Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1898-12-15
ADDRESS TO FARMERS
W. D. HOARD TALKS TO MA.
TlONAL CONGRESS.
Wisconsin's Elk. Governor, in His AM
nua1 Address, DweIIs on the Intel
1ectua1 and Business Sides of Agri-
cu1ture-Farm Education a Necessity.

of the Farmers National Congress, in his
annual address to that body at Fort
Worth, said:
Our agriculture is becoming nationalistic.
This farmers congress is one of the proofs
Of this assertion. We are no longer loosely
Joined band of States, ''discordant, bellig-
erent." THANK God, we are coming to see
each other face to face We are becoming
cemented by railroads, navigabe rivers, in
Interchangeable products, and a more general
comminging of our people. National iegts-
lation is taking on thought Of this kind In
the establishing of experiment stations, the
enactment of laws for the better protection
of agricultural products against the dishon-
est greed of men who would adulterate and
counterfeit.
We are just beginning to feel as a people
that agriculture is an intellectual as well as
a manual pursuit; that from the humblest
tenant to the lordliest ranchman progress
and profit depend on mental comprehen-
sion of the principles involved, and an ener-
getic obedience to that knowledge. Compre-
hension means intellect, obedience means
business. Some men are all intellect and no
work; others all work and no intellect. The
true farmer untes both. He is both a stu
dent and 'doer Of the word.'
Some of the questions for this farmers
congress to ask itself are: What can we
do in an organized way to get the farmers
of this continent to see the necessity OF
more intellect on the farm? In other words,
what can we do to promote farm education?
What can this congress do to promote wise
legislation in the State and national legis-
latures to this end? What can this congress
do as great force to arrest the tendency
of the American farmer to destroy the natu-
raj fertility of his farm? What can we do to
arouse public opinion and the great educa-
tional forces of the country to the import
ance of teaching the elements of agricul-
ture in the primary schools of the land?
Our present system of agricultural educa-
ton is an image with a head of brass,
body of iron and feet of clay. We are d.
recting all our energies to the head and NOT
the feet. Our common schools recruit the
academy, the college and the university,
and they, in turn, recruit every profession
but farming Our young men flee to the
towns and cities because we have educated
them to do Nearly every European
country is putting forth strenuous efforts
to stop this tendency by teaching the ele-
ments of scientific agriculture in the pubic
schools. 1t can be done as easily as the
teaching of the elements of scientific arith-
metic, or chemistry, or philosophy a great
host of farmers who were deprived Of such
teaching now find themselves barred from
an understanding of much agricultural liter
allure. AS consequence they turn from
the agricultural college, the bulletin of the
eXperin ent station and the farm paper,
which is really worth everything to them.
Like all other lines Of human thought and
action, the American farmer and his farm
are going through a process of evolution.
The manufactures feels it, and his capital
and enterprise can hardly keep pace with
coming changes; craftsmanship feels 1t, ZOE
new and difficult problems of government
constantly present themselves, and how to
keep center and circumference in harmon
izing growth is the problem of the day. The
pai lroad feels it and must DOW TO
it. What is the subtle power that is SO
mysteriously leavening the whole lump! 1t
is growth of knowledge among the people.
Heretofore our vision has been directed al
most wholly to the price we were to receive
for our products The present tide of evolu-
ton bears us in another direction. We can
not control prices; the market end Of the
question Is beyond the individual reach or
modification of any farmer. What can he
do, what must he do, to Increase his profit,
for on that hangs his prosperity? This must
he do He must realize that he is no longer
a crude producer; he is a manufacturer. He
must invoke science, invention, better sys-
tenn, more thorough organization among his
fellow farmers, more exhaustive study or
the underlying principles of his business,
improved methods, everything he can lay
hold of, to contribute to q reduction Of the
cost of production.
He is subject to the same economic laws
as is every OlueE i NC NOhlu
declares it will have cheap food and cloth d.
ing, for this is the humane order Of our civ
ilizaton. The American farmer is in the
forefront of a merciless competition. for
from the soil must come primarily all the
food and clothing. He must furnish as good
as the best or he will lose the market He
must do this at a living cost and keep up
the fertility of the SOIL or he and his farm
will both perish by the way. The demands
of modern civilization are expensive. 1t
costs more to live educate his children and
lie q man among men than 1t did his father
fifty years ago. There is but one road out
of the difficulty as | can see. He must put
more thought into this question of the cost
of production. Heretofore the cry has been
more land until the farm has become bigger
than the farmer. This makes expensive
farming The necessities of the hour say
make the farmer bigger than the farm
The Farmers National Congress is needed
as an organized body Of opinion to promote
as best it can national legislation in support
of the Department of Agriculture. Our
present Secretary of Agriculture is doing
what he can to introduce American food
products into foreign markets and promote
their consumption. That department should
have the authority and means to employ,
under it's own direction, commercial agents
in every food market in the world. Den
mark sends its agents to England to receive,
guard and look after it's shipments of butter
and bacon Canada is doing the same
There is no reason better than traditional
abstraction why the United States should
not show the same good business sense. Be-
sides, there is great trade awaiting us at
our very doors in the sister republics of the
southern part of this continent Can we say
or do anything here which will move our
natiopal legislature into work of practical
character, in the way of mail subsidies to
line of American ships sailing direct from
southern ports to South American portsf
hope we can. 1t is q reproach to the praeti
cal craftsmanship Of the American people
that something has not been done OF this
character.
This congress can do something in the
way of aiding the greater efficiency of the
State experimental stations some of which
are hardly more than lodging houses for
politicians. 1t can stand up and rebuke, In
no measured tones, the prostitution of agri-
cultural necessities and progress to political
.; chr