River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1920-02-26
Our Weekly Letter
From Washington
From james A. Frear, M. c.

Haugen quoted Dean Russell OF the
Wisconsin Agricultural College, in
reference to the activities in that
branch of University work. Among
other matters it was stated Wisconsin
paws half of the cost on different lines
of cooperation work connected with
farming and the Federal Government
an equal amount, but it was also stat
ed that only SO out of II counties IN
Wisconsin had county agricultural
ents. This number of counties with
out agents averaged about the same
throughout the country because in the
As states 937 counties were unprovld-
ed. 1t is a certainty that a good,
hustling agent does much to promote
interest in farming while he is able
to advance productivity and the
adoption of most improved methods.
In every branch of business today
efforts are made to avoid waste Of
energy and waste of money by bring
ing the highest efficiency to bear.
Farming is subject to constantly i'm
proved methods but through the
school at Madison, which is probably
without an equal in the country, we
have had the benefit of the best ex-
perts in the land Mr.. Moore, the
great authority on breeding, told me
many years ago that he had been Of
fered much higher salary to go else
where but at that time he preferred
to be Unidentified with our oun state
institution because of its high stand
ing. That on state is famous for
its quantity and quality of agricul-
tural products is constantly shown
and one of the strong men on the Ag-
ricultural committee spoke to me re-
Gently, expressing his surprise at the
wonderful showing of the old Badger
State.
Thirty agricultural bodies of the
of the country were present at
Farmers Congress held here last
week at which Victor Murdoch of the
Federal Trade Commission was an
active adviser. Mr.. Murdoch served
with me during the 66636rd Congress
and recently wrote personal letter
strongly endorsing my work in re-
ducing public waste and on a propos-
ed bill to reach the trust evil. Mr..
Barrett of the Congress touched the
KEYNOTE of the session when he said
"organized farmers will pool their
efforts in employing trained research
workers to investigate conditions Ell
fecting agriculture, marketing, dis
tribution and finance"
4 y =
Last week the writer read letter
to the House that contained a start
ling statement. 1t was received IN
the mail few minutes before | ans
wered ON the floor an attack from the
National Committee which has per-
sistently misrepresented the aviation
investigation. This letter, which was
read, came from a young lawyer IN
Kentucky who said he was a demo-
crat and had voted for Wilson in 1912
and 1916. He was an aviator at the
front and congratulated me on our
report, disclosing that after nineteen
months of war and spending of over
one thousand million dollars for air
craft we only succeeded in getting
213 of the d H 4 American made OBJ
servation planes known as flaming
collins" on the battle line. An extract
from his letter reads: Having used
machines of Canada, England, and
France and the liberty Cd H-4
think I am qualified to give an opin-
ion on the merits of the coffin The
Goth Aero Squadron lost eleven aVi-
ators out of twelve on September 26,
1918, in the collins. l personally saw
five go down in one flight in flames.
If you ask the opinion of the boys
who are left out of the 18th, goth and
166th Bombing Squadrons you will
hear nothing but curses for the Grim
mails that sent that machine with an
unprotected gasoline tank to be used
on he front. Our aviators who were
taken prisoners and returned from
Germany after the war, told me that
the Huns ridiculed them for using
such death trap" The writer of the
letter offered to furnish names of
many aviators who would endorse
his statements. Rickenbacker, Amer
ica's greatest ace, testified to similar
experiences and our committee had
many noted aviators before it who
spoke in equal terms of denunciation.
The writer paid to have few extra
reports printed and they are in con-