Life — May 15, 1924 — page 7: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# "The Independent Farmer" - Political Satire This poem by Arthur Guiterman celebrates the "Independent Farmer" as a virtuous figure who avoids urban vices—the "Wicked City" with its gambling, drinking, and moral corruption. The farmer maintains integrity through hard work and temperance. The illustration shows two figures in rural dress discussing farming life, with farmhouses and agricultural activity in the background. The caption quotes advice against voting, suggesting farmers should avoid Washington politics, which the poem implies would compromise their independence and virtue. This reflects early 20th-century agrarian ideology: farmers as morally superior to urban populations, and political detachment as preferable to involvement in what was viewed as a corrupt system. It romanticizes rural life as a bastion of American virtue against urban decadence.