Connecticut western news., 1920-09-30
Declares Definite National Agri- cultural Policy Is Vital to
 Country's Welfare.
WOULD PUT END TO PRICE
 FIXING OF FARM PRODUCTS
ta Address Before Minnesota State Falr Republican Nominee Shows
 Profound Understanding of
 Farming and It's Problems. ...

Minneapolis, (SpeciaD .-"The time has come when, as a nation, we must determine upon a definite agricultural policy. We must decide whether we shall undertake to make of the United States a self-sustaining nation-which means that we shall grow within our evn boundaries all of the staple food products needed to, maintain the high est type of civilization-or whether ws shall continue to exploit our agri- cultural resources for the benefit of Our industrial and commercial life, and ts leave to posterity the task of finding fsod enough, by strong-arm methods, If necessary, to support the coming hundreds of millions. ~ believe In the self-sustalninu, in- dependent, self-reliant nation, agricui- sMraiiy, industriaIiy and politically. NO are then the guarantors of our own security and are equal to the task"
 90 declared Senator Harding in a nasterly address before the Minnesota otats Fair here, in which he revealed q most profound understanding of agriculture, its problems and it's rela- dos to the farmer and the consumer in tAe cities. This speech has been de- scrfbed as the greatest speech on agri- culture which has ever been made by . Presidential candidate.
 Among other things he said:
 "A good many years ago a Chinese philosopher uttered profound truth when he said: The weli-being of a people Is like tree; agriculture is it's root, manufacture and commerce are ts branches and its life; if the root k injured the leaves fall, the branches break and the tree dies.'
 Cause for Concern.
 'Tt may seem strange to many gcOd people that at this particular.time any enc should quote this saying of wise old Chinese. Never in all our history have prices of farm products ruled 90 high, measured in dollars, as during the past four years. Farm land in the great surplus-producing states has ad- Nanced to unheard of prices, with every indication that, but for the tight money conditions, 1t would go still Higher. Apparently the farmers of the land arc enjoying unprecedented pros
  kien, suggest that something may be wrong with our agriculture, and that the trouble may be communicated to our ,manufa ctures and commerce? Peo- Die In the cities are disposed to think that if there is anything wrong it is in the cities where food is selling at such high prices, and not in the coun- try where the food is produced. But both farm and city students of national problems see. in the present agricul- turai situation certain conditions which give cause for real concern to every lover of his country" .
 He then referred in a most interest ing way to the development of the great central west and sketched briefly tAs settlement of the great central val leys, as follows: ....
 'Through the homestead law the government gave farm of the richest lAnd in the world to every man who wanted one Railroads were built, the prairies were plowed up, and almost overnight the agricultural production of the United States increased by b0 per cent. Grains were produced and sold at the bare cost of utilizing the sotl, and the farmers of the older states to the east were smothered by
 
 thing that could be done with this superabundance of food was to build cities sut of it. And great cities we did build, not only in the United 6tates. but across the seas."
 He smoke of the hard conditions WhicheC14pe upon the farmers of the central Est as a result of their over production, and then of the gradual improvement which began about 1905, when the increased population in the cities began to catch up with farm pro- AuotiOn, and how this increased de mana for food was accelerated by the great World War.
 Speaking of the part played by the farrneg during the war, he said:
 Splendid Part of Farmers.
 "yhe splendid part played by the farrfers of the nation during the war probably never will be understood or fully appreciated by our people,, More than 25 per cent of all our fighting men came from the farms, and after sending their sons to the camps, the fathers and mothers, with the help of the younger children, turned to and produced more food than was ever be- fore produced in the history of the world in the same time and from the same area of land. Their working days were measured not by the clock, but by the numberI of daylight hours. They took to themselves the reSpOn- sfbility Of feeding not only our own people, but also our allies across the sea- In more ways than one, our farm CTS made the war their war, and count ed DO sacrifice too great 10 help fight il through to a successful finish. The
 -4g 1,r some one who understands it, will fnrniah one of the most glorious chap ters in American history. One thing I may say-ln every American con. f1iot, from t1e revelation for independ ence to fiie world war for maintained rights, the farmer has been 100 per osnt American and ready for ever, aaorinoe."
 He then pointed out some of the un