86 Missouri Agricultural Report. 



ADDRESS OF WELCOME ON BEHALF OF THE CITIZENS OF 



COLUMBIA. 



(Mayor W. S. St. Clair.) 



Mr. Gentry spoke with a great deal of pride of being a farmer, 

 but he knew you would not accept it on his word, so he called on 

 Dean Mumford for proof that his claim was founded on fact. 

 President Gentry is a city farmer. I claim to be a real farmer. 

 I farmed in the days when farming meant something, when 

 you could take a dollar and buy something, when you could get 

 out and buy thirty pounds of hog for a dollar and when the 

 great majority of people could have butter on the table and 

 could have eggs now and then, but I am reminded to- 

 night that I have had it in mind for a long time to call 

 just such a gathering as this in Columbia. I have been wanting 

 to have a conference with the farmers of Missouri on this very 

 matter. I am glad that you are here, gentlemen, and that your 

 wives are here, for I have an idea that they take a very important 

 part in the farm life on the farms that you operate, and I want to 

 ask you in behalf of some of our people in Columbia to take some 

 of these matters of high prices under advisement, and see if you 

 cannot do something to help us. 



When I was in the country I wanted things high, but now 

 that I am in town I want things low. If you can just get butter 

 down and eggs down and meat down where we can have some of 

 these things once or twice a week, we will feel that your visit in 

 Columbia has been to some purpose. I am told, ladies and gentle- 

 men, that outside of the honored president of the University and 

 the heads of the respective departments here, there are thousands 

 of these professors who don't know what it is to have butter and 

 eggs on the table. I want something done for them and for the 

 rest of our people. 



We are certainly glad to see you here. It is a great pleasure 

 to have you in Columbia. You have been told so many times that 

 the farmers are the best people in the world that you have come 

 to believe it, and we have let it go at that. You are a splendid 

 body of people, and we would rather have you with us than many 

 other conventions we might mention. Many of the organizations 

 that meet here are made up of city people, who know so much that 



