The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1909-11-09

It's constant help In rem
dering the farmer the happiest, the
best. the most independent man of the
earth. The time is not far distant
when the rush of young men from
the farm to the city will diminish.
Rural free delivery Of mail, the tele-
phone, good schools and churches,
and better roads will have much to
do with accomplishing the desirable
result. The time is soon coming when
every highway will be a good road.
The next ten years wilLmark a Won
derful improvement in schools and
roads. Intelligence on the farm will
require it, and every good citizen will
promote in every way all things which
better country conditions. Intelli-
Sence has declared war on disease and
will have farm sanitation. Against
fever, it will erect Notifications;
tuberculosis will it's senti-
its sharpshooters.
The enemies of production are
negligence and ignorance. To conquer
them every bulletin, every agricultural
paper, every lecturer, every gather
ing Of farmers contributes. Each car
rles information, each inspires enthu-
slasm and suggests prudence-all tend
to the same great end-mOre profta-
BILE agriculture, which means happier
homes and better people. There are
enemies Of agricultural profit besides
ignorant and negligent production.
Anything is it's enemy h a unnatural
ly interfereS with the law of supply
and demand in enhancing the price Of
the farmers purchases or depressing
the price of his sales. Without mean
ing to speak as a partisan, any reve-
nue. law, whether called protective
tariff or not, which enables a manu-
facturer to exact from the American
farmer a greater price for a machine,
a garment or other product than he
would otherwise have to pay, or than
foreign farmers have to pay, without
enabling the American farmer to cor
r~espondingly increase the price Of his
products, %unjustly deprives him of a
portion Of his profits. The great
American crops, corn, wheat and cot
ton, sell for no more on the markets
Of the world than the corn, wheat and
cotton Of other countries, and the
American farmer is not enabled to
sell his great crops at a greater price
than the farmer Of England, or Ger
many, or Argentina secures. Monopo-
lies, whether resulting from such laws
or not, likewise deprive the farmers
of profits either by depressing his
sales prices, or enhancing his purchas-
ing prices. The intelligent self inter-
est Of every farmer growing any OF
the great Staple crops. requires him to
use all his information and his influ-
ence towards relieving himself and his
country from these unnatural enemies
Of his prosperity. In order to protect
himself from an enemy sheltered by
law, or which should be destroyed by
law, it is necessary for the farmer to
study public matters and to interest
himself in politics. / rejoice that the
farmer is alive to such matters, and
my hope is that he will be a constantly
IN orao CT O f. otnr in tho nnh1ip life of
the Republic.
Congress because it represents an in
duStry in our Ountry whose annual
production is near 5000 millions of
dollars, whose exports are a billion
dollars a year, creating a mighty BAL
ance Of trade in our avOr, thereby
bringing the money of the world to
us by hundreds Of millions. I well
! come it because of it's long ond ef-
fective service in promoting peace,
prosperity, n Ogre in the Re-
public. I welcome it because it rep
resents the great conservative force
in American life. When panic grasps
the money centers of the large cities,
when controversies between employ
ers and employees in great mining sec
tons threaten the comfort and the
peace of the country; when lockouts
stop the wheels of mammoth indus
tries, and strikes paralyze ~tranSpOrta-
ton companies, q consideration Of the
millions of honest, fearless, unexcited
farmers Of the country, standing
amidst their possessions, and sweep
ing the horizon with unclouded Wis
ion, furnishes the only certain n
enduring hope for the perpetuity OF
American Institutions; not less thar
that, I welcome it because the farmer
has created and sustained the credit
of the country in the capitals Of the
| world; because when international
trouble is brewing, when the resources
of the nation are being measured
and weighed by presidents and gen.
erals, and kings and captains, to fore
cast the result Of possible war, more
powerful for us than marching
armies and Steaming fleets are the
ue.x:n- Grain Goldc- of tho XNoo4 ond