Richmond times-dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1914-current, 1915-08-05
VIRGINIA IS URGED
TO EMULATE WEST
Governor and Other Returned
Pilgrims Deliver Gospel of
Agricultural Progress
CROWD OF 5000 ATTENDS
Packed Auditorium Hears De-
tails of Official Trip to
Pacific Coast.
CROWD OF 5000 ATTENDS

credit for the man who tills the soil,
mutual understanding between those
~ho have money and those who have
land growing with staple crops. were
advocated by Governor Stuar. last
night before a massmeeting of citizens
held in the City Auditorium.
The Governor spoke of the things
OF which he knows. He told his au-
dicnce that he was farmer He told
3.oon men and women that he had an
abiding faith in the soil. He told them
that the soil vas the source of all
wealth. OF whatever magnitude or pro-
portion II might be. or from whatever
other source IL might appear TO come
VIRGINIA FARM LANDS
As GOOD AS TIIF. REST
The Governors talk was that Of a
farmer teacher. He had viewed. he
said, the lands Of the Middle and the
Far West. and ne had found there the
staples which arc grown in Virginia,
and ne had returned home to find that
Virginia has like staples and other
crops and better climate for their
production. He waxcd eloquent in his
talk OF the soil. He waxcd more
eloquent when he told his hearers that
virginia offered moro advantages than
any state which ne had visited that
the once productive farms Of the Old
Dominion needed only twentieth cen
tury farming TO make them more pro-
ductive than they were in tho days OF
slavery.
The Governor was as fun OF optimism
as he vas OF urging. He asked onlv
that the effort that was put forth In
other days be renewed and that faith
supplant a thread worn tradition. And,
though he spoke Of an humble sub
ject. though he sought only to implant
the faith which has made himself sue
ccssfui, he waxed eloquent and held
cnihralled 1900 people with simple
story what fertile lands. with
proper farming. may do He had, he
said, given eye and In all the
places between the Ohio and the Pa
cifc Coast, and in none OF the States
through which he had passed had he
found a more productive soil than that
which he had let, behind him on his
tour. The chief lesson which he
brought back was that Of faith and
co-operation-fsith in Nirginia's soil
and cooperation between those who
have idle cash and those who have
idle lands.
GOVERNOR RECEIVED WITH
REMARKABLE OVATION
The Governor was received with A
remarkable ovation. He was applauded
when he hrst appeared on the restrum
and when his peroration was done there
were many who shouted for him 10 go
on. Not once did he refer 70 the fact
that he was speaking the Governor
OF Virginia. He told his audience only
that ne was a farmer. and that his faith
rooted in the soil After him came
Major Bowles. who told OF the Blues'
7. baI M
back with him lessons learned in other
cities. and y. c. O'Flaherty. who gave
expression TO his ideas of the new
and wonderful West.
PRESS REPORTS HAVE
NOT BEEN EXAGGERATED
In speaking of the hegira which led
the Governor. his STAFF OF colonels and
the battalion OF the Richmond Light
Infantry Blues. back and forth. nearly
5000 miles. Governor Stuart said that
the trip was unique and that i, was
the largest party of Nirginians which
had travelled TO the Pacific Coast since
the day that Lewis and Clarke pene-
trated through Oregon and opened up
the Northwest
The press reports" he said. have
not been exaggerated. At the Ohio
River and as far beyond as we could
nothing but money. money without end
money growing out OF the ground
That is the only place from which
money comes. 1t is trte saying, but
1t is true. nevertheless. Ten billion
dollars come out of the ground asi
part OF the country's wealth Butt
there isn't mine from which ores may
be extracted Of equal value 1t is 10
the agricultural mine to which the peo-
pie go year after year; it is from the
mines OF the fields that the peo1le de
rive their greatest wealth The sur
plus from the field is the income OF
the nation.
CITY Is DEPENDENT on
PRODUCT OF THE FIELDS
"The country is dependent for its
wealth upon It's productivity and unop
the earning power of it's people No
city Is dependent upon it's pay roll
The city must be dependent upon that
which is back OF II, upon what the fields
bring forth. upon what the land gives
In return to those who work upon ito
surface. The country is prosperous IN
proportion to the average earnine
power and the productivity OF every
citizen. am not speakinA Of stocks
and bonds. but Of the creative wealth
which lies In the farmers hands.
"Between the Ohio and the Nfissis-
sippi there has been enormous produc-
tivity. II. therefore, the corn belt of
the West. which may be termed the
bread basket OF the world, Is so pros
perou". It Is because CT tho individual
earning power and because of the pro
ductivty Of the people living WITHIN
Its range. Cities. railroads and banks
would have been insolvent If 1t had
not been for tho productivity OF tho
country. What Is true OF the indiyi-
dual 10 frt1e Of tho c}ty onxl ~.