American Farmers
by Wheeler McMillen
We are American farmers.
We are Americans. We are farmers.
Our grandsires freed this virgin continent,
plowed it from East to West, and gave it to us.
This land is for us and for our children to
make richer and more fruitful.
We grow foods, fibers -- fifteen times as
much as we use.
We grow men and women -- farmers, Presidents, and Senators, generals of industry,
captains of commerce, missionaries, builders.
Communists would call us capitalists, because we own land and we own tools.
Capitalists might choose to call us laborers,
because we work with our hands.
Others may call us managers, because we
direct men and manage materials.
Our children call us "Dad."
We are also deacons, stockholders, mechanics, veterinarians, electricians, school
board members, Rotarians, voters, scientists,
neighbors, men of good will.
Our rules are Nature's rules, the laws of
God.
We command the magic of the seasons and
the miracles of science, because we obey Nature's rules.
Our raw materials are soil and seed, animals, the atmosphere and the rain, and the mighty sun.
We work with brains. We toil with muscles
of steel, fed by the fires of lightning and by
oils from the inner earth.
We are partners with the laboratory, with
the factory, and with all the people.
We provide industry with ever-renewable
raw materials from the inexhaustible world of
plants. We buy products from the labor of
every fellow-citizen.
Our efficiencies have raised great cities and
happy towns, and have given all the people
meat and bread.
We believe in work and in honor
We believe in freedom.
We are grateful for the American freedom
that has let us earn so many blessings.
We know that liberty is our most precious
possession. At the ballot-boxes and on the
battlefield we shall defend it.
We have proven a new pattern of abun-
dance. We pray that we may also help to
make a pattern for peace.
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