Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1899-05-05
FACTS ABOUT FARMERS
Mr. La Grande Powers Further Testimony
Before the Industrial Commission.
He Thinks There il Increasing Pros-
perity for the tgrIcuI-
turnIists.

Mr.. La Grande Power. for eight years
labor commissioner OF Minnesota, and now
one of five chief statIsticians on agriculture
OF the census bureau. continued his tcsti-
mony before the industrial commission YES
terday afternoon. speaking chiefly on the
agricultural conditions of the northwest.
In explaining the advantages of agricul-
tural education to a country. he said the
president of system OF railroad in Mime
sofa gives free transportation to two per
sons from each township through which IL
passes to the State Agricultural College OF
that state orce year with the provision
that they spend one day listening to lee
lures at the experimental station. This
was done avowedly for the purpose OF Civ
ing an Impetus TO agricultural education
with a view of advancing the agricultural
Importance of the state in order that the
material prosperity OF the railroad might
DE improved. This involved the carrying OF
as many as ten trainloads of passengers 20
the agricultural school
Increasing Prosperity.
He believed that there is increasing pros
perity among farmers, and thought that the
increase OF farm ownership in the country
Is evidence OF that fact
The witness did not sympathize with any
movement for sending men from the cities
to farms where they would be expected TO
earn living by farming
10 send a man who knows nothing OF
farming without preliminary education
OUT 10 farm. said Mr.. Power us inficliug
a great injury on the community In which
he settles well as marking the igno-
rance OF those who send him The only
way to locate people on farms from other
KINDS OF life is by doing as the Salvation
army has done, and that Is To start such
people with preliminary education of
three or four years. A certain number of
such people can at times be utilized as
farm laborers.''
System of Taxation
lie said the system of taxation in vogue
IN most Of the states had been founded on
the idea that all property is visible befora
the eye and can be reached for taxation
just as the farms and the stock on them
could be reached. There was much prom
erty that now evades taxation and which
should be taxed. Sooner or later the colIn-
try he thought, would come to the income
tax.
The small farm is the most economical
farm for the country. for the reason that
the individual farmer could direct his labor
better than the labor of large numbers of
men could be directed The bonanza farms
OF Minnesota had been broken up and he
understood that in the Dakotas the same
tendency to break the great farms into
smaller ones had begun.
Small Farmer Fixes the Price
He combated the idea that the bonanza
farmer of the Argentine Republic or India
or I'm this country is lowering the price OF
wheat He showed how the large produc-
ton Of wheat and the cheaper price come
from the small farmer, for the reason
that the small farmer has diversified CropS
that keep him at work BOO days Of a year.
while the great wheat raiser does his work
in sixty days and less economically the
profit Of the wheat being only one cement
OF the income OF the small farmer. The re-
suit of this condition. he said. is that the
small farmer is the one who likes the prices
Of wheat in the worlds markets
Mr.. Power said that speculation in grain
affects the farmers only so far they en-
gage In 1t. He said the farmers are very
largely the lambs shorn on the stock eN-
change. Three-fourths OF the money lost
in that way. he said, is lost by farmers.