The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1903-04-07
What the Government is Do
ing for the Farmer.
ADDRESS BY ROOSEVELT
He Points Out How il May Also Aid The Wage
Worker---The Work OF the An
thracite Coal Strike
Commission.
(By the Associated Press }

(By the Associated Press)
Sioux Falls, S. D., April 6.-Presiden
Roosevelt began tn econd week of his
tour feeling much refreshed from yester-
days rest. and at 1850 started on drive
over the city with Secretary Loeb. Sena-
tor Kittredge and Mayor Burnside. Des-
pite the early hour and the dreary
weather the streets were lined with peo-
pie who greeted the President with cheers
and the waving of flags. and at $40 the
President arrived at the big auditorium
where he addressed four thousand chill
dren.
As the President left the auditorium
he was greeted with tremendous ap-
plause. He was driven rapidly TO the
stand which had been erected at a cor
ner of Ninth street and Phillips avenue
where a crowd of six thousand people
had assembled. The President was intro
duced by Senator Kittredge and spoke on
''The Wage Worker and the Tiller of the
Soil" During his speech snow began tC
fall. but the President was clad in q
heavy overcoat and was well protected
He said he was glad to be again in the
banana belt" which remark created
laughter.
THE tiller of the soil has been of al
our citizens the one on the whole tho
least affected in his ways of life and
methods OF industry by the giant in
dustrial changes of the last half cen
tury. There has been change with him
too. of course. He also can work to
best advantage if he keeps in close touch
with his fellows: and the success of the
National Department of Agriculture has
shown how much can be done for him
by rational action of the government.
Nor is it only through the department
that the government can act.
1.-THE Department of Agriculture de-
votes its whole energy to working for
the welfare of farmers and stock grow
ers. In every section of our country it
aids them in their constantly increasing
search for better agricultural education.
1t helps not only them, but all the ma
tion, in seeing that our exports of meats
have clean bills OF health, and that there
is rigid inspection of all meats that en-
ter into Interstate Commerce. Thirty
eight million carcasses we're inspected
during the last fiscal year. Our stock
growers sell forty-fve million dollars
worth of live stock annually. and these
animals must be kept healthy or else
our people will lose their trade. Our
export OF plant products to forein coun-
tries amounts to over six hundred million
dollars year, and there Is no branch
OF it's work to which the Department of
Agriculture dcFotes more care. Thus
tho department has been successfully in
Producing a macaroni wheat from the
headwaters of the Volga, which grows
successfully in ten inches of rainfall,
and by this means wheat growing has
been successfully extended westward into
the semiarid region Two million bush
els of this wheat were grown last year,
and being suited to dry conditions 1t can
be used for forage as we'll as for food for
man.
"The Department of Agriculture has
been helping our fruit men to establish
markets abroad by studying methods of
fruit preservation through refrigeration
and through methods of handling and
packing. On the Gulf coasts of Louis
lana and Texas, thanks to the Depart
ment of Agriculture, a rice suitable to
the region was imported from the Orient
and the rice crop is now practically equal
to our needs In this country, whereas
n few years ago II supplied but one
fourth of them. The most important of
our farm products is the grass crop;
and to show what has been done with
grasses. / need only allude to the strik-
ing change made in the entire West
by the extended use OF alfalfa.
Moreover. the Department has taken
the lead In the effort to prevent the de-
forestation fthec ountry. Where there
are forests we seek TO preserve them;
and on the once treeless plains and the
prairies we are doing our best to foster
the habit of tree planting among our
people.
There are a number OF very import
ant questions, such as that of good
roads, with which the States alone car
deal, and where all that the National
Government can do Is to cooperate with
them. The same is true OF the education
OF the American farmer number of
the States have themselves started TO
help in this work and the Department
OF Agriculture does an immense amount
which is in the proper sense of the word
educational. and educational in the most
practical way,
The wage workers in our cities. like
the capitalists in our cities, face totally
changed conditions. The development OF
machinery and the extraordinary change
in business conditions have rendered the
employment OF capital and of persons in
large aggregations not merely profitable
but often necessary for success and have
specialized the labor of the wage work
er at the same time that they have
brought great aggregations of wage
workers together.
"Our course. fundamentally each man
will ytt find that the chief factor in