Annual report—Miscellaneous. 
47 
4 
who see in the uprising of the toiling millions a weakening in 
their power, and that their services may not always be required 
by the people in the occupation they now pursue. I hope the 
time will never come when any class interest will be arrayed po¬ 
litically against any or all other class interests in this country; 
but I do desire to see the time come when the great agricultural 
interests of this country shall be in the ascendency, and when 
men of intelligence, virtue, honesty and integrity, men represent¬ 
ing the view r s, wishes and feelings of the great industrial masses 
shall sit in the councils of the state and nation. I shall have no 
fears of the downfall of the republic, if the government is placed 
in the hands of men of education, honesty and good common 
sense, whose lives have been spent in an occupation where the ut¬ 
most economy and frugality were required. 
I cannot better express my political views in connection with 
this farmers’ movement than in an article from a recent number of 
the “ Western Rural" He says: 
“ Shall our rural people descend from their pursuits and the peaceful 
thoughts of Agriculture, and become absorbed in the dirty and angry discus¬ 
sions of the political rings? Are the interests of the nation really so deeply 
involved in this quadrennial contest, that for a half year our farmers must 
listen to the harangues of stump orators, and the inflammatory appeals of 
political papers, and let the interests of their own business affairs become, 
for the time being, a matter of secondary concern? The masses of farmers 
do not take leading parts in political strife. Should they serve as mere jack 
straws, to be played upon by party tricksters, who make politics a business 
and profession? We desire every farmer to answer this question for 
himself. 
“If the representations of the different party mouthpieces are to be believed, 
there are no incorruptible statesmen in America to day — nobody into whose 
hands can be safely committed the conduct of government, and the custody 
of the public moneys; and everybody is figuring and conniving to procure 
his individual promotion, for the pecuniary gain and influential position or 
fame that result. Are these representations true, or false? Are they not 
made in order to excite our prejudices for the time being, and influence our 
votes in favor of or against such candidates, as the case may be ? Can we 
not recall that the same newspaper and the same editor who denounces a cer¬ 
tain man to-day as unworthy of confidence, but a short time ago w r as as em¬ 
phatic in his praise ? Did not the stump pettifogger of last night urge the 
claims of one who, one year ago, he declared to be a demagogue, a defaulter, 
and a deceiver ? Indeed, do not these very opposing editors and adyocates, 
after their diatribes have been uttered, adjourn to the nearest bar, and drink 
