The Logan Republican. [volume] (Logan, Utah) 1902-1924, 1913-01-04
SIXTEEN YEARS OF FARM PROGRESS

Men grow old in service and in years, and
cease their labors but the works Of their labor
and the children of their brains will live on,
and may whatever of worth is in these be ever
blooming
This quotation is from the report of the Hon
James Wilson, Secretary of Agriculture, who at the
ripe age Of seventy-seven is about to cease his
labors' in the ofical family of the President of
the United States But the work of his labors
will go Oh, and the many things of worth that he
has done for the people will be blooming. I'm.
der the above caption the Literary Digest reviews
the Secretarys labors as follows:
It is true that Iowa has never given us a Presi.
dent, but she has done better" in the Providence
Journals opinion, in giving us James Wilson, Of
Traer, Tama County" Since Secretary Wilson's
Sixteen years of Cabinet service breaks all rec.
ords for time and equals any in public usefulness
he has every right. thinks the Chicago Inter Ocean,
to introduce his last annual report with the words
AT the close of long administration filed with
accomplishments, 1t is fitting that the record OF
sixteen years should be written" This record,
writes the Secretary:
Begins with yearly farm production worth
$4,000,000000 and ends with 1882 900, 900 Then
the farmers were loaded with debts that were pain
full burdens prosperity followed and grew with
unexamped speed Then the farmer was joke of
the caricaurist now he is like the stone that was
rejected by the builders and has become the head.
stone of the corner
During the last sixteen years the farmer has
steadily increased his wealth production year by
year with the exception of 1911, when the value
declined from that of the preceding year. If the
wealth produced farms in 1899 be regarded as
100 the wealth produced sixteen years ago. or in
1897, is represented by 81 and the wealth produced
in 1912 by 2O2 Il. During the sixteen years the
farmers wealth production increased 141 per cent
gbo
contribution to national wealth production estifes
to the farmers basic importance to the nation
During the last sixteen Years the wealth production
on farms, according to the census items reached
the grand total Of more than sl0500 900 900 This
stream of wealth has poured out of the farmers
horn of plenty and in sixteen years has eQualed
about threequarters of the present national
wealth"
A little farther on in the report the Chicago
Inter Ocean finds good news for the city dweller
on whom the increased cost of living, which is
mainly cost of food, has prest sorely for some
years past" For Secretary Wilson declares that this
increase of agricultural wealth has just begun:
THE most effective move towards reducing the
cost of living is the production of greater crops
Beginnings have been made in a production increas,
Ing faster than the natural increase of population"
The Secretary calls attention proudly to this
years enormous crops, of which only two wheat
and tobacco, have hecn exceeded twice in produc.
ton, and only two, cotton and rice have been ex-
ceeded once in production. "All OF the other crops
stand at high water mark-all of the cereals but
wheat and rice, the great hay crop potatoes, fax.
seed, and beet sugar" He also recounts the ad-
vances made in Department which has in sixteen
years progressed from the kindergarten through
the primary, middle, and upper grades of develop
ment until now It has thousand tongues speaking
with authority"
Bureaus have been created and expanded
Lines Of research investigation, and demonstration
have been multiplied. Congress has piled duty on
duty from year to year. The corps OF experts
needed in the increasing amount and variety of
service has grown greatly The Department has
become a great agricultural university for post
graduate work. Discoveries for the benefit OF farm
practises and improvements OF old ones have been
countless. The Department has both promoted and
begun revolution in the arts and sciences OF agri
culture"
AS the press dispatches summarize the figures:
From department with 2444 employees in
1897, and appropriation OF s3,272902, It has in
creased to 1883 employees at the beginning Of the
present fiscal year. with an appropriation this year
of almost S25,oo0.OoO Whereas there are now
$4,000 requests every week for Department publ.
cations there were but 800 in 1897 and In this Pc
riod 225,000000 copies have been distributed"
This brief summing up Of the public life Of
James Wilson appears in the New York Evening
Post.
"He born In Scotland seventy seven years
ago. but has lived In the United States for sixty
years. He served In several OF the general Assem-.
bles OF Iowa, in one OF them as speaker; and also
as railway commissioner regent OF the State Uni
versity, director Of State agricultural experiment
stations, and professor OF agriculture in Iowa Agi
HzN.