The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1905-09-28
]. ]. Hills NOTABLE ADDRESS
He Discusses Agriculture, National and World
Affairs at a County Fair.

because ne was supposed TO be smart
as a candidate for a place whom you
would not for a moment trust to repre-
sent you In a business transaction? Have
you never sent to office a man whose rec
ORD was not what 1t should be? And nave
you never given your representatives: In
state or nation, to understand that they
would win your approval and a contlnu-
ance OF the honors they covet by getting
prlations for unnecessary undertakings in
your city or town or districts? III you
nave, then remember that reform must
begin at the fountain head. the people.
And as a state or a city or a nation has
no revenue, has no money except that
which Is taken out Of the pockets of in
Wlnked at or tacitly rewarded this prac-
ice, then YOU have encouraged and pro-
NOTED graft. No man and no nation ever
was or ever will be rich enough to with
stand the continuous attack of ~unrebukcd
pecu!ation; and no national or individual
CHARACTER can be pure enough to remain
unsullied by a liberation of a low stand
ard of honesty.
Now VIZ come to another particular in
which 1t becomes you to test these gen.
tlemen who serve you and to ask every
politician for his credentials. Let us see
what they have done for you. You. by
your unaided efforts. by unremitting toll
and saving and the brave venture to
wrest a living from nature, have accu:
mulated certain resources Of which all
these varied forms of wealth that we
see about us to-day are typical. To what
extent, II any, have you been hindered by
the various measures that will be quoted:
as they have been quoted, in evidence Of
the care that has been taken Of your
Two Main feeds.
Your main needs are two: an adequate
market in which your products may be
sold at a fair price, and an opportunity
to purchase those things that you need
which the farm does not supply. TO what
extent nave these been furnished to you,
and in what condition do you stand with
reference to them?
AS far as you grain Is concerned, you
must sell In the markets OF the world.
There is no escape from that. The wheat
of Southern Minnesota and the wheat of
every other country on the face OF the
earth will bring to the farmer the price
that is fixed in the worlds markets. The
great consuming, nations, with Great Brit
ain at their head, must nave bread. They
purchase 1t where they can, seeking all
who have wheat and flour to sell. And by
and Russia and the Argentine and Aus
tralia as well as the United States, the
price is settled. Have you been helped
there? OF a truth it is impossible to help
come presently. The average politician,
who does not give you credit for the in
telligence that you possess, will tel you
that you have been helped, have been
protected" as he will call it, by placing
a tariff on wheat and other products of
the farm. But you know better. You
know that a tariff on imports of an article
which you do not wish to import, but
which you have for sale in vast Quanti-
ties. Is as useless as a steam heating
plant in August. In the year ended June
United States just 6,S52 bushels of wheat
in all. How did the protective tariff pro-
tect this? This last year there were i'm
ported 3,1O2,5S5 bushels. Either figure is
totally insignificant in a country whose
own wheat crop runs from GOO, 100000 to
SO.OOO,OOO bushels. But the fiuctuation
itself shows, since the tariff remained I'M
altered, that the latter has nothing what
ever to do with the matter. Your grain
and your dairy products and YOU live
stock are beyond the reach of all such
grain. cattle and hogs are sold is not az
fected by them at all. And consequent
ly, whatever you may think or may say
to the gentlemen who tell you that a
you may reply. with great confidence that,
as far as sales Of your products are
concerned, 1t profits you nc more than
an edict against immigration from the
moon.
There is one way, however. in which
you may be helped, and that is by lessen
get for the yield Of your farms is the
price where the consumer lives, less the
cost Of carrying the article from you to
him. That cost you have to bear. Any
him that diminishes 1t is money in your
pocket; and when any one advises you
that you are vitality interested in decreas-
ing the cost of transportation he is tell
Ing you the truth. But how is this to be
brought about?
No one car arbitrarily send out a proc
lamation that such a service shall be
The business of transportation is like ali
other business In this: 1t must be con-
Quoted on a business basis. The cost of
1t can be lessened only by economies
does most for you in this respect who
opens new markets, secures new CUSTOM
ers and helps to swell the volume OF prod
IN which the diminution Of the cost Of
carriage has been effected, and the change
is greater than has occurred in the price
OF almost any other commodity. The
average receiDts per ton per one hundred
miles of all the railroads in the United
States were $1.99 in 1870, $1.17 in 1880,
81 cents cents, IN sr 1892; = cents IS .. in 1903, while
continent Of Europe from $40 to $40.
The Great Northern railroad has been
reducing its rates progressively for the
the company. and Of the state railway
commission show that. il its freight tar
IFS had not been altered in that time. If
the rates that We're then in force aA 4
would have received more thar $685.
100000 more than it has received during
the tWe nM years an average Of over
road. and l am as proud of that as I am
of being here with you. That is a meas
ure or what mas taken place as rapidly
as the growth of the business permitted
and made prudent. And I need not tell
any of you who read the papers Ind keep
in touch with the events of the day that
this work Is still going on, and that the
crops raised this year in the Northwest
will be sent to market on the lowest
freight rate ever made In tho whole his
tory OF the Northwest.
Railroad Rates.
How has this been a~ccomplishedp nv
seeking to build up the country, by study
ing how to develop It's resources and it's
prosperity, by inducing settlers to come
and till the vacant land and by kin
care of those already here. BY careful
business management and by recognizing
the essential partnership between the man
on the soil and tho railway which serves
him. And l want to ask you as you
study these figures to say whether these
results. so beneficial to yourselves, could
ever have been reached through a policy
of ANITA onism AMI force. Some Of the
politicians will tell you that railroad rates
must be fixed by order of the government,
that this IL the reason why thew
must be kept in public life. IT is an easy
prophecy, because 1t Is an obvious fact,
that railroad rates in this country would
decline more slowly under government
control than If fixed by those who have
intelligently managed the railways. No
public body would dare to make reduc-