Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1909-09-07
UNION IS ADVOCATED
BY ROCK ISLAND HEAD
Yoakum Declares 1t Is the Only
Way Farmers Can Accomplish
Good Results.
FARMS OUR BEST DEFENSE. ("
Army and Navy Cost Too Much,
He Tells Agriculturists of
Oklahoma.

B. F. Yoakum, chairman of the Elk
ecutive Committee of the Rock Island
Frisco system, speaking before the
Oklahoma Farmers Union at Shawnee,
urged the farmers to organize.
believe in organization" he said. 1t
results. This is a nation of organized
interests, and under proper manage
ment the country is better off because
of them. When your products leave
you they are taken by the railroads,
which are organized. They then go
to the manufacturers, who are organ
lied, and when they reach you again
as a finished product they come from
mercantile organizations. The pro-
ducers of all this great wealth (and
wealth producing produets) represent
the only link in the chain that is not
strongly and concretely organized"
The address was given with a view
to convincing the farmers that what
the country most needs is a chance to
expand and develop its resources, and
that this opportunity will come only
with wise regulation of common car
riers by the government, by co-opera-
tfon between the farmer and the rail-
roads and by proper economies in the
administration of public affairs. 1--WE
should make more homes and not so
many fighting ships" he said. at is
better to grow more farm products
and to make prosperous the man who
sows and harvests than to build more
battleships and new guns. If devel-
opment is permitted to go on and our
country to grow as it should We aeed
not fear war with any country or
combination of countries"
The deficit in our national ex-
penses. Mr.. Yoakum suggested, SHOULD
be made up by reducing expenditures
and not by raising taxes to increase
revenues" He declared that he was
not speaking against the army and
navy, but simply against the growing
expense of maintaining them. Last
year, he said, they cost every family of
five the sum of SIT.
More Farms Needed
The extension of the grain and the
cotton fields in the Mississippi Valley
and in the West are stronger military
defenses than are ships. We should
spend more of the money we burn up
in powder in making new farms. A
forty-acre farm irrigated will comfort
ably support family of five. 1t costs
$4,000 to make twelve-inch gun.
This money would lain 1871 acres
of land, providing homes for 1876 peo-
pie. When all the guns on all the bat
tleships are shot one time the govern
ment blows off in noise and smoke the
sum of $150,000. This would reclaim
1000 acres of land, giving homes to
more than 500 farmers and their fami-
lies"
Regarding government regulation of
railroads and where it might lead if
not wisely directed, Mr.. Yoakum called
attention to the history of the govern
ment's transportation facilities-name-
ly, the water ways. The report of the
Department of Commerce and Labor
shows, he said, that the government
had built $500 miles of canals, and
that more than half of them, costing
$S0,000,000, had been abandoned. "The
government has expended approx
mately $225,0OO,00O on the improve
ment of the Mississippi River and It's
tributaries, and last year the tonnags
handled over it was one-third of what
1t was twenty years ago." he said
when railroad construction is
planned, every detail of cost and rev.
enue is investigated before capital can
be had for its construction. The gov
eminent should use the same foresight
In planning it's system of water ways"