There are certain offices which ought to seek the man, and certain others which it is proper for the man to seek. Roughly the line may be drawn between those positions which require the entire time, and yield a livelihood, and those which involve only a partial service and whose pecuniary rewards are trifling. The latter offices should seek the man. No man who is fit for a legislative office will willingly seek it, except occasionally a young man who is smitten with political "ambition" and sees in such an opening the beginning of a political "career." While it is a misfortune to any one to desire a political career, yet an ambition of that kind is entirely honorable. No such ambition, however, should have any weight with the voters. The men whom they need in legislative positions are the solid, substantial, successful men whose own success betokens their good judgment, and who have weight in their own communities. Such men will very seldom seek any office, but will usually accept it if tendered. What fariners should do is to make their influence felt in securing the tender of nominations to men of that kind. They are not likely to do so, however, nor is any change from present customs likely to be effected in the near future. It will not, therefore, be profitable to pursue this subject further, but it has seemed proper to point out that for economic reasons farmers should exert themselves to make sure that those who levy taxes upon them, and determine for what purposes the public funds shall be expended, shall be men of sound judgment and good repute. It is in legislative positions that opportunities for corruption exist. Large sums of money are often expended to procure nomination and election to such positions. Why is this?-If the candidates are rich, it may be pride or political ambition. If they are not well off, and are spending money freely, they should be defeated if possible. There are no emoluments to such positions which can be accepted by honest men. When money is expended to elect a poor man to fill them, it almost invariably happens that some private interest is supplying it, which will expect to control the vote.

In great campaigns enormous sums of money are spent.

Bonfires, halls, brass bands, uniforms, torch lights, and all the paraphernalia which are used to awaken enthusiasm, cost money. Who pays it? Whoever it is, he expects his reward. It may be a suitable reward which is proper to be given. It may be the reverse. In any case the farmer and the public are entitled to know the facts. Such expenses are legitimate and necessary when not on an extravagant scale, and it is creditable to any one who is able to do so to contribute to the success of his party. It is entirely proper, therefore, that the names of those who contribute shall be made public. If they are not, and there is any unwillingness to disclose them upon request, the farmer may surely know that it is for some reason which will not bear the light, and concerns the control of men and measures in private interests. It is money spent to humbug the farmer into voting for he knows not what. The money whose contributors are unwilling to be known should never be spent in political campaigns. The key-note of a campaign for political party should be a demand for the publication of the names of contributors to party treasuries. Whenever an election of a Legislature is pending which is to elect a United States senator, it is not unusual for a candidate for that office to pay the election expenses of all candidates which can be got to accept such aid. It is seldom that these candidates can themselves afford the expenses. Who does really meet them? It can seldom be proven, but it is a matter that farmers should take note of, although it is a matter in which they can not protect themselves by giving their vote to the other party, for all parties are alike, but they can sometimes do the right thing by voting for the party which seems to be poor. Poverty is the most honorable condition for a political party.

There is another class of offices, including most appointive offices, and all those about county seats and state capitals which afford a means of living for a term of years. If any one is foolish enough to desire them it is proper to seek them, and to be at reasonable expense to obtain them. In this case the public can usually see who pays the expense, and understand why he pays it. The man pays the money to get the office because he wants it. If the voter likes him, let him vote for

him. If he prefers some one else, let him cast his vote accordingly. With none of these administrative positions should "politics" have anything to do. Their incumbents are employed by the public to perform certain duties laid down in the law. Sometimes they have opportunities to steal, and do so. Usually they discharge their duties honestly. It is in the legislative positions connected with state and local governments that there is most danger of corruption, and the voter has his greatest safeguard against dishonesty in these, when he knows whose money is spent to elect the candidate.

CHAPTER VI.·

T

THE DISCONTENT OF THE FARMER.

HE subject of this chapter includes the relation of the farmer to himself and to mankind. The farmer mingles

less than others with other men, and so tends to become introspective to think about himself. This, when carried to extremes, always produces a morbid condition of mind, as is shown in criminals condemned to solitary confinement, who tend to become insane. There is no doubt that the comparatively isolated life of the farmer often produces an unhealthy condition of mind, of which the leading symptom is an unreasonable discontent with his own lot. I do not mean by this that all discontent of the farmer is unreasonable, but that some of it is, and that it is often hard to distinguish between that which is and that which is not reasonable.

In discussing the relation of the farmer to the politicians I have had occasion to point out the low esteem in which the intelligence and astuteness of the farming class is held by those whose trade it is to induce masses of men to vote as they desire, and the same feeling is prevalent to a considerable degree among all classes of men and with regard to all classes of subjects. The business world does not believe in the mental competence of the farmer.

I do not think this popular judgment upon the farmer's capacity well founded. I think the farming class contains as large a proportion of vigorous although untrained minds as any other class, but they are, for the most part, inarticulate. The habit and environment of the farmer are not favorable to the practice of oral or written speech, nor has he at command the library facilities wherewith to fortify himself for public utterance. It is also true that the majority of farmers, like the majority of other classes, are occupied in transacting business rather than in thinking upon its principles. Finally they

suffer in the estimation of mankind from the utterances of their self-constituted champions. As with workingmen, the mercantile class, and even lawyers, the capacity of farmers for public speech is often in an inverse ratio to their practical wisdom, and the desire to engage in it is very apt to be in such ratio. The deliverances of men and organizations in whose judgment the substantial farmers themselves have little confidence, are assumed to be the opinions of the great body of farmers, from whom, in fact, we really hear very little.

So far as the farmer is discontented it is because he is unable to obtain from the products of his farm the satisfactions which he desires. This covers the entire subject, and so far as the mere statement of the causes of his discontent is concerned, this chapter might well end here. When I have said all that I shall say, this will be the final summing up. But in this the farmer is not peculiar. The majority of mankind are in the same condition. The workman-skilled and unskilled-is also discontented because the sum of his possible sacrifices will not secure the aggregate of his desired satisfactions. So is the merchant, the lawyer, the doctor, and the money lender.

If it be said here that I should confine myself to such causes of discontent as affect only the farmer, I may say that if I am to deal with real causes, and not their mere operation or manifestation, I know of none which do not operate upon all classes alike, nor do I believe there are such. One law seems to me to govern mankind. Its violation always, and sometimes its fulfilment, causes suffering; and suffering, discontent. Through all nature runs the grim story that the strong survive and the weak perish, and that discontent lies mostly with the weaker. I do not find that well-to-do farmers, or shop-keepers, or workingmen suffer very much, or that they are possessed of any but that rational discontent which we usually call ambition, and which is the mainspring of progress.

It is then with the poorer farmers that we have mostly to deal in considering the causes of such discontent as is the result of real suffering from economic causes. Almost invariably these will be found in debt beyond their ability to pay.