Seventy-Third Annual Eeport 1311 



not justifiable; first, ou principle, and next I believe it is not 

 warranted at this time when there are so many appropriations 

 asked for that are vital. In the next place, I believe you will 

 not get anything out of it. We cannot organize men by legislative 

 fiat. You cannot pass a bill here in Albany appropriating $20,000 

 for the organization of the fanners and then send out a lot of men 

 and organize them unless you have something back of it. It seems 

 to me the resolution prior to that covers the ground. It asks for 

 legislative aid in bridging the gap between the producer and the 

 consumer. I am opposed to it if I am the last man here, unless 

 you can convince me I am wrong, I should a great deal rather be 

 right than consistent. 



Mr. Dillon: I have been connected more or less with agri- 

 cultural work all my life. I believe I attended the first farmers' 

 institute that was ever organized in this state, and have attended 

 more or less of them since. I have attended the farmers' meet- 

 ings throughout the state and have heard resolution after resolu- 

 tion offered, and appropriation after appropriation provided for 

 the education of the farmers of this state. For what ? To teach 

 them to produce two blades of grass, in the old Dean Swift 

 theory, where they produced only one before. For what purpose ? 

 To give the railroads a little more freight to handle ; the express 

 companies a little more express to handle; the food speculators 

 and commission merchants a little more produce to handle and a 

 little more opportunity for graft ; and, if you will have it so — it 

 does not often work out that way — give the city consumer a 

 cheaper cost of living, and cheaper food. Now, ]\Ir. Jordan told 

 you here last night that the farmers of the South raised a small 

 crop of cotton one year and received some eight million dollars 

 for it, I think. The next year they produced 40 per 

 cent, more and received 30 per cent, less for the bumper 

 crop than they received for the small crop of the year 

 before JSTow what good is it to us farmers and pro- 

 ducers for the state to go on spending money and educating us to 

 grow bumper crops, to buy fertilizers and hire help, to work our- 

 selves, to work our children and our women on the farms and 

 produce more stuff to send into the markets, and get less for it 

 than we would if we grew only half as much ? I^ow that is the 



