Report of Missouri Farmers' Week. 



341 



REPORT OF SESSION DEVOTED TO DISCUSSION 

 OF THE COUNTRY TOWN. 



Hon. M. V. Carroll. 



THE COMMERCIAL CLUB AND THE FARMER. 



(Hon. M. V. Carroll, Sedalia.) 



I have not had an opportunity to attend any of your sessions 



heretofore and have not really gotten into 

 the drift of the work that this particular 

 part of the Farmers' Week aspires to do. 

 This is the first session that I have attended. 

 I got my cue, to some extent, from what Mr. 

 Hirth said in his speech, but I believe that I 

 am expected to consider what is before this 

 meeting this afternoon from the town stand- 

 point, inasmuch as I cannot claim to be a 

 farmer. I was very much impressed with 

 the statements that Mr. Hirth made in his 

 speech, and in the main he stated the facts 

 so fully that there was no chance of reiter- 

 ation and nothing to be gained by it. 

 One thought occurred to me while listening to Mr. Hirth's 

 speech in reference to the interest the business men have in farm- 

 ing and farm life and agriculture generally ; we have to admit that 

 our motives in all of our actions and affairs are selfish to a certain 

 extent. I undertake to say that a great many of the more than 

 a thousand people I am told registered at headquarters, each and 

 every one of them who came over here, if they were asked why 

 they came here would tell you they had a selfish motive in coming. 

 They did not pick this particular period of the year or this particu- 

 lar locality for a social outing. They came over for a selfish pur- 

 pose, to get information which they could utilize for their material 

 benefit. That is what I came over here for. I am not so philan- 

 thropic or patriotic, but that is the size of the situation. I came 

 here to get information to enable me, if possible, to do better work 

 in a better way than I am doing it now. 



Not being a farmer, I am placed in a sort of peculiar attitude. 

 When our Bureau of Agriculture organized over in Pettis county 

 (for some reason or other they got into the habit of putting every 

 secretaryship that doesn't pay any salary onto my shoulders, when- 



