The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1909-11-09
BUILDER Of RAILROADS
MAKES STRONG ADDRESS

Former President of SeabOard Air
Line, Now a Director in That Road,
Tells of the Valuable Influence OF
Farmers ON the Railroads, Which
Have Come to Realize That the
American Farmer is the Supreme
and Final Political, Social and Com
mercfal Power, and Therefore
Ready to Stand With Him.
Hon. John Shelton Williams, former
president, and now a director of the
Seaboard Air Line Railway, president
of the Georgia and Florida Railway,
and a ban president at Richmond,
Virginia, delivered an address yester-
day morning before the Farmers Ma
tiOnal Congress. which somewhat star
tied the farmers. It was an address
full of meat and suggestiveness. He
urged a closer relation Of the farmer
and the railroad and declared that the
Granger movement Of the of
the West in the seventies, though
sometimes the Changers went crazy,
or were led by demagogues, sometimes
had the final result of rescuing the
railroads from barbaric conditions of
warfare and reckless management
ment regulation, which, in his opinion,
was nearer the ideal condition.
Mr.. Williams address was one that
went to show that he recognized that
the railroads depended on the farm
ers and the farmers on the railroads.
He desired the farmers to know more
of the railroads which had come to
recognize that the American farmer is
the supreme and final political, social
and commercial power and are ready
to join with him and to deserve and
secure his good will and cooperation.
He said that his hope is that as the
American farmer grows more and
more in wealth he will come more and
more to own the railroads" His adj
dress was received with great APP
plause and he was thanked in person
by many of the audience, who de-
clared hat his address set out new
ideals. In full, Mr.. Williams said:
SPEECH OF JOHN SHELTON WILL
LIAMS.
The Makers and the Movers.
MT. PRESIDENT and Gentlemen:
Let me begin by expressing my ap-
probation of the honor that was done
me when 1 was invited to address the
Congress of American /
feel that in facing and talking to the
representatives of the farmers Of
America, l am front to front with the
real power, the controlling influence,
the conservative influence and the i'm
polling influence, not only of our own
country, but of the world. American
ideas and methods today rule the world
and guide it's thought and action, and
the American farmer rules America.
He is the court of last resort. Per-
haps I am slightly mistaken in that.
Behind him and above him, and usual
ly directing his action in public as in
private affairs, is the splendid, all rul-
ing, all compelling American woman
the farmers wife, mother, daughter
and sister, who, without a vote or a
voice heard outside the home where
she is regnant queen and real ruler,
actually controls and directs this great
Republic of ours and gives to it it's
best thought and it's highest and pur-
est purposes and aspirations.
You farmers represent the greatest
aggregation Of wealth the world knows
or ever has known. You are eleven
millions in number, according to the
latest census, and the money strength
you represent is more. than double the
capital engaged in every KIND of manu-
featuring from the grinding of wheat
to the making Of watch springs or
dynamite. You are the kings, with
the queens above you. King Solomon
HVed long ago., and, keeping him in
NINA II does seem to me that Wash
1hgton certainly was the wisest and
most clearly thinking man we have
Hao IN the world in modern DAYS. A
century ago he said that agriculture