Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1920-06-22
TRIBUTE TO THE FARMER.
BY +. T. Meredith, Secretary Of
Agriculture

AZ lNuIlule,
The farmer of today is an up-to-
date, practical, intelligent. hCme-lov-
ing human being. | want you to get
that. That isn't just commonplace.
He is an upto-dae, practical, home
loving human being. He is moved
by the same emotions that you are
moved by He has the same love Of
family. He VIII sacrifice as much
for them; he will do as much for their
comfort, and yet a lot Of advertising
men don't seem to believe it. You
think the man in town will buy this
or that or the other thing for his fam
lily, but il never enters your head
that the farmer would. But you re-
member that he has the same enc
tons and that he is just as human as
the rest of us. He is just a little
more thoughtful than many of us:
he reads little more on the average
we in the cities may pride ourselves
on our intelligence the farmers on
America read, men, more than the
peoples of the cities, positively. and
he thinks while he reads. He thinks
more clearly than the rest of us, and
he is hardly as selfish as those of us
who must crowd into an elevator a
dozen times a day and rush for seat.
l have seen you city fellows do it
rush for seat in the subway, you
know, and then get into the elevator
first-why, you quit your desk five
minutes ahead of time in order to ge.
a seat in the restaurant.
The farmer has different train
ing. He is a little more generous
than that. He is little more gener-
Gus than we in the cities who have
a different training. This is reflected
in his attitude towards his neighbors
and his country, and we may we'll
congratulate ourselves today, you and
l that this is true when the two
great forces in industry are lined ur
to see which one may get the possible
advantage of the other, and when
neither side is worrying particularly
about the interests of the other.
This great body of clear thinking.
solid, substantial farmers OF the couN
try is an anchor to the windward.
They always have and always vii
serve their country we'll in peace o.
in war, and are a body of citizens -
which each and every one of us owe
just, generous, fair and sqaure deal
in every way.
Il would like to say this about this
just, fair. square deal to the farme".
An evening could be devoted to that
subject, again. A man came to DeG
Moines recently to ask me if 7
wouldn't call conference of farmers,
twenty or thirty or forty of the big
gest farmers in Iowa. / said: What
for?" He said: II want to talk to
them about more production" And l
said: "No, l positively will not. If
biggest men in Iowa. the biggest gas
Oline engine manufacture, the big
gest banker, the biggest retailer, the
biggest in every line that you can
find, then will get twenty big farm
ers. and if you will make your prob
lens mutual, if you will show him
how you are going to reduce the cost
of a pair of shoes and the price of
gasoline engine, then you can talk to
him about more production to reduce
the price of the food products" The
farmers business Is production. He
is producing; he is working all the
time, but you and l and the other
business men must do something now
to show this farmer that we are in
terested in his welfare. And it 10 ,
not only that, but this thought that
l want to leave with you is that it is
up to you, selfshly, as business man.
to see that this farmer is looked after.
1t is up to you as patriotic Ameri-
can citizen, to see that he is looked
after, because every civilization that
has ever gone down has gone down
because the people went from the
country to the city.
Waterloo VisitOrs.--Mrs. Anna
Z L