The San Juan islander. [volume] (Friday Harbor, Wash.) 1898-1914, 1902-10-16
FARMERS NEEDS
NATIONAL CONGRESS IS IN SES-
SION AT MACON
President Flanders Says One Neces-
sary Part of the Education Of the
Tillers of Land Has Been Almost
Entirely Neglected, and 1t Should
Now BE Attended To.

Macon, Ca, Oct. 10.-The twenty
second annual session of the Farmers
National Congress opened here with an
estimated attendance of $500 dele
gates, representing every state in the
Union. The meeting was called to or
der by President George L. flanders,
who Delivered his annual address. He
said in part:
"The Granaries of the world are be-
ing filled until today we are confronted
with the fact that in the United States
five and two-thirds millions in farms
are producing one and one-half billion
dollars worth of agricultural products,
sum said to be much in excess of the
total income of the farmers at any
other time in the history of this coun-
try. This year we are raising in the
United States as much corn as was
raised in the world last year.
1.-THE education that has been going
on in the interest of the agriculturist
during the last thirty years has pro-
duced wonderful results. but all, or
nearly SO, are upon one side of this two
sided question, namely, upon the side
of production, without touching the
question of distribution, and the ques-
ton of the relation of the agriculturist
to the government or governments I'M
der which he lives and by virtue of
which he is protected. We are living
in an age of combinations, an age when
corporations and corporate interests
unite for the purposes which to them
seem wise and just; an age when the
labor element is organized for purposes
which to it seem just and right, so that
when any problem arises, from the
question of distribution to the question
of legislation, they are prepared at short
notice to decide what action should be
taken and then act as unit.
"What is true of these combinations
is not true of the agricultural popula-
ton and yet that population is ten
twenty-ninths of the entire number en-
gagged in the industrial pursuits of this
country. The scope of our educational
work should now be such that it will
extend to this class of population. The
theories and fundamental principles of
the constitutional law shuold be taught
alongside the fundamental principles
underlying the production of agricnl-
tural products. Those principles are
stable, undergoing few changes.
every agricultural citizen should
understand that the government of the
United States under which he lives is a
government of derived powers; that it
has no powers except those that have
been conferred upon it and that the
comforting was done by the sovereign
states of the Union, and that the mat
ter conferred is enumerated in that doc
ument known as the constitution of the
United States, and that when he de-
sires the national government to do
anything in his interest he must first
know whether the power to do the
thing he wishes has been given to the
government in that instrument. If the
power has been conferred, then it is
plausible and feasible to petition the
congress of the United States to do the
thing desired.
81 believe that no better work can
now be taken up along educational lines
in addition to the work already being
done than to put the agricultural popu-
lation of this country in possession of
such knowledge relative to the govern
ment and it's workings as will qualify
or equip each and every one to at any
time step into the legislature of any
state, or the congress of the United
States and explain with intelligence
the questions that will be placed before
them"