The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1920-03-12
URGES PEOPLE NOT ID TALK
 ABOUT GRAFT
Sec. cG Agriculture Criti- cizes Continual "Kick-
 ing" in Country.

New York. March 12-In terms of the advertising manager, Secretary of Agriculture Meredith told the mem bers of the Merchants Association of New York, today, of his ambition to increase the output of the depart ment's chief product. This was the first address made by Mr Meredith since appointment and summarized the work done by the men in his de- partment, while at the same time urging the advisability of increasing $ rather than cutting the appropriation for carrying on the work.
 After paying tribute to the loyalty displayed by the employees in the de- partment and citing cases of experts who refused positions paying much larger salaries than those they re- ceived from the government solely because of their desire to render ser vice to the people of America, he de- plored d tendency to discuss "waste,'' ,'' graft and soft snaps"
 q think it is wrong I think it IS poor advertising to be talking all the time about the waste, and about the grafters and soft snaps and all that, in Washington I heard lady say the other day that there were things they did not discuss in her family before the children as they were too young to understand; and that she thought it was all wrong for us in America to be complaining about the government, to be saying that this man and that department is inefficient, even dishonest and so on, because it is poor advertising. There may be some one standing around who believes you mean it; there may be some foreigner who is not acquainted with our ways over here, and he hears you and goes out and repeats your statement to others How many of us simply fall into the habit of complaining and criticizing? It is poor advertising; don't do it.
 Secretary Meredith explained that about only one-third of the appro' priations of $3OO,OOO,OOO is actually used in the interest of agriculture The balance goes to the maintenance of weather service, the forest service, the administration of food and drugI act and other subdivisions of the de. partment.
 The department was pictured as serving an invested capacity of more than $S0,O0O,OOO, the amount invested in agriculture. The agricultural and live stock product last year was $25,- 000, 900, he added, "equal in one year to our national debt at the pres 'cnt time-one-half of the wealth of France"
 The number of farm workers in 1919 was given as 13,700,000, con- trasted with 5 1900, 900 in 1870, the sec retary said, adding that in the five years 1915 to 1919 the average pro- duction of cereals here farm worker was AIS bushels.
 These figures are interesting" he said, "and particular in connection with the high cost of living. The cost | of living problem is a mutual one for all of us. It is the rarmers' problem, it is the 1aborers' problem, and it is the business mems problem. If there are more men on the farm farming more acres. each acre producing more per acre and each man producing more per man, giving each and every one of us today more of the six lead ing cereals per capita than we have had before, it seems to me the farmer is doing his part pretty we'll"
 Farmers increasing during the war their planted acreage 33.00O,000 acres, i he said, and their yield by 635, 100000 i bushel, adding that this was in re- | sponse to the departments request.
 He insisted the personnel of the de i partment was free from politics. Out of 21 900 positions, he said, there are only four that are not under the civil l service-the secretary and the two as l sistant secretaries and the chief of the i weather bureau.
 Attention was called to the difficult l ties thrown in the way when attempts : were made to obtain larger appropria- ! tions for the work, and he pleaded for a broader comprehension of the needs i of the department.