Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1914-09-04

serve all the people In the light of
lance upon our Father in Heaven for
help to deal honestly and justly by
all the people.
Il was born into a good family,
who have titled the soil of Pennsyl-
vania for one hundred and sixty years
and who belong to that great army
of Pennsylvanians who have loved her
well enough to work for her and to
obey her laws.
Coming from the common people
L know their problems and have a
sympathetic appreciation of their
needs and aspirations. Here I have
spent my life in an earnest endeavor
to make the childhood of the great
State happy, cultured and skilled. 1
now lay that service of a generation
before you and ask you to decide
whether 1t is of such a character as to
warrant your support. II so, / shall
count 1t a solemn duty to serve you
honestly and as capably as 1 can.
Leaving the Farm
I'm 1900 forty-five per cent. of our
people lived in the country and pro-
duced food for the fifty-five per cent.
that lived in our cities and consumed
this food. In 1900 the number of
producers had fallen to less than
forty per cent, and the consumers
had increased to almost siXty-one per
cent Thus in ten years twenty per
cent. of our population had changed
from rural to urban. There is a
steady and increasing stream of our
substantial rural life flowing into our
rapidly growing cities. You can at
once concrete this and name the
young men and women of your own
family and that of your neighbors who
have Joined this cityward procession.
Many causes have contributed to
this condition. Many remedies have
been suggested. Certain facts are es-
tablished. With the causes have not
time now to dwell, nor is 1t necessary.
The question for the farmers of Penn
sylvania is What can the State in it's
organized life do to make life in the
country more attractive and the flow
of its young people to the cities less
disastrous" The counter proposition
offers no large relief. The movement
from city to country is relatively un-
important and Is likely to remain so.
II Is vastly easier and better to keep
the country boy and girl on the farm
than to win city population to the
country. History and present propa-
ganda alike confirm this statement.
I'VE must make country life in
Pennsylvania vastly more attractive
in every way, in order to ensure a
large agricultural population, thrifty,
intelligent, happy, and independent
To this end the State must address
itself to the duty of making the soil
yield a larger return for the toll and
attention devoted to 1t. Our agricul-
ture must go to a scientific sis and
the State must show the way and
provide the means.
"As Il country boy, born on a farm,
and reared in the atmosphere of the
meadows and hillsides, the orchards
and wheat fields, / have realized the
conditions facing the farmer in Penn
sylvania. / know what 1T means to
eat my bread in the sweat of my
face and to measure the years re-
turns with economic concern lest the
years effort fail to provide food and
clothing and shelter for the loved
ones of the family circle. We must
give increased attention to the treat
ment of the soil, the selection OF
seeds, the cultivation and conserva-
ton of crops and the transportation
of farm products to the markets of the
world.
while we have done much and per
haps as well as many sister States
we can easily do more and we pledge
you that we shall.
Should Foster the Farmer
THE present day farmer cannot af-
ford to pay the high price of good land
and compete with the frontiersman to
whom land was a gift to be had for
the asking. Farming as a business
does not pay in Pennsylvania as II
should and as 1t could. The taxes upon
our farmers is out of proportion to the
taxes paid at large. We have fostered
many things and have forgotten to
foster the fundamental factor in our
development-the farmer and his
fields. I pledge you my utmost en-
deavor to secure such a revision of the
tax system of Pennsylvania as to re-
lieve the farmer and secure to him
equal and exact justice in taxation.
More than this he does not want.
Less than this the State should be
ashamed to offer.
1--WE want now and shall have good
roads-roads that will make 1t easy