The Farmington times. (Farmington, St. Francois County, Mo.) 1905-1926, 1916-05-19

We desire to publish an extract
from a letter which we received the
past week from a prominent farmer
of the county:
'In regard OF the petition or rumor
about requesting the County Court to
authorize the selection of County Ad-
visor by the vote of the people, the
first | have not seen, and of the last
| have heard but little.
an theory it may be according to
the constitutional right of the people
to decide, but in practice it would be
a failure. One of the main reasons
would be the vote of a large part OF
the inhabitants of towns or cities in
the county who are not interested IN
the welfare of the farmer, who in all
probability would vote against the in
terests of the farmer. Some people
are uniustly preiudiced in this mat
ter. Perfans if they understood the
good intention of the government,
state and county to help advance and
promote their welfare, they would be
less antaronistic to the principles of
good farming.
"Respectfullv."
We appreciate this example of
sound reasoning on the part of the
author Of the above letter.
The retition referred f. hos for its
object the dispensing with the Coun-
ty Farm Bureau and doing away with
the office of County Farm Agent.
THova 30 = re"t1liar thing that appeals
to one when the thought of petition
comes to our mind. Whenever some
one circulates petition, the posi-
bilities are that nine out of every ten
men will sign it. A few days later
another petition may be circulated di-
rectly opposed to the first, and this
too is signed by the same man who
signed the first one. In other words,
they have signed both for and against
whatever the purpose may be.
It is an old saving that any man
who is fairly we'll and favorably
known in his community or even I'M
favorably known, if he has group
of followers. could circulate petit
ton to hang the most popular preach
err in the state, or the Governor or
any other high official, whoever he
might be at that particular time, and
it would be signed by rs per cent of
the men to whom it was presented
This is simply striking way of say
ing that men who sign petitions pay
little or no attention to what the pc
titions may CONAN. They do not stop
to anaylze them and find out just what
their significance may be. They sign
simply because friend or neighbor
asked them to sign, and very often
they do not even read the petition.
We do not know that we can explain
just why men do this. Probably it is
because they do not wish to refuse the
request of friend or neighbor. 1t
is not at all uncommon for man to
sign a petition addressed to men,
Der of the Legislature or to some
member of Congress, and then write
letter to the one to whom the petit
ton was addressed, and explain that
his name on the petition does not mean
anything; that he is in fact opposed to
what the petition asked for. The
truth of the matter is that petitions
no longer receive much consideration
at the hands of our Lawmakers. Their
abuse has become so common that
the people have dissipated their in
fiuence when they undertake to ex-
press it in this way.
Since the above mentioned petition
has been circulated, some men who
signed the petition have approached
certain members of the Farm Bureau
saying that if they had understood
the matter thoroughly they would not
have signed the petition. IL the men
who started this movement, and the
men who are circulating these petit
tions, had studied the conditions some
what, they would not have -blundered
into something they did not under,
stand, and would not have attempted
to do something which they would be
unable to accomplish,
AS a matter of fact, the Farm Blu
reau work is guaranteed in st. Fran
co.'s county until July |, 1918, the
C+a+a having n contract with the