364 ANNUAL REiPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



thereof, for |1().U0, $i5.0U or |20.UU per acre; which would be barely 

 oue-teuth of its value, at that juncture, aud very remotely so, when 

 the railroad shall be located in that vicinity. After a lifetime of 

 plodding-, ploughing and toiling, on eight, ten or twelve inches of soil, 

 in his later years, he is very many times robbed, cheated and lied out 

 of his coal, clay or other mineral values; simply, because he has no 

 means of knowing what might possibly be concealed in the rocks and 

 slates of his farm. Is this not deliberate robbery? Or would it be 

 any worse for me to enter your granary with your consent, meas- 

 ure one-half, one-fourth, or, even one-tenth of your corn, oats and 

 wheat, and, upon this measurement, buy the entire crop or the actual 

 contents of your grain bins? Is this not scientific stealing, of which 

 we may study so many and various aspects in almost any direction, 

 and do*^ we not have here^. in this "Grand Structure," an elaborate 

 and gorgeous demonstration of stealing as an exact science? I have 

 reported on 4()(),0UO,()0U tons of coal on territory, supposed to be de- 

 void of coal. Does not the real importance and necessity of learning 

 something about Geology occur to you, who have given it no thought 

 or study? As a science, it seems to be quite as obscure and remote 

 as some indefinable aspects of religious superstition, with which, also, 

 Geology seems to be associated in the minds of many people. Five 

 millions of dollars, for a Geological Survey, would have been a mea- 

 gre allowance and in no other sense, more so, than as a safeguard for 

 the small land owner or those who have not big capital. 



There are ethical and doctrinal phases of this subject and it is 

 suggestive of many things, that appeal to your attention and reflec- 

 tion, in this direction, as well as in many others. You have, I may say 

 an eternal, a perpetual suit in equity, perchance, in trespass, against 

 those who thus infringe on your rights. In the moral features of 

 this and other questions, remember you are not entirely segregated 

 from other classes of your fellow citizens. The conservators of 

 our best state and national interests, your rights must be admitted, 

 and this deplorable inaccuracy of the Geological Survey, from which 

 you have suffered as you have from bad politics and bad business, 

 must convince you that it is due either to careless oversight or de- 

 liberate indifference on the part of those that could provide a rem- 

 edy; while other departments have been accorded more favorable 

 consideration in the Assembly. This dereliction has afforded oppor- 

 tunity to the designing schemer and speculator and you are mostly 

 the victims. Every true science is progressive towards the better- 

 ment of all; but, apace and commensurate with these "fair sciences," 

 is the science of commercialism, with all that it implies to the wise 

 and which, were it estopped, how much better, in all respects, would 

 be the Commonwealth, Verily, these things look like self seeking, 

 evil design and financial craft gone to seed and money getting gone 

 mad. The farmer, inherently and by association, is in favor of tem- 

 perance, honesty in politics and business, patriotism, education, and 

 every virtue that pertains to true manhood and true womanhood. 

 He believes in more equitable and just distribution of wealth and 

 wages; he is favorable to the church, and to the Commonwealth 

 and to the United States as against any perverse or partisan con- 

 trol. He is utterly adverse to the saloon, autocracy, aristocracy, 

 communism, nihilism, anarchism, the social evils, monopolies, the 

 centralization of wealth, excessive and indiscriminate immigration 



