River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1905-09-28
remarkable ADDRESS
WORLD TRANSPORTATION AND
NATIONAL POLITICS Gen.
SIDERED BY. j. HILL.
he Discusses National Questions as
They Affect the Interests of
the Farmers.

James J. Hill, president Of the Great
Northern Railroad, delivered an address
at the Fillmore county fair at Preston
Mimi, on Sept. 20 which is perhaps the
most notable public utterance Of the
many he has made. It is Of national,
even 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,
are, little odious, comparing southern
Minnesota with northern Iowa, the tier
of counties on the line of each state,
with nothing but the conventional
boundary between them, they have adj
vanced little beyond you. Curious
enough your farms average exactly the
same in acreage. You have about $780,
900 acres more than they have and they
have the advantage in the one item
vantage in soil or climate over you.
But they probably gave up the raising
Of wheat a little earlier than you did.
They probably, took up the care of live
stock, of cattle and hogs earlier thar
you did, and for that reason their yield
per acre, and | am speaking from the
United States census, the records show
that they are 81 an acre ahead of you.
Comparing southern. Iowa with north
farms realized 81 an acre more than the
northern and added:
There is no calling in the world where
man can be more independent or hap
pier than he who cultivateS the sofia
man on a farm is an Independent prince
and he ought to succeed. Your future
win depend more upon the cultivation
Of the land in an intelligent way and
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.
Keep your farms S Cultivate them;
state agricultural farm. Today I want
10, call your attention to this. I have
g eaea interest rest in the he's state farm.
There is but one change that / would
make if l could, and | would make that
separate it from the state university,
because today it is only an attachment.
1t is strong enough and it is of more
the state of Minnesota shall be educated
60 take advantage of and to intelligently
Everything that is of value in the
world comes from four sources. The
sea-we have not got it. The forest
our trees are counted, and in a very
few years Minnesota will have no for
ests that are OF any value. Theoreti-
eally we have twelve years of standing
timber Of course they won't cut it ali
in twelve years, but that will be be-
cause they reduce the rate at which it
Proceeding. he said the mines were
next to the forest, but the farm in Min
slesota produces more value, more gold
every year than the mines of any state
in tie Union. When mines are dug out
they cannot be reproduced: but crops
can be reproduced indefinitely The
will He urged them not to sell their
Tarms, but keep them for THEN boys
He then related the circumstances of
the great drouth in the northern part of
the state in 1888. and how to encourage
diversified farming he bought between
500 and 900 thoroughbred bulls and be-
tween 5000 and 1000 Berkshire pigs
and scattered them throughout the
northern part of the state and Dakota.
Speaking of his recent visit to the
North Dakota state fair, he said:
Practical Example.
saw as fine cattle there as I ever
saw IN my life ana or3ug ma the naid over e
much as $4,000 for cow. | had more
pride in seeing these cattle, because
among the lot there was one animal that
took the sweepstakes last year in the
Dominion of Canada; in July he took the
sweepstakes in Winnipeg in the province
of Manitoba; in Grand Forks he. took
second prize was beaten to standstill
by a North Dakota bull. had little
feeling Of pride creeping cree up up my h throat
descendant of one of the animals sent
up there.
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
small bitches to drain their farms the
directly against the drainage. If have
time am going, UP there to scoId them.
rhey always take pleasure in scoldlng
my railway. 1 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.. Hin continued at some length to
eXpatiate upon the Importance, advant-
ages and independence of the farm life.
and then took up general matters when
line he said in part:
Government Policies.
There are two main essentials to all
and character in the man as 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
continue to use q pillow that merely
scratches the surface of the soil instead
of turning it over, or carry your prod
ucts to the lowest instead of to the
just as sharp a guard set upon these
public issues and the way in which they
are met as you do upon your own per-
sonal expenses and the actions of those
who work under your personal orders.
Are your representatives. speak in
che broadcast and most general way, for
your representatives will compare we'll
with those of other stateS-of the high
est moral quality and fiber, and are they
doing those things which are most clear
ty conceived to benefit you, the people.
and not some interest aside from and
antagonistic to your own? 1t will profit
matters, for the responsibility for them
Sannot be evaded or shuff1ed of.
War on Graft.
And first as to honesty, which is the
main thing. You all read the papers;
country that the diffusion of intelli-
gence and an intimate acquaintance with
what is happening elsewhere has be-
come SO general. For that reason the