The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-09-04

Men at a distance are wont to gibe
OF the annual meeting of the Farmers
congress as an assemblage of men
who are not all of them tillers Of the
soil and who listen to addresses that
more frequently squint toward politics
than toward methods Of agriculture,
One needs to be brought into closer
contact with one of these gatherings,
as the people of St Paul have been
this week, and to hear them address
ed in the spirit and with the intelli-
gence of those who spoke to them in
ST Paul, in order to appreciate the
full value of such association and such
enlightenment. Indeed if we may
Judge by results, the meeting this year
was the most interesting and inform
Ing in the whole history Of the organic
alton. 1t is hoped and believed that
from this will date a new period in
the life and work Of the Farmers con-
gress, and a more earnest and single
devotion to the facts and laws that lie
at the foundation of success in this as
in other departments of industry.
Looking over the various papers
read and speeches delivered before the
association this week, one is impressed
with their variety and excellence. They
bear the air of real sincerity and of
practical worth. They are, for the
most part, free from the air of theory
and speculation. They do not deal
with imaginary grievances and laud
speculative remedies. They come right
down to the plain facts of life and
work on the farm, and they show that
success there as everywhere else de-
ponds on industry, economy and ODE
djence to the laws of life and of trade.
He who speaks to the farmer in this
vein, at a time when the politicians
have been filing his head with wild
theories and with the notion that pros
perity can be legislated into his life
deserves we'll of him and Of the coun-
try.
While all of the addresses were prac-
teal and many of them valuable, the
members present attached espe-
cial value to that delivered by
MIR. ]. j. Hill, and a study of it shows
that it deserves the attention and the
praise that they bestowed upon it.
Nothing could be more helpful to the
farmers of the nation than to take to
heart the words Of q. man who, having
been himself rarely successful, points
out to them the only road by which
success can be reached. Mr. Hill set
their minds at work in the right di-
reotion at the outset by telling his au-
dience that he had yet to discover any
legislation by which the farmers mar
kets had been extended and increased.
This is true, and it is a wonderful
thing when you come to think of it.
AS far as w-making can help the
farmer at all. it must help him by
widening and improving the market
for his produce. All our trade enact
m6ntS point IN the opposite ulIeCllOu.
They are restrictive in their nature;
and the farmer, the most numerous of
all the voters, the one whose favor is
courted and whose support solicited
at every election, has never yet been
the beneficiary of the national legis-
lature 1t makes fun of him with a
tariff on articles exported, and Knocks
him with a bounty on beet sugar; but
it has never enabled him to sell an
other busheI of grain or pound of beef
or pork. Even the reciprocity agree
ments, so much Wanted, were los
ing game for him; since, if the cost
be calculated, it will be found that we
gave up more revenue in the exchange
than would have purchased twice over
the entire product that was the sub
jcct of the supposititious benefit.
Legislation has not. will not. can