448 WISCONSIN STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
of guns at Fort Sumpter ? What we need is an intelligent use of 
the ballot. We producers and farmers generally must pay the 
Governor, our Congressmen and the swarms of officers who are so 
ready and willing to scoop out the heart of our loaf and give us 
the crust. As farmers we must work for too many, try to farm 
with brains and no labor. Our intelligence should guard our 
wealth from wily politicians and monied monopolies—our ener¬ 
gy relieve us from the evils we suffer. 
To my sister before me with bronzed hands, not ashamed to 
wash dishes, and able to perform the culinary duties of her 
household, we would say, you need not envy the butterfly who 
sweeps the street of the city with her ten dollar silk. Wait a few 
days and look upon her as they bring her husband’s body from 
the river to the morgue. The coroner’s inquest says “suicide; ” 
I say, she murdered him ! 
The work of reform is the renovation of public sentiment. The 
remedy for farmer’s grievances is the ballot, not such collegiate 
education as President Twombly proposes. When he talks ren¬ 
ovation, it is useless unless men have brains given them by their 
mothers. You cannot expect to educate the idiotic. My Granger 
friends propose to reform things by secret combination and dark 
lantern meetings. Eailroads represent a capital of three billion 
dollars controlled by six men. They command, the telegraph 
wings their message, and their satellites execute their wishes as 
willing slaves. Farmers represent a capital of nine biilioDs in the 
hands of millions of agriculturists, who cannot be combined as 
a unit. The Grangers do not have a pioper conception of the vast¬ 
ness of these things. The American government has gathered 
within its limits men from all nations and kindreds—here they 
all become citizens with sovereign power vested in each one,alone. 
Eailroads and manufactures are essential elements of our coun 
try. What we need is legislation to control them. We must tell 
the railroads to carry our wheat for so much, just as we tell the 
miller to take only so much toll, or the money lender so much in¬ 
terest. When secret societies tell us to reform without political 
action it can not be done. We must educate to vote. Politicians 
are like the nightingale in Cowper’s tale. She sang all day, when, 
feeling the pangs of hunger she looked around and saw the glow 
