Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1916-03-16

NOL 80 generally recognized, OUT OF
supreme importance to the State is the
agitation going on in agriculture. This
is probably the greatest agitation that
exists here today. more widely sprea1
and involving more people. Several
years ago it began to be perceived that
manufacturing in Maine had out
| stripped agriculture. and men in the
cities as we'll as men In the country
Logan to turn their attention to it. and
| to seek out the difficulty. They did
not tell the young man that it was his
duty to stay upon the farm. They
exalted the College Of Agriculture, the
Experiment Station, the State Depart-
ment Of Agriculture. the Grange, in
the minds Of the people: they talked
science, system. determination of costs,
accuracy Of bookkeeping, distribution
of product: the sams things that have
made business fascinating pursuit
and driven it to the front And be-
hold! never such attendance at the
I midwinter meeting of the College Of
Agriculture as occurred last week,
never such interest in cooperative and
demonstration schools as occurred in
| Cumberland county last month;
searching for the truth, with the eager
Eess and determination Of the learner:
and we hear Of Corn Clubs for the
boys, generous prizes offered by the
packers, free transportation and en-
tertainment to be offered by Maine
city to a thousand boys during the
through it all the teaching of science
and the requirement. of system. Bust
ness and agriculture cooperating, and
rural credit occupying the attention Of
the cities as we'll as of the farm. And
it takes no prophet ~ foretell that this
agitation also will produce it's results.
1t is a question whe in the next
generation agriculture will not out
strip manufacturing in Maine.
Your minds will conjure more things
In which this principle is working, and
as we review this sure and accurate
effect of agitation, we perceive the
great community need that agitation
shall be we'll directed. The merit of
this sort Of agitation is the fact that
it is constructive. 1t is so easy to
make agitation destructive that we
have to be continually on our guard.
|
Board Of Trade or Chamber of Com
merce work, which finds its highest
mission in the pursuit of constructive
ideas. 1t is much easier. of course. to
hamper and tear down what has been
constructed through long periods OF
time with great care. 1t is easy to
muckrake, but an intelligent com
munity rapidly perce;ves that an army
of skilled muckrakers can spring up
overnight, while the agitation for
piece of constructive work may be the
task Of generation. 1t is easy for
multitude of agitators to spring to the
task of legislative rearrangement
Regulating what others have wrought
but II is a work Of the greatest care to
see that that rearrangement and
regulation are not useless change or
baneful repression. t. see that the
constructive principle runs through
the enactment and application ct
| economic law.
Therefore it is the happy privilege OF
organizations like this State Board OF
Trade to gather from many portions o.
the State representatives of its Var1-
! Gus activities who come together Tor
thought and deliberation upon the
constructive needs and opportunities
of their commonwealth. They realize
that the railroads are not to dominate
the State, but nevertheless that they
are a part of the state and ire
mendous power in its development. that
to refuse fair and Just treatment to
the railroads is direct injury to an
important part of the State and an
indirect injury to the whole of 1t. They
|1ealize that the public service cor
7oration should Dc wisely super
vised, but that they are part of the
community, and rea6y and eager to
Join in constructive community work
They realize that multitude of forces
are at work. industrial. agricultural
commercial, educator al, organizations
working along manv' lines; and Tree
from the obligations of political Oil
vision they can NEE. to consider the
jagitations which ca upbuild the COM
munity and promote its welfare.
An illustration Of unavailing critical
agitation as opposed to constructive
lagitation will serve. Occasionally our
banking institutions and ofttimes tn"
capitalist have been censured because
they did not turn their primary at
tention to investments in Maine But
various men, believing this was mis-
conception and realizing that you can
coax capital but never drive it, looked
for deeper influences to correct the
situation. For years they strove to
make capital invested in the State of
Maine secure and profitable, and they
fought against the double taxation of
mortgaged property in Maine. They
strove to make mortgages tax EXEMPT
Tor the reason that to tax the property
and also the mortgage upon it was un
justly to tax twice the capital invest
ment. And now the State has lust
made tax free all the savings bank in
vestments that go into mortgages in
Maine. There is an Involvement. the
inducement of fair treatment, and the
stimulating effect is a resulting in
creased activity in building in Maine.
And this raises the question, why not
make tax exempt all bonds of cor
porations which hereafter shall build
their property. conduct their business
and have their head offices in Maine .
! to CD