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occur more rapidly than man has been able to adapt himself to them. Within the trifling space of a half century there have been greater changes in the conditions of life than had before occurred in any five hundred years of the world's history. With all his marvelous power to adapt himself to natural conditions, man has not been able to modify his own nature as rapidly as he has modified his environment. The result is the distress which we see in the classes and the individuals whose habits and impulses are most fixed. It is found in all ranks of society, but we are now concerned with it only as the farmer is affected.

In comparing the classes of men with respect to their material prosperity, it is convenient to divide them roughly into capitalists and non-capitalists. By the former I mean at this time all who live by the application of their labor to property owned or controlled by themselves, as opposed to those who live by the sale of their labor only. Under this classification the farmer would, of course, be placed in the capitalistic class. The farmer is at a disadvantage in his material conditions as compared with other property-owning classes, because he knows less about his business than they know about theirs. This was not always the case, his relative retrogression being due to the fact that in his isolated life he has not been so well able as others to keep pace with modern progress. The tendency and inevitable result of this condition is to deprive farmers, beginning with the weakest, of their property, and reduce them to the condition of dependents; and nothing can change that tendency or prevent that consummation except the general diffusion among farmers of such business education as will prevent them from engaging in unprofitable enterprises. The annual cost of the information. necessary for the profitable conduct of a farm under modern conditions, however, is more than the revenue from the farm will pay after supporting its owner in reasonable comfort; and the alternative confronting the small farmer is combination with his fellows for educational and other purposes, or gradual extinction.

In order to make this clear, let us consider for a moment what must befall the farmer if he does not educate himself;

and we must remember that nature is relentless and remorseless; the quality of mercy is unknown to her; she does not consider abuses but conditions, and, whether weakness is occasioned by misfortune or perverseness, the penalty is the same, and is death. To fully understand this we must leave farm life for a little and see what the evolutionists say. Evolutionists are mostly professors, a breed which some of us farmers do not esteem very highly, often referring to them as "fellows with a lot of theories," using the term in the contemptuous sense of vague speculations with no basis save in the mind of the speculator. This, again, is because we do not know that the science of modern days is built upon facts ascertained and verified with a patience and precision of which we farmers have very little conception. The scientific man does not, as we sometimes vainly imagine, spend his days and nights in rapt but dreamy contemplation of the infinite, but, on the contrary, is mostly concerned with minute detail; he dissects pollywogs, and extracts the bones from dead and bad-smelling fish, which he patiently compares with the petrified relics and imprints of those that died years ago. This he does, not because he likes to clean fish or break rock, but because he seeks to learn what has been the rule of life in all ages, inferring therefrom what now the rule is and what it shall be. The collection of actual facts-verified by men. trained to observe, upon which modern science now rests, is amazing, and daily the store is increased. After some lives have been spent in gathering and classifying facts in a certain line, the mass begins to take shape, so that some law running through it can apparently be discerned; and with that law assumed to be true, more lives are spent in patiently collecting other facts and comparing them with the assumed law; if all facts as verified harmonize with the working hypothesis, the law is strengthened and gradually tends to become part of settled science; but if one undoubted essential fact be discovered inconsistent with that law, the whole edifice of reasoning is destroyed and the work of rebuilding must be patiently begun. Hence science must, above all things, be sure of its facts, and so endeavors to be.

The facts thus collected, verified, classified, and analyzed

through all time until now show that all life has one law, and this law, at first merely assumed, by long-continued observations is now considered settled and part of science-one of the things which we know as well as we can know anything in this world; it is a law that has so far run through all time, operates now, and, so far as can be seen or judged, will always operate; it applies alike to the birds of the air, the trees of the forest, the floating microbes about, and to man himself; it is universal, unchanging.

This law is that the only condition under which any species can maintain itself is by the introduction of a greater number of individuals than existing conditions will sustainthe survival of the fittest, and the death of the unfit. Could this process be checked, the species would degenerate, because individuals of all species greatly differ in the qualities to secure sustenance from their environment; and were all to propagate and transmit their qualities alike, the total result of vigor would be less than if only the strongest survived and left descendants; and it is necessary that the aggregate vigor shall constantly increase in order to cope with increasing difficulties caused by the increasing pressure of population.

The operation of this law upon man, as distinguished from other forms of life, is modified by the fact that man has reason. As his numbers press upon the means of subsistence, he is able, of his own volition, to add to those means. The races which have least of this quality die. It is evident that the present population of America could not live without better means of obtaining subsistence than the red Indians had, or have been able to acquire. The time will come when existing populations will not be able to subsist without better means than we now have.

If all this be true it follows that the weaker farmers will be unable to sustain themselves; the weaker farmers will be those who direct their labor least wisely; these again will be those who know least. It is, therefore, a logical necessity that those farmers who expect to live as such shall adapt themselves to their changed environment by acquiring the information necessary to enable them to sustain themselves under their changed conditions.

CHAPTER IV.

T

THE HOPE OF THE FARMER.

HE present generation has the means to produce comfortable subsistence for all. I do not know that this

is or can be scientifically settled, but I think no one disputes it, and I shall assume it. This subsistence, however, is very unequally distributed. Looking into this further, we see that in the long run those who know most have most; those who know most about matters which directly concern their own income have most money, accumulating a surplus which they can not use; those who know most about things which affect the incomes of mankind generally, have most honor, usually in addition assuring themselves of comfortable subsistence. Knowledge which affects nobody's income is worthless, and is not sought.

It is best to make clear this money value of knowledge. Of course all I can say may be admitted in advance, and yet those who admit it may not after all know it, because real knowledge inevitably influences action. We do not touch a red-hot stove, because we know it will burn us. If in that sense we knew the danger of ignorance, which is just as real, we should strive for knowledge at any cost. The only real knowledge is that which we habitually and unconsciously act upon. Any so-called knowledge which comes short of that is mere vague impression, unavailable for practical use. Now, although it can not be actually demonstrated, I am sure that the incomes of those engaged in any business vary almost in a direct ratio with the number of essential facts pertaining to that business which they know accurately and certainly. Of course it is true that individuals greatly vary in capacity and vigor, but then it is the smart and strong who know. All that the weaker and less capable can do to maintain equality is to study more hours, to toil more nights and days. It is knowl

edge that brings the income. Farmers are apt to denounce the great salaries paid in some walks of life, but they are nearly always the price paid for knowledge, or supposed knowledge, at market rates. The farmer who prefers the life of a banker has merely to know better than any one else what property is safest to lend money on, and to make his ability known; some bank will soon want him. Farmers are large borrowers, and as they are apt to seek loans which they have not the knowledge to use wisely, the bank president must be a better judge of the possible profits of farming than the farmer himself, lest the bank's funds be invested where they can not be got back when wanted. This means a high salary for the bank officer, which goes to reduce the profit of the farmer; for ignorance must pay its own bills. If farmers could know enough about their own business to make loans to them certain to be so wisely used as to pay interest promptly and the principal at maturity, a less expensive man could lend them money, and the farmer's profits be so much increased.

I have said that the most capable know most, and consequently get most. Fortunately it is not necessary for us all to know as much as the most capable. Nature requires that we know enough to get a living, and kills us if we do not; but she does not concern herself with great accumulations. If we are strong enough and know enough to make such accumulations, she does not mind it, and, if necessary, will kill off such weaker ones as may stand in our way; but if we attempt to accumulate beyond our strength, she will kill us for that, too. All she requires is that we be warmed and well nourished, and our minds kept free from worry, but for the lack of those, whether with or without our own fault, no excuse will be taken.

Since evolution teaches that the penalty of ignorance is death, it is well to understand just what the evolutionist means by death; we may be dying, and not know it. Evidently the evolutionist does not mean that the ignorant shall fall down. in their tracks and give up the ghost, or even that within a short time they shall all disappear and leave no sign. He

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