The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1903-05-07
The Presidents Address.
(Dy the ASSOCIATED Press. }

(By the Associated Press.)
Sioux Falls, S. D., April 6.-President
Roosevelt began the second 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 500 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 APP
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
1.-The Wage Worker and the Tiller of the
Soil During his speech snow began to
fall, but the President was clad in a
heavy overcoat and was well protected.
He said he was glad to be again in the
banana belt which remark created
laughter. His address follows:
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 in
dustrial changes of the last half CEN
fury. 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
Nationaf Department OF Agriculture has
shown how much can be done for him
by rational action of the government
Nor is ii 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.
IL 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 on
ter into Inter- State Commerce. Thirty
eight million carcasses were inspected
during the last fiscal year. Our stock
growers sell forty FIVE 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 foreign coun-
tries amounts TO over six hundred million
dollars a year and there is no branch
OF its work to which the Department of
Agriculture deSotes more care. Thus
tho department has been successfully in
Producing a macaroni wheat from the
headwaters of the Volga, which grows
..,,oancef,,llx, IN, ipeboc of rainfall
and by this means wheat growing has
been successfully extended westward into
the semi-arid region. Two million bush
els of this wheat were grown last year,
and being suited to dry conditions it can
be used for forage as well 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
Tent 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
a few years ago 1t supplied but one
lOufln OF tnefn. Inc most important OF
our farm products is the grass crop:
and to show what has been done with
grasses, I 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 of the country. 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. A number Of
the States have themselves started &c
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 moss
practical way.
The workers in our cities, like
the capitalists IN our cities. face totally
changed conditions. The development O.
machinery and the extraordinary change
IN business conditions have rendered the
employment OF capital and of persons in