Address To The Farmers
Performed by Woodrow Wilson
Recorded September 24, 1912
I remember reading of a great day in the
year 1775, when certain farmers took their guns
in their hands and gathered into groups along
the roads that led from Lexington in Massachusetts
to Boston, and there quietly lay in order to
intercept British troops who had come up on
an errand aimed at the liberties of the colonies.
And I have often heard, since that day, men
speak of the embattled farmers at Lexington.
Well, there are going to be embattled farmers
again in the history of this country. Not with
guns in their hands, but with ballots in their
hands, who are going to come back and claim
the sovereignty which they share with the rest
of the people of the United States. I do not
wish anything I say to be understood as embattling
the farmers against any other great legitimate
interest in this country, because our task at
the present moment is the task of understanding
one another so thoroughly that there will be
only one cause, only one purpose, and men acting
together can lift all the levels of our political
life. The farmers of this country, however,
are in a very interesting position. I have seen
the interests of a great many classes specially
regarded in legislation, but I must frankly
say that I have never seen the interests of
the farmer very often regarded in legislation,
and one of the greatest impositions upon the
farmers in this country that has ever been devised
is the present tariff legislation of the United
States. I have never heard anybody but orators
on the stump say that the tariff was intended
for the benefit of the farmer. When the United
States was the granary of the world the farmers
were not looking for protection, and while they
were not looking, everything else had duties
put upon it, and the cost of everything that
they had to use was raised upon them until now
it is almost impossible for them to make a legitimate
profit. While you were feeding the world, Congress
was feeding the trusts. I wish again to disavow
all intentions of suggesting to the farmer that
he go in and do somebody up. All that I am suggesting
to you is that you break into your own house
and live there, and I want you to examine very
critically the character of the tenants who
have been occupying it. The rent has been demanded
of you and not of them. You have paid the money
which enabled them to live in your own house and dominate your own premises. The tariff intimately
concerns the farmer of this country. It makes
a great deal of difference to you that Mr. Taft
vetoed the Steel Bill. It makes a difference
to you in the cost of practically every tool
that you use upon the farm, and it is very significant
that a Democratic House of Representatives passed
the Steel Tariff Reduction Bill over the Presidents
veto. The farmer pays just as big a proportion
of the tariff duties as anybody else. What happened
in the Congress which has just recently adjourned?
The House of Representatives with the acquiescence
of a Senate, which is not Democratic, passed
the Farmers Free List Bill. It put agriculture
implements lumber, shingles, salt, bagging
and ties on the free list. Then what happened
to the bill? It was vetoed by the President
because, consciously or unconsciously, he represents
not the people of the United States, but those
who have held the peoples power and trust for
their own purposes.