The Farmington times. (Farmington, St. Francois County, Mo.) 1905-1926, 1917-07-13

man who boards. That is remedy No.
3. ! was willing now to give to. the
President the power to control the
foreign markets through the embar-
go. We have already voted for that.
That is remedy No. 4. / was willing
to give, if it is necessary to have any
law at all to do it, the power for this
country and all the allies to buy
through one agent. That is remedy
No. 5. Those powers taken together,
it seems to me, are complete within
themselves and are as far as we can
go with safety. That is what | say
| do not say we shall have no remedy
But then, l am willing 70 go further
than that and vote money to encour-
age production. l am willing to vote
money in almost unlimited amounts to
give Mr.. Hoover or any other man
the power to organize this country
to get all the good women to work
and all the men to work to encourage
production and encourage economies
and think that is really field where
wonderful results can be obtained.
am willing to do all those things
Now, where do stop short? / simp-
ly stop short at the point where it is
proposed to turn over the business OF
the country to some one man.
Will the Senator let me, while
have the floor, call his attention and
the attention of the Senate to the
remark that made a good many
days ago, that if you put somebody in
to run the business of the farmers of
this country they would muss things
up? You read in the papers the other
day a glowing account of how they
were going to send the Boy Scouts
down into Virginia and Maryland to
harvest the potato crop, and every
body was going to be happy, and the
potatoes were going to roll into the
market. You read in the morning pa
per now that the Boy Scouts-poor
little fellows, gallant, splendid little
fellows-have all had to come home.
The thing fizzled out, just like every
attempt to run the farms of this
country by gentlemen who sit in swiv-
ell chairs has always been a failure,
and it cost several hundred dollars to
do this. Observe again, how some
body took control of the potato mar
ket, and the result was that potatoes
fell from $12 to 81 a barrel in one
days time, and the farmers quit dig
ging them down here in Maryland
and Virginia. l am told by a dis
Senator this afternoon that
he has word from his State that the
farmers who ordinarily bring in their
wheat at this time to the elevators
and get some cash for it have been
told by the elevator men that they
will store their wheat, but will not
buy their wheat. You just need a
few more doctors like this to put the
whole machinery of production out of
gear-just a little bit more Of it in
this country.
Now l come back to my PROPOSE
ton. 1t is not fair to say that l have
no remedies. | have suggested every
thing that a man can in reason claim
here, unless he proposes to take the
business out of the hands of the peo-
pie and put it into somebody's else's
hands to manage for them. The man
who does that in this country will
bring ruin to this country. The thing
that disgusts me this afternoon is
that, when it is proposed to take ov-
er all of the business of the country
in that way, Senators sit and vote for
it, and newspapers support it; but
when it was proposed to take over
whisky--a thing in regard to which
my position has always been well
known; l have not been a prohibi-
it was proposed to lay
the hand of power upon whisky and
beer, these same papers that want to
lake over everything the farmer has,
who have denounced as demagogue
every man who stood here to say a |
word for him, have thrown hundred |
different kind of fits, and have de-
lounce Congress as composed of men
unfit to legislate. 1t is a strange thing
hat it is so unconstitutional to lay
he hand of power upon the corn or
barley that is going to be turned into
whisky or beer that any man who
,otes for it is scoundrel and a
wretch, and yet it is all right to lay
he powerful arms of this Govern
nent upon the entire productive ma
hinery of the land, and control ev-
ny farmers price.