The Johnson City comet. (Johnson City, Tenn.) 1916-1917, 1916-11-16
WILSON BLANES
THE MIDDLEMEN
FOR HIGH PRICES IN HIS TIRST
POST-ELECTION SPEECH AT
GRANGE MEETING
APPLAUDED BY FARMERS
FARMERS URGED TO INCREASE
OUTPUT IN EVERY AVAILABLE
WAY-EMDARGO UNMENTiONED
As TO F0ODSTUFFS-CREDITS
FOR FARMERS MENTIONED

Washington, Nov. 15.--President
Wilson blamed middlemen for the
high cost of foodstuffs here in a
speech welcoming to Washington the
convention of the National Grange,
the first formal speech he has de-
livered since the election. Urging
that farmers increase their output,
the president said;
|, We onght to raise such big crops
that circumstances like the present
can never rccur when men can make
as if the supply was so short that
the middlemen could charge for what
he pleased 1t will not do to be Mig
carly with the rest Of the world in
respect to it's food supply
The president did not mention re-
cent petitions to him to declare an
embargo on expectation of foodstuffs
from the United States to the rest
of the world and he did not refer
even indirectly to the outcome OF The
presidential election. His address
was Interrupted frequently by ap-
plause from the farmers attending
the fiftieth anniversary celebration OF
the founding of the grange.
1t seems to me-" said the presi-
dent, that some of the NOSE inter-
osting problems of our life and of the
life of the world lie before US, prob
Inns in connection with which the far
mers of the United States will pay a
part such asst they have neyea played
before.
1T goes without saying that the
physical life of the nation has al
ways depended upon the farm. Ii
goes without saying, also, that TO
large extent the physical life of the
world has drawn its sustenance from
the great areas of farmland in the
United States. We have sent food to
ali parts of the world, and the Ameri-
can farmer has contributcd't the life
of all the countries of the world. But
you know that as our own population
has increased the proportion in which
we could help foreign countries as
contrasted with our own has decreas-
ed, and there are problems that are
comparable with the problems OF
staesmanship lying ahead of the far
mes of the United States.
In the future we have got to bring
more of the area of the United States
under cultivation than is under ca
tivation now. We have got TO increase
the product at every point where it
is susceptible of being increased.
One of the things that has most
interested me about what has been
done ecently by legislation for the
benefit of the farmer is the question
why it was not done long before. 1t
is astonishing that the assets, the val
liable, available assets, the visible as
sets of The farm should not have been
available as a basis OF credit in the
banks on the same terms as theIas-
sets of commercial undertaking and
manufacturing industry. Cattle are
just as visible and tangible as goods
i'll warehouses and goods on trains.
We have liberated the credits OF
the banks and we have mobilized
through the department Of agriculture
the scientific Intelligence Of the
world. With that combination, every
nation in the world ought to come to
us to learn how to raise big crops.
We ought to raise such big crops tha.
circumstances like the present can
never recur, when men can make as
II the supply was so short that the
middlemen could charge for it what
he pleased. 1t will not do to be nig-
carly with the world in respect of its
food supply.
4 wish that all problems of gov
ernment were displayed in as clear
lines of duty as this problem Of gov
ernment with regard to how Che far
mer ought to be treated is displayed
wish, for example, that foreign al
fairs were so simple as agriculture.
The great satisfaction about what you
have to discuss is that when once
your duty is determined, we have got
great force OF intelligence to so
forward in the line of duty
THE thing that make free coun-
try vital is the large number of peo-
pie who get together TO do important
things without asking the leave of the
government to do them. The strik-
ing thing about a great country like
the United States is that if the gov
ternment neglected everything, the