Rensselaer Republican, Volume 26, Number 9, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 October 1893 — FARMERS ON DECK. [ARTICLE]

FARMERS ON DECK.

Opening of the Congress on Agriculture at Chicago. —— r.' Representative* from the New and Old World Compare Methode—Lady Somerset Brin js Greeting from Franco* Willard Secretary Morton'* Address. With oratory and music the Congress on Agriculture was opened at Chicago, Monday, in the presence of SOO men and women. It is worthy of note that the first of all the long series of congresses held, numbering more than 200, to be opened with music of a high order and music which was heartily appreciated, was the Farmers’ Congress. Among the prominent persons upon the platform were: Mrs. Potter Palmer, Mrs. Charles Henrotin, Samual D. Allerton, W. I. Buchanan, Marshal McDonald, Chief United States Fish Commissioner; B. E. Fernow, Chief of the Division of Forestry, Department of Agriculture; W. L, Williams, Theodore Butterworth, Mrs. John Wilkinson, Milton George, Prof. G. E. Morrow, Mrs. Laura D. Worley, Count and Countess di Brazza, Miss Jeane Sorabjl, Lady Henry Somerset, Prof. T. Mlnami of K Japan. H. M. Kiretchjla, Turkey; Col. J. M. Jones, Nampa, Idaho. The proceedings were opened with prayer by Dr. E. M. Wherry. President Bonney made the opening address. He said:

The centrifugal force of society is too weak. The result is that the rural districts are impoverished while the cities are overcrowded. It is the chief object of this congress to promote such changes as will finally result in a well established and permanent return tide of the highest and best mental and moral culture from the cities to the farms, thus enormously increasing human prosperity and happiness. We would so change the conditions of farm life that through the world the farmer’s home would be a more attractive abode than the city tenement. The preliminary work has been done, public attention has been aroused, and a great revolution in the condition and enjoyments of the agricultural classes will now be re garded as assured. The farmer should, generally speaking, be one of the best educated of men. He has such opportunities as few others can command. Why. then, is the farmer not more generally prosperous and happy? It is because he does not more fully improve his opportunity. La-bor-saving machines have increased the time at his command, but this additional time has not been used for the best advantage. The remedies for the grievances of the agricultural classes are in their own hands. They can control the destinies of the world if they will. Addresses wore then made by S. W. Allerton and others.

Then Lady Somerset was presented. The audience greeted her enthusiastically. She said that she brought a greeting from Fraces Willard, who was prevented by illness from coming. “Tell them,” said Miss Willard, “that a farmer’s daughter sends a farmer’s daughter’s greeting. What I have been able to accomplish for humanity I learned on my father’s farm in Wisconsin ” Lady Henry said the fact that an English land owner should be so heartily received in a gathering of American farmers was the best possible augury for the future. The world was beginning to learn there was something better than individual possession. When she had finished speaking a grayhaired man arose and proposed that the audience rise as a tribute of respect and good will to Frances Willard. With a rustle the hundreds in the crowded hall rose to their feet and stood in silence.

“This is the greeting,” -said President Bonney to Lady Henry, ‘jthat you are to take to Saint Frances,” and the audience applauded. Then came the event of the evening, an address by J. Sterling Morton, Secretary of A griculture. He said: During the late pertubation in the field of finance and commerce the farmers of this country have suffered loss than any other class. In their homes the sheriff has appeared but seldom. Among their farms no processions of the unemployed have marched. All through the'last six months the farmers have furnished fewer failures, less of protested paper and'leastof want of all the employments of humanity in this great republic. But the American farmer has foes to contend with. The most insidious and destructive foe to the farmer is the professional farmer the promoter of granges and alliances, who for political purposes farms the farmer. It is true that American farm life is isolated and that in the newer sections there is too little of social pleasure and festivity, but my hope for the future of the farmer is not based on gregariousness. He. will not succeed better by forming' granges and alliances, which generally seek to attend to some other business than farming, and frequently propose to run railroads and banks, and oven propose to establish new systems of coinage for the Government, than he will by individual investigations of economic questions. Humanity generally, and the farmer particularly, has no ; enemy equal in efficiency for evil greater than ignorance, therefore each tiller of the son should investigate for himself various methods of cultivating lands, of producing good crops, and of securing remunerative markets. The one book which I can recommend the farmers for their perusal is Adam Smith’s “Wealth of Nations.” I would also have, if possible, a daily newspaper from a great city at every fireside. The daily newspaper is an educator because it leads out into full view every morningall the markets of the world; ft turns the light upon al) the causes of fluctuating markets; it constantly illustrates the truthfulness of that great sentence in political economy: “A market for products is products in market.” Hie present condition and his future Is assuredly an enviable one compared with that of all other pursuits of the people, Society should let the distribution of property alone. The only proper function of government is the conservation of life, liberty, and property. The home habit and the custom of conserving homes. In short, the lovei of home and land, is the basis of public tranquility, prosperity and safety. Permanent homes for all the people and as many of those homes in the country as possible are tho best instrumentalities for strengthening and perpetuating popular government. There must l>e a recession from city to rural life in the United States during the decade beginning with 1894, a readjustment, rather reapportionment of popnlation between city and country in the United States is demanded to insure the safety of the republic. Love of homo is primary patriotism, no conspiracies, no anarchy is evolved from tho quiet homes of the country, and to them and the sincere love of them the friends of democratic government must look for the preservation and perpetuation of civil liberty in America. While it is true that the poor man ta compelled to hump himself to own a bicycle, it isn’t the price alone that does it.