Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 19, Number 2, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 September 1897 — ANNUAL MEETING OF FARMERS. [ARTICLE]

ANNUAL MEETING OF FARMERS.

National Congress Convenes at St. Paul—President’s Address. The seventeenth meeting of the Farmers’ National Congress of the United States was called to order at St. Paul, Minn., in the hall of representatives, by President B. F. Clayton of Indianola, lowa. The opening session was not largely attended. The delegate representation in the congress does not at its maximum exceed 500. The morning session was devoted largely to the matter of a formal welcome, and, following an invocation by Archbishop Ireland, the congress was greeted by Mayor Doran for St. Paul, by President Weaver for the Agricultural Society and by Gov. Clough for the State, and to these addresses responses were made by John M. Stahl of Illinois, secretary of the congress, and B. F. Clayton of lowa, president. In his annual address President Clayton said: The farmer reads little, and Is often doubtful that he Is the better from that little; from it he learns more things to brood over without finding a remedy. The little glimpses he obtains of the world in what he reads intensifies Ms prejudices and does not prepare him to cope with apparent Ills. He brushes so little against a world of wMch he Is so important a part that the world practically Ignores his existence. He Is enumerated In the tables of population, but expunged from statistical lists of the nation's representatives. He Is enrolled on the tax list, but canceled In the catalogue of those who levy taxes. He Is registered in the poll book, but disfranchised of the privileges and Immunities of a citizen. Whether the farmers of America will assert their sovereignty remains to be seen. No one conscious of his f>ower will willingly remain a slave, but it s strength and Intellect and mind which must win in all economic struggles. Those engaged In agricultural pursuits aro a m&jorlty of all the people, yet we cannot If we would close our eyes to the fact that tMs majority Is practically without voice In shaping public affairs. I am not an alarmist; I take no pride In making war on any organization or institution that has for its object the greatest good to the greatest number of people. I bld them godspeed and a magnificent success In all legitimate enterprises; but I hope and believe there will never come an hour when the Congress of the United S.tates will purposely give its consent to the building up of trusts and combinations for the control of the prices of the necessaries of human existence. Secretary Stahl of Chicago read his report, in which he said: Mr. Hatch, for so many years chairman of the House Committee on Agriculture, said a. short time before bls death: “The Farmers’ National Congress has more Influence with the Congress of the United States than all other agricultural organizations combined.” The Influence Is well shown In the agricultural schedule of the Dingley bill. The Farmers’ National Congress was the only agricultural organization seriously to champion the farmers’ Interests at the special session that enacted th’at law. I am happy to report that the influence of this Congress has been powerful in securing needed good-roads legislation in several States, and also other legislation beneficial to our agricultural Interest*.