Fifty years on the firing line

James W. Witham, born in 1856, was a journalist and advocate for the rights and concerns of farmers. In Fifty Years on the Firing Line, Witham traces his childhood in Ohio and his political coming of age in the Midwest during the mid-nineteenth century. While working as a farm laborer in Nebraska and Iowa, Witham started canvassing for farmer's rights in a farmer's paper, The Western Rural, a practice he continued for many years. In the fall of 1878, he met the populist leader, Gen. James B. Weaver, the first of many influential political leaders who became the subjects of his writing. He wrote about the origins of the Farmer's Alliance organization while playing a role in its formation. By 1882, he was attending state legislative sessions in Iowa, Nebraska, and Minnesota as a reporter and advocate. In this book, he discusses some of the legislative struggles that pitted farmers against big business and offers reasons why farmers should be allowed to form organizations to advocate their cause. Witham also criticizes the practice of railroad companies providing free riding privileges to journalists and elected public officials, contending that this practice biased these professions in favor of the railroads. He became well-known for his advice columns in the St. Paul Daily News, signed as "The Cornfield Philosopher." The bulk of Witham's experiences discussed here reflect his long residency in Iowa. There is, however, a wealth of information about Minnesota politics of the 1910s and early 1920s.