Jasper County Democrat, Volume 23, Number 53, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 September 1920 — WHAT AND WHY IS A FARMER? [ARTICLE]

WHAT AND WHY IS A FARMER?

A Term That Is Being Overworked by Some Politician*. Warren T. McCray, who is wanting to be Indiana so badly that he can taste it, says, in ' his campaign speeches —to farmer audiences —that he is a farmer. Looey, of the Rensselaer Republican, says too, that Mr. McCray is a farmer. Of course, Noah Webster would perhaps be considered a little oldfashioned in these days of airships and see-more skirts, yet he is still the generally accepted authority on definition, and he said of the term farmer: | One who farms; a cultivator of soil as a steward or tenant; who tills the soil, etc. I Now Mr. McCray is not a tenant; he does not live on a farm and has not since he was a small boy, when his father moved to Kentland and engaged in the banking business, a business that descended to the son. He is not a tiller of the soil, probably never having plowed a furrbw in his life —even with a modern sulky or tractor plow. He probably never planted or plowed a row of corn or husked a bushel of corn in the 56 years he has been on earth. He is not a steward, for Webster says a steward is a “household officer on a lord’s estate having charge of the cattle.” Webster also says that “the farmer is always a practioneer.” That is, that he is an actual “tiller 'of the soil.” Therefore this lets Mr. McCray out all around and leaves one to form the conclusion that he is seeking the governorship of Indiana under false pretenses. i His Orchard stock farm is looked after by a “steward,” a highsalaried manager; “a household officer on a lord’s estate having charge of the cattle.” i George A. WSlliams, the Republic--1 an candidate for judge of this judicial circuit, might also be termed a farmer by Looey, as George owns a farm and drives out in his car once in awhile to see if the farm is still there. But Mr. Williams is not making his campaign for judge as “Farmer Williams.” Then we have other “farmers” in Rensselaer besides Mr. Williams. Among the lawyers have Judge Hanley, John A. Dunlap, Frank Foltz and E. P. Honan; among the bankers, Judson J. Hunt, James H. Chapman and James N. Leatherman; among the doctors, I. M. Washburn, A. R. Kresler; among the merchants, G. E. Murray, John Eger, W. O. Rowles, O. F. Parker; among the j druggists, J. A. Larsh and B. F. Fendig; butchers, J. J. Eigelsbach 'and Roth Bros. Several of these j horny-handed “farmers” havp and do । perform a little labor once in awhile when they drive out to their possessions and some of them spent their early life on a farm, yet they would not have the collosal nerve to go before the farmers of Jasper county, where they are well known, swell out theli* chests and ask fortheir political support on the

grounds that they, too, are “farmers.” They are also too honest to go ' among people where they are not ■ known on any such plea as this. | The farmer dodge by politicians of this~type is an insult to the real tillers of the soil and should be । resented at the polls. I