88 Missouri Agricultural Report. 



pursuits, and unless he is an exceptional man, he gives less 

 thought to what to do for the public good. 



So it has come about that we look to the good men and, in 

 Kansas, to the good women who live in the country and in the 

 smaller towns, to lead the way in both moral and economic 

 reform. Without making any pretext to statesmanship, with- 

 out posing as moral philosophers, the plain everyday farmer- 

 American, by an application of everyday common sense and 

 common honesty and common decency to the problems of the 

 states, are keeping the American people in the right track and 

 are keeping alive that righteousness which uplifts the nation. 

 So I am going to talk to you for a few minutes about some of the 

 great questions which the thinking farmers of Kansas are con- 

 sidering, some of their problems and some of the solutions which 

 they propose, in the hope that you may find here and there a 

 helpful suggestion or a gleam of encouragement and inspiration. 



The present-day problems which belong dis-tinctively to 

 the farmers are many and diverse and every one of them is far- 

 reaching in its effect. Many of them are entwined in the very 

 life of the nation. Bill Shiftless, for example, may think it 

 nobody's business but his own whether he raises twenty bushels 

 of corn per acre or one hundred bushels; whether he depletes 

 his soil or conserves the fertility; whether he lets weeds take his 

 crop or keeps it in a high state of cultivation. But Bill is wrong. 

 The price of bread and butter and meat and shoes and clothing 

 and everything the American public consumes is reflected by 

 the size of Bill Shiftless' crop and the condition of Bill Shift- 

 less' farm. One-half of the state or nation cannot prosper if the 

 other half suffers. So the idea of class in America is in reality 

 very small and is growing smaller every day. I have known 

 very few rich people, and there are very few compared to the large 

 number of us common people that Lincoln loved. Now, I feel 

 it a disgrace not to work or pretend to work at something. The 

 influence of one Bill Shiftless is infinitesimal, to be sure, but a 

 few one thousand Bill Shiftless' can make or break a nation, and 

 so it is with every problem with which you farmers are struggling. 

 I do not wonder that the farmer occasionally resents the benevo- 

 lent interest taken in his affairs by the banker and railroad presi- 

 dent and editor and preacher and politician, but you must 

 remember that all the rest of the nation depends upon the 

 farmer; all these men who preach at you and lecture you are 

 particularly interested from a selfish standpoint as well in 



