Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1897-09-11
FARMERS NATIONAL
CONGRESS IN SESSION
Great Wealth Producers of United
States Confer Upon Matters
Pertaining to the Farm.
DELEGATES FROM ALL SECTIONS
Annual Address of President Clay.
ton OF Iowa in Which He Tells
OF the Needs of the
Agricuituraiists.

st. Paul, Mimi. Sept. 1.-The hall of
the house OF representatives in the
capitol building was filed to overflow
ing this morning at the opening of the
seventeenth annual farmers national
congress of the United States. The
delegates represent every state and
territory, among them many men and
women of standing IN their respective
localities, having been appointed by
the governors of their states or by ag-
ricultural and commercial o%rganiZa-
tons. National President H.. +. Clay
ton of %Indianola, Ia, called the gath
ering to order at 10 o'clock and the
convention arose while Archbishop
John Ireland delivered an invocation.
Addresses of welcome were delivered
by Governor ID. NJ. Clough for the
state. Mayor Frank B. Doran for the
city and President Edgar Weager for
the State Agricultural society, and re-
sponses were made'by President Clay
ton, Secretary John NJ. Stahi of Chi
ago and Colonel j. S. Cunningham OF
North Carolina. After the roll call of
states President Clayton proceeded TO,
deliver the ANIMAL address. Amopg'
other things he said:
MIR. Clayton's Speech.
"The farm is the foundation OF
wealth and the main source of nation
al and state prosperity; but to the due
and adequate success Of the farm and
farmers there are issues pregnant
with profound thought. In your de-
liberations, | am sure, that important
economic questions can and will be re-
solved to the advantage Of agriculture.
(hnrnau Il, thn Ionre 90 nntnnnnn anr-
riers, and especially in the more just
and equitable Interpretation of such
laws, are not only demanded as the
common rights of the people, but is
Of vital and substantial concern in
making for your labor and the prod
ucts of your labor a market and a o
responding reward.
"rhe session of this congress held
at indianapolis in November of last
year was at the end of three years of
the most fearful commercial depres-
sion known TO Il country during any
peaceful period of its history. While
every industry and interest felt the
tremendous shock, and while the mer-
chant, the manufactures and the
great financial institutions were driv-
IN to desperation to avoid bankruptcy,
vet III leif WIN t0Hbie iofPe upon tine
farmer and upon the agricultural pur-
suits. The cause of this sudden ca
lamity is n debatable question upon
which | do not care to enter. That the
worlds overproduction with the per-
feet facilities for transportation that
makes nations of the earth neighbors.
largely contributed TO it / have no
doubt; and that mistaken Legislation
on the part of the congress of the
United States has plunged the agri-
cultural interests of the country still
deeper in the unfortunate calamity is
an indisputabie fact.
''The American people have expert
enced fearful financial lessons In which
the most rigid economy has been
brought to bear; and while the debris
of financial wrecks is being rapidly
cleared away; and while l congratu-