in the 
trades and the professions—to grant 
the farmer their unquestioned regard. 
♦ 
T HE farmer is one of the few 
genuine craftsmen left to the 
world. However much he may avail 
himself of mechanical aids, the bulk 
of his work is carried on by hand. 
Moreover he does not suffer the bane 
of modern trade specialization; he 
plows the ground, he plants the seed, 
he cultivates the soil, he harvests. 
Thoroughness cannot be claimed as 
a modern American trait. Its absence 
mars our manufacturing, scholarship, 
and organizations. It leaves our de¬ 
fensive forces in chaos and makes us a 
mockery to our foes. The future of 
America depends very much on the 
ability of the people to acquire some 
of the steady, patient thoroughness 
which characterizes the farmer—the 
thoroughness that soils the hands and 
gnarls the knuckles and has little re¬ 
gard for appearances so long as it can 
be depended on for untiring w r ork 
when national security is threatened. 
IN THE TRENCHES 
Bill’s with the Navy and Tom’s with the French; 
I was to stay, and I’ve stayed, 
Holding a shallower kind of a trench, 
Using a hoe and a spade; 
Digging and harrowing early and late— 
That’s what they wanted me for— 
Fighting my battle and pulling my weight, 
Maybe a little bit more. 
Tom’s in the trenches and Bill’s on the seas; 
Here in my trenches am I, 
Tending the turnips, potatoes and peas, 
Buckwheat and barley and rye, 
Weeding the patch in the glare of the sun, 
Plowing from morning to night, 
Using a pitchfork instead of a gun, 
Working that others may fight. 
Bill’s on the water and Tom’s on the land 
Doing their duty, I know; 
Back of them all in my trenches I stand— 
I, with the spade and the hoe— 
Back of the Army and back of the Fleet, 
Back of the forge and the mine, 
Here with my legions, the corn and the wheat, 
Holding the uttermost line. 
Arthur Guiterman. 
