We don't say he's the one and only when it comes to
the virtues. Maybe he hasn't sprouted any wings yet. What if he hasn't?
The cities, with their brothels, their big business, and their municipal
governments--you wouldn't have the face to say that there's anything wrong
with them, now would you? Oh, no! Of course not! The farmer pays high for
his machinery and goes clear to the bottom of his pocketbook when he has
to buy shoes or a sack of flour, but let him have a steer's hide or a
wagon load of wheat to sell, and it's somebody else's ox that's gored.
Consumers pay big prices for farm products, goodness knows, but they don't
pay them to the farmer. Not on your tintype. The middleman gets his, you
needn't question that. We beg pardon a thousand times. We mean the
middle_men_. There's no end to those human parasites.
And so farmer after farmer breaks up the old homestead and contributes his
mite to the drift cityward. What will be the result that comes out of it
all? The effect upon the farmer deserves an editorial all to itself. Here
we must limit ourselves to the effects on the future of our beloved
American nation. And even these we can now do no more than mention; we
lack space to elaborate them.
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