116 
WISCONSIN STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY, 
severely and the longest from it. The entail and remainder of hard 
times and public misfortunes are certain to fall to them. 
As I wish that what I have now to say should find an open ear, 
and have its just weight with you, I ask you for the time being to 
forget any special measures of legislation which have found favor 
with you, and in reference to which we may disagree, and to direct 
your attention exclusively to general principles. 
First, the farmer cannot afford to seek by legislation any sepa¬ 
rate benefits for his own branch of production, nor can he afford to 
allow others to establish or maintain their industries by special 
protection. He cannot afford to take these advantages himself, 
because the food and the raw material which he is to furnish enter 
into all kinds of production, and cannot be raised in price without 
depressing those correlative branches of industry in whose prosper¬ 
ity his own is involved. The general adv^antage of the community 
is the farmer’s private advantage. Farmers, constituting one-half 
of society, must make their sales to the other half, and large pur¬ 
chasing power in this moiety must correspond with large produc¬ 
tion in that moiety. 
» 
Much less can the farmer afford to allow single forms of industry 
to protect and build up themselves at the general expense. His 
interests lie in the entire circle of production, not in any one por¬ 
tion of it. Farmers are too many to gobble up, by any.legislative 
trick, large gains; they are also too many to remain idle and see 
others do the same thing. As themselves,'half the population, they 
must stand by the whole population. Farmers, by the mere fact of 
their numbers, are pledged not to steal themselves, or to allow oth¬ 
ers to steal. The cry of hurly-burly, every man for himself, will 
necessarily leave the great majority of them in the lurch. Farmers 
are too numerous to carry on an intrigue; they may possibly make 
a mob, but a mob tramples itself and others indiscriminately. Any 
class so large as they are, and so unequal in intelligence, are sure, 
in pushing a political measure, to fall into the hands of demagogues. 
Take any class movement or class legislation which farmers have 
attempted: What has the average farmer gained by it, except the 
opportunity to hear the bitter language of unrest and violence, and 
to come in at the bill-paying? Of course I shall not be understood 
to refer to those social and industrial organizations by which far¬ 
mers have done and are doing, and are to do, so much for their ad¬ 
vancement. 
