The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1902-08-28
LONG TALK TO FARMERS.
Speech on the Grounds of the Eastern
Maine Fair Associations.

BANGOR, Me, Aug. 27.-The special train
bearing the President and his party arrived
here ar u o'clock, on schedule time The
President was met at the train by President
Beal, of the Eastern Maine State Fair AS
ISOLATION; Senator Hale, Congressman Lit
tlefed, Powers and others On the way
here the train was slowed down at Pitts
field and Newport. At each of these places
the enthusiasm was genuine and hearty.
and the shouts of the people as the Presi-
dent came out could be heard for some
time after the train went by.
Thousands of farmers greeted the Presi-
dent at the state fair grounds here. and he
was literally applauded during his address.
The President said:
Il am glad to meet the farmers of Name.
! During the century that has closed the
growth of induStrialSm has necessarily
meant that cities and towns have increased
In population more rapidly than the coun-
try districts. And yet it remains true now,
as it has always been, that in the last re-
sort the country districts are those in
which we are surest to find the old Ameri-
can spirit, of the old American habits of
thought and ways of living. Conditions
have changed in the country far less than
they have changed in the city, and in con-
sequence there has been little breaking
away from the methods of life which have
produced the great majority of the leaders
I
our great Presidents have been brought up
in the country, and most of them worked
hard on the farms in their youth and got
their early mental training in the healthy
democracy of farm life.
The forces which made these farm-bred
boys leaders of men when they had come to
their full manhood are still at work in our
country districts. Self-help and individual
initiative remain to a peculiar degree typi-
cal 20 life in the country, life on farm,
| in a numbering camp, on a ranch. Neither
the farmers their hired hands
work through combinations as readily as
the capitalists or wage-workers of cities
| can work.
1T must not be understood from this
! that there has been change in farming
and farm life. The contrary is the case.
! There has been much change, much prog
/ ress. The Granger and similar organiza-
! tions. the farmers Institutes and all the
alliances which promote intelligent cooper
! alton and give opportunity for social and
intellectual intercourse among the farm
| ers, have played large part in raising
/ the level of life and work in the country
4 districts. In the domain of government
/ the Department of Agriculture, since its
/ foundation, has accomplished results
/ striking as those obtained under any other
! branch of the national administration. BY
! Sclentlnc study OF all matters connected
with the advancement of farm life; by
perimental stations; by the of trained
/ agents, sent 10 the uttermoSt countries of
the globe by the practical application of
anything which in theory has been dem
/ onstrated to be Efficient in these ways and
in many others great good has been ac-
complished in raising the standard of pro-
/ ductlveness in farm work throughout the
country.
A GOOD COMBINATION.
1--WE live in an era when the best results
can only be achieved, if to individual self
help we add the mutual self-help which
comes by combination, both of citizens in
their individual capacity and of citizens
working through the State as an instru-
ment. The farmers of the country have
grown more and more to realize this and
farming has tended more and more to take
its place as an applied science-though, as
1 with everything else, the theory must be
tested in practical work and can avail only
when applied in practical fashion
But after all this has been said, it re-
mains true that the countryman, the man
on the farm, more than any other of our
citizens to-day is called continually
TO exercise the qualities which we like to
/ think or as typical OF the United States
/ throughout its history-the qualities of
rugged independence, masterful resolution
| and individual ingenuity and resourceful-
| ness. He works hard (for which no man
! IS TO be pitied) and often he lives hard
! (Which may not be pleasant, but his life is
passed in healthy surroundings; surround
/ lngs which tend TO develop d fine type Of
| citizenship. In the country, moreover, the
I conditions are fortunately such al
I low a closer touch between man and man
than, too Often we find 10 be the case in
I the city. Men feel more wildly the IN
/ DERIVING sense of brotherhood, of cOmmun-
Ivy OF interest. / do not mean by this that
there are not plenty of problems con-
nected with life the farm, and in our
| rural districts. There are many problems /;
and great wisdom and earnest. disinterest-
ed efforts are needed for their solution.
After ALL we are one people with the
same fundamental characteristics. whether
we live in the city or the country: in the
West East, North or South. Each OF US,
unless he is cOntented 10 be a slumberer on
the earth's surface. must strive 10 do his
life-work with his whole heart. Each must
remember that while he will be obnoxious
TO everyone unless he first do his duty by
himself, he also must strive ever TO do mis-
duty by his fellow. The problem Of
how to do these duties is acute everywhere.
II is most acute I'm great cities, but il
exists In the country, too. A man 10 be a
good citizen must first be good bread