112 Missrniri Arjrintlhn-a^ Report. 



the new idea, we would still be plowing the ground with a crooked stick. 

 We would be like the poor benighted Hindoo : 



"Poor benighted Hindoo, 



He does the best he 'kindoo,' 



He sticks to his caste from first to last, 



And for trousers makes his 'skindoo. ' " 



Now that boy who has bought a farm and paid from $50 to $75 an 

 acre — it may be your boy upon whom you expect to lean in your de- 

 clining years. He goes into debt for the farm. His shoulders are 

 broad, his intellect is bright, his mind is alert. As the years go by 

 he pays off a few of the mortgage notes, but after a w^hile his strength is 

 passing with the years, and finally the payments fail. Then your heart 

 will ache when the sheriff reads the execution that must close your boy 

 out of his home and he must become a day laborer, a renter on these fair 

 farms of ours. Now, it is poor economy to allow a condition to obtain 

 that is going to make more renters in our country. IMissouri is rich so 

 long as her soil is rich, but w'hen her soil is depleted by poor methods 

 ]\Iissouri is poor indeed. And many farmers of the State of IMissouri 

 are doing all they can to destroy this great gift that God has given 

 us. No man has a right to destroy, to hand down this possession in a 

 poorer condition than when it was given to him, and I say when he does 

 that he is committing a crime against himself, a crime against the IN tost 

 High, a crime against our children and the generations yet unborn. No 

 man has a right to do that. And so we ask you to put your shoulders 

 to the wheel at your end of the line and w-e will do our part here, and 

 we will solve this greatest of all problems. The boys are going to wdn 

 the game. The boys win the games after all. I say the boys have won 

 the big battles of the world. If you go to our national cemetery and 

 read the line on the head-stones you wall find it was the boy who went to 

 the front and bared his breast to the enemy's bullet and received it. If 

 you will read the ages as recorded there you wdll find that the soldiers 

 were boys. But I say the boys need your help, and if you wall give it 

 the boys — I say the boys — will win. Now the issue is clearly drawn. 

 The proposition is up to you. 



