The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1921-10-11
Says 1t Is More Valuable to
Kansas Than Oil Deposits.
IN ADDRESS AT SATANTA
State Ranks First in Production
of Wheat, He Says.
Improved Methods Used in
Western Kansas Farming.

Satanta, Kan, Oct. 11.-Declaring
that the underground waters Of west
ern Kansas if properly utilized are of
far greater potential wealth to the
state than her valuable oil deposits,
j. c. Monler, secretary of the state
board of agriculture, gave a striking
picture of the growth, development
and possibilities of Kansas agricul-
ture-especially in the southwest-in
an address at the dedicatory exercises
Monday for the new rural high school
Just completed here. The school is
declared to be one of the finest struc-
lures of its kind in the southwest.
secretary Mohler Sketched the won
derful transformation of Kansas in
sixty years from a wilderness into the
most profitably productive agricultural
domain in the world, now Welding
hundreds of millions of dollars of
farm products annually.
Kansas in First Place.
He cited figures showing that Kan
sas ranked first among the states in
wheat production, first in the sor-
ghums, first in alfalfa, and declared
that Kansas stood first in the high
order of her civilization, and in sub
sanitation pointed to Kansas leader
ship in the abolition of slavery, in blaz-
ing the way for national prohibition,
IN early advocating woman suffrage,
trial peace thru the instrumentality of
the court Of industrial relations.
AS to our agricultural progress"
said the secretary, "a glance at the
past record is not simply to indulge
a sense of qualification because of ac-
compIishments, great as they are, but
rather from our achievements to en-
visage future possibilities thru a fuller
development of our resources The
underground waters of western KAN
FraHa .
are estimated as of far great potential
wealth to the state than her valuable
oil deposits.
win the crops now grown and the
methods employed we are developing
one OF the most productive soil areas
on the continent in the great south
west One might truthfully say that
the sorghums, milo, kafir feterita
sudan grass and alfalfa, and other
adopted crops, have, in a way, equal
Yea agricultural opportunities, and
mat these crops give to the west ad-
Vantages, considering the price of
land, on par with the corn and clover
and alfalfa growing regions of the
east.
New Farming System.
Improved methods and new crops
nave given to western Kansas a sys-
tenn of farming. tho different, thai
holds opportunities equal to those of
other regions, leaving the matter of
success to deVolve almost wholly on
the man wherever located. To ac-
quire the best possible education at the
beginning is an invaluable asset what
ever ones vocation may be, and this
school will become an increasingly
important factor as the years go by
in upbuilding the community along
clean, helpful, worthy ways.
Such institutions as that of which
we are celebrating the dedication to-
day are common objects on the ho-
rizon of Kansas folks and are very
largely a measure of their ambition.
It is true that many of our school
structures are not so pretentious in
architecture and construction as this
modern building, but the important
thing is that Kansas affords educa-
tional opportunities for its youths in
every community. That there has
been provided such complete equip
ment and facilities for higher educa-
ton here, and housed so splendidly, is
one evidence of a determination to
be in the front rank of an advancing
civilization. Education stands for Gull
ture and knowledge, and knowledge is
power-the dynamo of progress. No
people arise higher than the general
plane of their average intelligence In
our schools lies the hope of the future.
"Of particular interest is the voca-