Hmm. Show me three people mentioned in three separate lines with the most tenuous of links between them, and I'll show you a poor example of journalistic writing. Didn't they know about paragraph transitions back in 1883?
The farmer might have been a Marxist, but it sure looks like he was testifying on behalf of his own rational self-interest, as well as claiming that reducing his material costs (dare I say by reducing a "tax?") would benefit employees.