The Virginia enterprise. [volume] (Virginia, St. Louis County, Minn.) 1893-19??, 1905-09-29
REMARKABLE ADDRESS
WORLD TRANSPORTATION AND
NATIONAL POLITICS CON- =
# sIDERED BYJ.J. HILL.
He Discusses National Questions as
They Affect the Interests of
the Farmers.

| the Farmers.
| James J. Hill, president of the Great
| Northern Railroad, delivered an address
lathe Fillmore county fair at Preston,
Mimi, on Sept. 20, which is perhaps the
most notable public utterance of the
many he has made. 1t is Of national,
Eeven worldwide scope, and is attracting
great attention. He began by express
ing his pleasure at meeting a strictly
agricultural community and then made
this contrast between southern Mime
sofa and northern Iowa:
In your state here, and you will par
don me for making some comparisons,
| that may seem. as comparisons often
are a little odious, comparing southern
of counties on the line of each state,
with nothing but the conventional
boundary between them, they have ad-
snneed little beyond you Surveys
| same in acreage. You have about $780,
900 acres more than they have and they
I've ths toef Na In the one
Bnt they probably gave up the raising
OF wheat eat a little earlier than you did.
tIhey probably took up the care Of live
stock, of cattle and hogs earlier than
you did, and for that reason their yield
Per acre; and am speaking from the
i United States census, the records show
/ that they are 81 an acre ahead of you.
/ Comparing southern Iowa with north
ern Minnesota he said the southern
| northern and added:
There is no calling in the world where
a man can be more independent or hap
pier than he who cultivates the soil "a
man on a farm is an independent prince
and he ought to succeed. Your future
will depend more upon the cultivation
| IN info nj
the restoration, of the qualities Of the
soil that give good returns. Live stock
! on the farm is worth more than the
price YOU can get for the live stock be-
cause the manure as a fertilizer is
| worth one-third of the market value of
the feed you give the animal.
Following along this line. Mr.. Hill
! proceeded to say that if they could sell
! their grain. hay or roots, feed them to
their live stock and they would get one
| third more than the market price Of the
! feed:
! want, to say to you, cultivate your
land Take good care of it. Nothing
| means more to you and to the country.
Keep the Farm.
cu KfSp y9 1ben r we S Gn5Yoc v thSm
| state agricultural farm. To-day I want
| to- call your attention to this. have
taken ever ta since it was started the
There is but one change that I would
make if I could and / would make that
! in the interest Of the school. I would
| separate it from the state university,
because today it is only an attachment.
! 1t is strong enough and it is of more
importance inn ort3n e that the boys and girls Of
cultivate the soil
d E2yeryt di that thst is f of valve in the
sea-we have not got it. The forest
our trees are counted. and in a very
few years Minnesota will have no for
! cally we have twelve years of standing
timber. OF course they won't cut it ali
in twelve years. but that will be be-
is cut each year.
Proceeding. pc said tho mines were
mesda more aue 3n eo
in the Union. When mines are dug out
be- 69
| mines will not grow again, but the crops
will He urged them not to sell their
farms: but keep them for their boys
He then related the circumstances of
the great arouth in the northern part OF
the state in 1888, and how to encourage
500 and 900 Thoroughbred bulls and be
tween 5000 and 1000 Berkshire pigs
and scattered them throughout the
Speaking of his recent visit to the
North Dakota state fair, he said:
Practical Example.
I saw as fine cattle there as I ever
saw in my life and brought them over
from Greet o6 Sri tai and had PAID as
! pride in seeing these cattle. because
among the lot there was one animal that
took the sweepstakes last year in the
z%eepstakes in Wnnpee in the he p Prov nee
! of Manitoba; in Grand Forks he took
second prize. was beaten to standstill
by North Dakota bull. had little
! when the owner told me that he was a
j descendant of one of the animals I sent
| up there.
Drainage.
| I have had engineers make a map Of
| the Red River valley in Minnesota and
we got an appropriation Of 100000
Our company added $4,000 to it and we
natural waterway: 1t did wonders for
| them. but instead Of opening up the
| small bitches to drain their farms the
directly against the drainage. IF have
time l am going up there to scold them.
They always take pleasure in scolding
me. They tell me how l ought to run
my railway. l want, to get along with
them because the railway and the land
are in partnership. They will get along
prosperously together or will be poor
Mr.. Hill continued at some length to
expatiate upon the Importance. advant-
! ages and independence of the farm life,
and then took up general matters which
might be termed national. Along this
line he said in part:
Government Policies.
There are two main essentials to all
successful and happy efforts; industry
and character in the man as a private
individual. and honesty and Intelligence
| in his acts and in the acts Of those who
! are chosen to- represent him in the life
Of the state. You cannot get along
without either the one Or the other.
You are all affected. directly and
permanently. by the quality and the
, acts and the policies of the government
| under which you live. If that is low or
| dishonest it will react upon you event.
ually just as surely as if you received
into the intimacy of your family life
some man of bad conversation and cor
rupt example. If that is unintelligent.
mistaken or wilfully misdirected, it will
affect you just as certainly as if you
scratches the surface of the soil instead
of turning it over. or carry your prod
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