The Argument

The person who works his own land for a living is usually a strong individualist. He looks to the earth, rather than to persons, for his livelihood. He does not cater. If, in any country, he patronizes, it is because of his social position, not because he is a farmer.

This individualism conduces to isolation of ideas. The farmer’s work is founded on personal experience; and when he is not able to analyze his experience or to understand it, he falls into the experience-routine of the season, and his ideas become crystallized.

The first or original real occupation was the management of land. It is the basic occupation. Out of it most other occupations and trades have developed. The constructive and imaginative spirits took to these newer trades, and the conservative forces tended to remain on the land.

As the demands of civilization have developed, and particularly as world-competition has arisen, the isolation-ideals of the land-worker have been more and more inadequate to meet the conditions. A new type of mind has been forced on him. As community-ideas have evolved, fellow land-workers have assumed new relations to each other. As the community-sense has grown into nationalism, and as loyalty to the person of a local leader or ruler has developed into patriotism, the organization of society—or the government—has felt the necessity of interfering with the land-worker, as with other workers, for the benefit of society at large.

Governmental Interference

Back to outline...

With the enlargement of the necessities of mankind, and the organization of society, therefore, the land-worker has been pressed by two opposite and somewhat opposing forces,—the necessity of improving his own practice, and the necessity of being compelled to adopt certain methods and points of view in the interest of the community and the state. There is self-help and governmental interference. The inter-relationships of these personal and external forces constitute one of the most important and difficult questions concerned with farming and politics. They are questions of adjustment between the self-help and the state-help forces as expressed in the complex terms of present society. One force works from the inside outward, the other from the outside inward. Both are essential. I propose to examine some phases of these questions that are suggested by current movements and discussions.

Governmental interference with persons is of two kinds,—that which concerns the larger relation of each man to society in general, and that which applies directly to the particular occupation, trade or profession. In the first division are questions of taxation, tariffs, conduct and the fundamental laws. In the second division, so far as the farmer is concerned, are questions of agricultural education, regulation of diseases of live-stock and crops, the establishment of institutions or agencies—as state stud farms—that provide him with direct facilities for improving his methods, and special applications of general laws. It is only some phases of the second class of governmental interference that I propose to discuss in this volume, although I suspect that some of the general laws need rather radical overhauling, if the farmer is to be dealt with in perfect justice. My present theme is this: What is it wise and legitimate for governments to do in aid of the farmer, and how, in general, may it be accomplished? In developing the discussion, all I hope to do is to establish a point of view. The instances and examples are cited as illustrations of what I mean to teach, rather than as specific problems that I would here work out.

Produced by Communication and Educational Technology Services, University of Minnesota Extension.

In accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, this material is available in alternative formats upon request. Please contact your University of Minnesota Extension office or the Extension Store at (800) 876-8636.

University of Minnesota Extension is committed to the policy that all persons shall have equal access to its programs, facilities, and employment without regard to race, color, creed, religion, national origin, sex, age, marital status, disability, public assistance status, veteran status, or sexual orientation.