Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1906-10-09
IERS OF THE NATION ASSEMBLE IN CONVENTION

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duction of this country. But year after
year the farm products of the United
States have on the farm a value more
than Is times the value at the mine of
all the coal dug in the United States.
We have become the greatest pig-iron
producing country in the world. Yet
each year the grain of one crop-corn
has a value five times greater than
all the pig-iron produced in this coun-
try. Why, the corn grown each year
by the farmers of Illinois alone has 4
value about equal to our entire produc-
ton of pig-iron. Every time our miners
dig a dollar from our gold mines, we
farmers dig 20 dollars from the ground;
and every time our miners dig dollar
of silver from our mines, we dig 100
dollars from the ground. The farm
products of the United States have a
value more than II times greater than
all the gold and silver mined in all the
world. With their products of one year
only the farmers of this country could
buy at par all the stock of all the ma
tional banks of the entire country, not
once, or twice, but eight times over and
they could pay all the wages and sal
aries in our great iron and steel indus
try 81 times and have money left Dur
ing the past 16 years our exports OF all
articles have exceeded our imports by
$5.092, 100000 In the same period our
exports of farm products exceeded our
imports of farm products by $685. ,000.-
fo &c {
enormous favorable balance in interna-
tional trade. In all the world no other
class in any country produces as much
wealth as the farmers of the United
States.
Advance Students.
while you and those you represent
may we'll be congratulated most heart.
ily on material prosperity. you may
well be congratulated yet more hearti
ly because of advancement as stu
dents. not only in agriculture, but of
politics and economics. This is said
after no little reflection and with no
intention TO belittle material achieve
ment But all material prosperity has
its origin and must rest on knowledge.
That which most makes a mans pro-
ductiOn of wealth small, that makes
him the dude of unworthy men, that
leads him to favor even greater evils
as cures for social and economic abus-
es is lack Of the clear. profound con-
ception that can come only through
study and hard thinking. Let us be
frank and honest with ourselves and
acknowledge at the beginning that
ledge; and that our greatest need is of
more and better knowledge of how to
farm and especially of how TO dispose
of our products when produced; and
none the less how best TO conduct our
selves as members of society and how
best to exercise our rights and dis
charge our duties as citizens.
In the need of this knowledge
must be found the justification for this
our time, paying our expenses. that we
and others may learn. We have come,
not only to benefit ourselves. but that
we NAV discover means and determine
measures that will benefit the farmers
of the United States and all the people
Of the United States. | feel safe in
saying that few gatherings in the his
tory of this country have been more
earnest, self-sacrificing and patriotic
than the annual sessions of the Farm
ers' National congress- Representing,
as you do. the most important financial
and industrial interest of this great
country. and justly regarded as the
most representative agricultural as
semblage of the United States, | know
that you will be mindful of the great
responsibility that rests upon you and
that you will consider carefully and
without prejudice the questions
brought forward for your action. l am
sure that by your earnestness, your de-
sire to do the right and to discover the
truth. by your endeavor to achieve re-
suits that will be beneficial to our agri-
culture and to our country. and by
your personal bearing at all times dur
ing this session, you will justify the
words of Senior Romero. for quarter
of a century the Mexican minister to
this country, who. after attending sew
eral of our annual sessions. said that
the Farmers National congress is the
most intelligent. the most influential,
and the most august agricultural as
semblage in the history of the world.
Farmer best Informed.
The farmer can be, and should be.
the best informed the most judicial,
and the most Independent citizen of
all our population the farthest removed
from those conditions that produce UNI