Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1884-12-10

OF our report is dead in a pigeon -hoI,
strangled by the Committee on Appropri;
tions. 1t remains for us to inform th
honorable gentlemen we have not don
with this measure, but that we mean I
carry it.
NOW, let us examine into the history {
the pteuro-P Pneumonia Bill. 1t passed il
deeu and became a law, but 80 altered an
emasculated for political reasons and pul
poses, which are no secret, that in it's fins
iorm 1t has proven inefficient, and now
Is certain that fearfully insidious plagu
mas invaded the great Northwest. Cattl
men, With bated breath, are now awaitin
IN anxious hope and trembling fear the rt
SUIT OF the prompt and skillful and until
ing efforts to check its progress by ths
able and valuable officer of the Nations
| Department of Agriculture, DIR. D. E. Sa
Saon, whom desire personally and off
claily to commend for the intelligence an
vigor of his conduct under difficulties man
and great. The persons in both branche
OF Congress who throw obstacles in tn
way OF the passage of an effective meas
ure, session after session, are well know
to the people of the country. There is
mark of public indignation upon thes
men, and if it shall be that this plague ha
taken permanent root in tho heart of th,
great cattle producing region, they will b,
driven forth, pursued by obloquy and wratl
whitherscever they shall turn. This is th,
calamity long foretold hy the ablest agri
cultural writers; the extent of it no man i.
now able to foresee, nor to foretell how
! disastrously 1t may come to react upor
| the business of the entire country.
Another proposition was urged upor
Congress through the chairman of YOU
committee, viz The elevation of the De
parment Of Agriculture and the creation Of
Minister of Agriculture at its head. That
proposition had been endorsed by nearly
every agricultural body or assembly
throughout the country. 1t had received
the unanimous support of the agricultural
press and agricultural writers and speakers
everywhere. 1t was received with laugh
ter and sneers. "What use," said some OF
them, "has agriculture for Cabinet Min.
lister? The thing is absurd, preposterous,
ridiculous. Instead of this idea being
preposterous and ridiculous, it is merely
borrowed from the practice of other agri-
cultural nations, among the most enlight-
ened and progressive of modern times.
We are not to be silenced by the dictum of
constitutional eXpounders who tell us 'stbe
word agriculture is not to. be found in the
Constitution. We understand the theory
of our government and the spirit of our
Constitution far better than these learned
gentlemen give us credit for. We will not
slavishly bow down to whatever political
Fetish is held up for our worship We
know full well this is not a constitutional
question at all, but merely question of
expeoiency, standing on precisely the same
footing as the establishment of the Depart
ment of the Interior, the Postoffice De-
partment or the Department of Justice
stood. As a question of expediency
and wisdom, we who are a clear majority
of the voters of the Union choose to
decide for ourselves that we will have
Minister of Agriculture, and if our
servants and representatives refuse to obey
our mandate we will choose in their stead
others who shall carry into effect the things
we have determined. The truth is, the
farmers of this country have so long been
regarded as political mud sills, and I fear
have so long accepted the position assigned
us, that politicians will not yet credit us
with the possession Of patriotism and in
formation and brains. | believe the time
has now come when it is our duty and de-
termination to change all that. Gentle
men, | affirm that Congress could not be
brought, and, as at present constituted,
believe can never be brought, to- give
serious and statesmanlike consideration to
any measure originating with the agricul-
tural class, however important to the well
fare Of the uation. 1t is supremely neces-
sary for US to take dispassionate and bu-
siness-like view of the situation. 1t is nv
conviction that we should firmly insist upon
the creation of a Department of Agricul-
ture, whose chief shall be a constitutional
adviser of the President, equal in dignity,
influence, and power with every other Off
Ger of the Cabinet. In that way, and in
that way only, as l believe, that is to say,
by and through our Cabinet Minister, can
we hope or expect to gain for such meas
ures as may be vItally important to our
interests that wise and respectful cOnsid-
Grafton Which the welfare of all the people
demands. Does not every man we'll know
that extensive disaster cannot befall the
greatest and most essential of the indus
tees Of the nation without the evil conse-
quenees being felt by all the people.
Such disasters to business fall inevitably
with cruel and crushing effect upon the
poor of every class throughout the entire
land. Let us all stand together to protect
the poor and honest laboring man, and es-
pecially laboring women, who bear far the
greatest burden of the family. We may
safely leave the well -to-do and the rich to
defend themselves. In the name of our
common humanity, why do our representa-
ti,es refuse or fail to do whatever may be
lawfully and safely done to protect and
defend the greatest of all great industries,
the nursing mother of science and arts,
the source of all national greatness and
progress, splendor and power the founda-
tion of all sure and permanent wealth
We must learn to realize that the virgin
ity Of the soil of this vast and magificent
country is already despoiled and def1ower-
ed, much of its fertility is already wasted,
yet nothing is done by this atnrepresentatire
government, to stay the destroyer's hand,
nor to rescue the national domain from the
plunderer, nothing done to enforce or en-
courage the restoration of the waste places.
To all this our legislators and would be
masters have one scornful reply, viz, ''the
word agriculture is not to be found in the
Constitution. 1t must stand alone and
unprotected, help itself as best it may.
Thousands and thousands of acres once
fertile and productive, are to-day grown up
in brush and pines, the hab1tation of foxes
and wolves, and armies of our agricultural
laborers are forced westward, westward,
westwa ard, seeking new empires to destroy.
I'm old enough to remember when Ohio's
average wheat crop was thirty bushels per
acre; now barely twelve. If this utter in
difference of the National Government to
the progressive spoliation of the national
domain be not arrested, another generation
will see teaming and hungry population
struggling for existence on a soil depleted
and Impoverished. But Constitution,
strictly construed, framed to meet the ants
and necessities of three millions of people
must be made by constitutional expounders
to fit the wants and necessities of one hun
dred millions without alteration or growth
or amendment!
Gentlemen Of the National Farmers
Congress, farmers of America, we must
always remember, that great results are to
be accomplished only by great and persist
ent efforts. We must prepare, if again re-
jected or mutilated, to appeal them to the
people. We must resolve to continue calm,
determined, persistent agitation until our
great purposes are accomplished. We
must again press upon Congress our meas
ures by them rejected or muti.ated at their
last session. We must bring them forward
in the congressional districts, and in the
senatorial contests before the Legislatures,
and we must cause it to be believed that
we have resolved to fight it out on that line