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Show TAFT AS A FARMER. r . k "Whilo IIr.,Taft talks to famicrs about farming he is on safe ground. Naturally they know more of the subject than ho doesj hut his willingness to instruct will please them, and if' lie should give any bad advice they not only would decline to be misled, but, re-1 re-1 garding him as a well meaning amateur, readily excuse him, says the Los Angeles Tribune. It is true that the farmers are learning. Agriculture as a calling has within the last few years assumed a new dignity, and the farmer, farm-er, no longer a mere toiler of the fields, 'understands the values of soil, the nature of the crops thcywill produce, the necessity for scientific sci-entific fertilization. He is still leaning in the direction of conserving conserv-ing the land, moan-while making the most of its productive capacity. Moreover, he has begun to realize his own importance in the economic eco-nomic scheme, and to glory in that independence which comes to him more fully and freely than to any other man who earns his living liv-ing by labor. He is his own master. No employer prescribes for him a starvation wage and none may hold over him the threat of discharge. Bu while the farmer has been acquiring extremely practical knowledge' of his own profession he has learned, too, that he has "'been robbed of much of the fruits of his endeavor. Of the millions of dollars his crops, his butter and eggs, bring in the market, he gets but a tithe. The profits go to a lily-fingered middleman. The farmer farm-er is asking why. lie is asking how it is that the millionaire manufacturer, manu-facturer, who lives in a palace and has other palaces at Newport or in the mountains, gets all the protection desired and more than needed, and the farmer has so little. He is curious as to the impure food offered to consumers when there is such abundance of pure food available, and as to how it was that the agricultural department depart-ment tried to oust Dr. Wiley, who detected and denounced the impure im-pure stuff, and sought vainly to shield the people from gaudily labeled la-beled near -poisons. , (Farmers as farmers do, not need any presidential hints. They are posted on drainage, and aware of the amount of corn that will fatten a hog. If the president will explain why he defended a schedule sched-ule that he had declared indefensible they might be grateful. When they desire to be students of agriculture the finest of colleges are open to them. Even the agricultural department has at times served a purpose, Mr. Taft is a jurist and a president and politician, but probably he could not plow tx straight furrow nor drive a mower "What the farmers want from him is an explanation of his o'wn policies, poli-cies, and nbt counsel as to seedtime and harvest. |