The Columbus commercial., 1910-05-01
HUNDREDS ENJOY
FARMERS CONVENTION
BACK TO THE FARM" MEET
ADDRESS BY DR.. S, A. KNAPP WILL BE
PUBLISHED IN THURSDAYS
COMMERCIAL

The convention held yesterday
under the auspices of the Colum-
bus Business League of this city
and the Farmers Union was an
important and successful gath
ering Owing to the state of the
crops, caused by the recent cold
snap, the attendance was not up
to expectations, but there was
neverless a large and representa-
tive body who heard the address
es made with evident appreci-
alton and enjoyment.
Mr.. Chas. H. Hale delivered
the address of welcome, which
follows, in part:
"When Mayor Donnell asked
me to take his placein extending
to this convention the welcome
of the city of Columbus | accept
ed the invitation with pleasure.
1t is no hard task but a grateful
privilege to voice the welcome
that Columbus gives you all.
We are born to a tradition of
hospitality, we hope to trans
NIT it unimpaired to those who
shall succeed us. From the time
when Columbus was merely a
collection of log cabins, down
through the golden years when
it was growing with the country,
expanding into that jewel of the
old south that it was before the
war, to the present time, when,
combining the best of the old
and the best of the new, the city
looks at the present with pride
and to the future with confident
hope, we have delighted to en-
tertain the stranger within our
gates. But in welcoming you to
our city we do not feel that we
are extending a welcome to
strangers-you are rather broth
ers coming to a brothers house.
There are those who see an an
tagonism between the country
and the town. am not one of
them. Even the proud great
cities of our land, even New
York, if its citizens examine the
foundations of its prosperity, of
its very life, they will be found
to rest on the prosperity of the
farms of this country. Still
more true is this of a city such
as Columbus. The interests of
this city and the surrounding
territory are so closely inter
twined that there is no separa-
ton possible to the most hair
splitting analysis. With your
prosperity we prosper, and we
suffer with your disast er."
Mr., Hale then said t. -
cause of the common interest
Columbus claimed share in this
convention, that its citizens ap-
preciate to the fullest the I'M
portance and honorable position
of the farmer, and commented
on the close connection between
the wcf,l of the agricultural de-
partmellt AID members of the
Farmers u -, the actual prac-
tice of the lat ! being necessary
to bring the experiments of the
former to the severe but just
tests of the field and bank ac-
count, closing with the extension
of the welcome of the citizens of
Columbus to all of you, the citi-
zens of Columbus extend greet
ing and welcome of workers to
their fellow workers, with the
expression of their earnest hope
that this day may mark with all
the beginning or the strengthen
ing of the sane and possible am
bition to make this section-farm
by farm-the best ,farmed and
therefore the richest. best and
most beautiful region in the
whole of this great nation. Gen.
tlemen, the city is yours.
Besides the address of well
come, speeches were made by
the following gentlemen. G. F.
Hightower, President of the
Mississippi Farmers Union, Rev.
r. A. N. Wilson, state lecturer
of that body, R. S. Wilson, of
the government farm demon
stration service, concluding with
a great speech by DR.. S. A.