Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1909-12-09

4
once in the history of this county has
he revolted. And then to his credit
may it be said that like the Missouri
an, he wanted to be shown why Rock
Island county needed another special
assessment
County Has Been Handicapped.
Rock Island county has been great
ly handicapped on account Of the I'M
evenness of its surface and difficulty
in making fairly passable roads. In the
first place, as you know, 116 acres out
Of every section was reserved for
highways, and the burden of making
these roads passable fell upon the far
mer. Hundreds of thousands of dol
lars have been spent, and well spent,
in doing this. The congress of the
United States appropriated millions on
top of millions OF dollars to corpora
tons to build railroads and then per
mitted that railroad company TO
charge the farmer TO the limit for car
rying his products How different in
our case. We had to buy the land from
the government, build the roads at
our own expense, and then donate
them free to the public and pay taxes
on them besides.
Congress appropriated in one year
for the army and navy, $320.000, 900,
and for agriculture, $131, 900, 900. Many
hundreds of millions of dollars VIII be
spent by our government in the con-
struction of the Panama ditch, and
many other millions annually to guard
and keep it in repair, and the paltry
sum of 100000 appropriated for the
Improvement OF the Mississippi river,
which with its tributaries drains the
greatest and most productive agricul-
tural country In Jne known world.
l don't want to be understood as a
fault finder, nor do 1 say these things
in that spirit l simply state the
facts. You can draw your own con-
illusions. The very fact that the far
mer has never been subsidized, rebat
ed, protected, or fostered in any way
by state or nation, has taught him to
be the sturdy, self-reliant, independ-
ent. capable citizen he has shown him
self to be. He asks no favorS. He
wants no taffy nor advice. He has hoed
his own row from the most meagre be-
ginning through poverty, want, fail
he stuck to the hoe handle; and here
we find him today, the most prosper
ous, happy and valued citizen. Feel
/ ing assured of his position in the bust
ness world. without fear of the effects
/ of any financial panic that may fall up
on the country, he sleeps the sleep of
/ the just. With a conscience void of
offense, with charity for all and malice
! toward none, he stands forth today
/ the most honored and upright-the
! peer of all mankind.
/ But as to his future prosperity:
| There are but a few of the PROPOSE
/ tions that I shall offer that can be es-
| tablished as facts. But these are vital,
absolutely necessary to the future
prosperity of the farmer of Rock Is
/ land county. Of course it will be ne
| cessary for me to prognosticate more
or less, and 1 want to say TO you now,
| if I do not make a better guess than
| is done by the government weather
| bureau, these predictions shall have
| been written in vain
Thought 1t No Account.
! do not know that history maintains the
! fact, but tradition has it that when the
/ great state of Illinois was surveyed
and he county lines established, the
| gagged strip of country with a length
on the Mississippi of IS miles. ana ali
average width of eight or ten with
Rock river. the Docia, Will creek, Tur-
| key hollow, Copperas creek, and a
/ hundred other smaller streams that
had cut their way through the bluffs
= II IL,
| ors considered worthless. and as not
being worthy of the dignity of being
called a county. However, this shoe
string was organized and named Rock
Island county. Soon coal was discov-
cred Lime stone didn't have to be
discovered Water power was devel-
oped in a small way. Villages sprang
up and grew into cities. And just
few years ago immense beds of the
best Portland cement rock was dis
covered. So that today. that which
was discarded by the early builders
has become the richest in natural re-
sources of any county in the state.
This natural wealth will soon be de-
veloped and applied, and then the
ideal life of the future Rock Island
county farmer will in fact be realized.
Producture soil is the source AMI
foundation of the farmers prosperity.
Fertility, don't forget it, upon fertility
of the soil depends the prosperity of
the farmer. Master the problem of
regaining and retaining the fertility of
the soil, then apply that knowledge
faithfully and persistently. 1t doesn't
require a scientific course in an agri-
cultural college to be able to do this
Most of the farmers of Rock Island
county are already well versed in that
matter. It is simple and easy. but the
lure of early profits causes too manN