The Minneapolis journal., 1903-04-06


lens OF our modern Industrial 1ife Each
of these problems is, moreover connected
with many of the others Few indeed are
simple or stand only by themselves. The
most important are those connected with
the relation of the farmers, the stock
growers and soil tillers, to the community
at large, and those affecting the relations
between employer and employed. In a
country like ours it is fundamentally true
that the well-being of the tiller of the
soil and the Wage-worker is the well-being
of the state. If they are well off; then we
need concern ourselves but little as to. how
other classes stand, for they will Inevitably
be well off too; and, on: the other hand.
there can be no real general prosperity
unless based on the foundation of the pros
perity of the wage worker and the tiller
of the SOIL . -
The irrigation Act. --.ss
But the needs of these two classes are
often not the same. The tiller of the soil
has been Of all our citizens the one on
the whole the least affected in his ways
Of life and methods of industry by the
giant industrial changes of the last half
century. There has been change with
him, too. Of course. He also can work to
best s.dvantage 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. One Of the
greatest and most benefcent measures
passed by the last congress, Or indeed by
any congress In recent years is the irri-
cation act, which will do for the states
OF the great plains and the Rocky Noun
tain region at least as much as ever has
been done for the states Of the humid re-
gion by river and harbor improvements.
Few measures that have been put upon
the statute books of the nation have done
more for the people than this law will, I
firmly believe, directly or Indirectly, ac-
complish for the states In question.
Work Of the Department..
The department of agriculture devotes
Its whole energy to working for the well
fare Of farmers and stock growers. In
every, section of our country 1T aids them
in their constantly increasing search for
a better agricultural education. It
helps not only them, but all the nation. In
seeing that our exports OF meat have
clean bills Of health, and that there Is
rigid inspection of all meats that enter
into interstate commerce. Thirt ty-eight
million carcasses were inspected during
the last fiscal year. Our stock growers
sell $4,000, 900 worth Of live stock an
nually, and these animals must be kept
healthy or else our people will lose their
trade. Our export Of plant products to
foreign countries amounts to over $780,
100000 a. year, and there is no branch Of
its work to which the department Of ag-
riculture devotes more care. Thus the
department has been successfully intro
ducing a macaroni wheat from the head
waters Of the Volga, which grows sue
cessfully in ten inches Of rainfall, and by
this means wheat growing has been sue
cessfully extended westward into the
semi-arid region. Two million bushels Of
this wheat were grown last year; and be-
ing suited to dry conditions it 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 pres
ervation through refrigeration and
through methods of handling and packing.
On the gulf coasts Of Louisiana and Texas.
thanks to the department of agriculture,
a rice suitable to the region was import
ed from the Orient and the rice crop is
now practically equal to our needs in this
country, whereas a few years ago it sup
piled but one-fourth of them. The most
important Of our farm productss=is the
grass crop; and to show what has been
done with grasses, I need only allude to
the striking change made in the entire
west by the extended use of alfalfa.
ReforestatIon and Good Roads.
Moreover, &11e department has taken tho
lead in the effort to prevent the deforesta-
tion Of the country. Where there are for
ests 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. In my
own lifetime have seen wonderful
changes brought about by this tree plant
ing here in your own state and in the
states Immediately around it.
There are q number Of very important
questions, such as that Of good roads.
with which the states alone can deal, and
where all that the national government
can do is to cooperate with them. The
same Is true of the education Of the Amer
ican farmer. A number Of the states have
themselves started to help in this work
an immense amount which is in the prop
er sense Of the word educational, and
educational in the most practical way.
The Real American.
It is. therefore clearly true that great
advance has been made in the direction Of
finding ways by which the government
can help the farmer to help himself-the
only: kind Of help which self-respecting
man will accept, or, may add, which will
in the end do him any good. Much has
been done in these ways, and farm life
and farm processes continually change for
the better. The farmer himself still re-
tains. because of his surroundings and the
nature of his work, to a pre- eminent de-
greetthe qualities which we like to think
Of as distinctly American in considering
our early history: The man who tills his
own farm, whether on the prairie or in the
woodland, the man who grows what we
eat and the raw material which is worked
up into what we wear, still exists more
nearly under the conditions which OBJ
tained when the ''embatt1ed farmers Of
'76 made this country nation than is
true of any. others Of our people.
Changed City Conditions.
!. But 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-worker
at the same time that they have brought
great aggregatims of wage workers to-
gether. More and more in our great i'm
dustrial centers men have come to realize
that they can not live as independently
Of one another as in the old days was the
case everywhere, and as is now the case
in the country districts
OF course. fundamentally each man viii