Report of Missouri Farmers' Week. 



319 



here this afternoon to speak to you. I am acquainted with all of 

 them and know them personally, know of their work and know of 

 the positions they hold in the communities where they live, and 

 it is a pleasure to me to be associated with them in newspaper 

 life in a professional way. 



The first speaker of the afternoon is President of the Missouri 

 Press Association, whose home is at Fulton. I have known him 

 for years. I honor him as a friend. I esteem him very highly as 

 a professional brother and I am sure that you will all enjoy listen- 

 ing to what he has to say. I have the pleasure of introducing Mr. 

 Ovid Bell of the Fulton Gazette, who will address you. 



THE COUNTRY PAPER AND THE FARMER. 



fOvid Bell, President of Missouri Press Association and Editor The Fulton Gazette.) 



The country life problem, I think, will solve itself. I do not 



mean to say, however, that these confer- 

 ences are not helpful to its solution, for I 

 know as well as anyone could know that the 

 results are always beneficial when thought- 

 ful men gather together to consider a given, 

 problem; but I do mean to say that we in 

 America always prove adequate to the emer- 

 gencies and conditions which we have to 

 meet, and that though we sometimes spend 

 a long time on the road to a special reform, 

 we ultimately arrive, and in consequence the 

 tribes of men are made happier and the 

 world becomes a better place in which to 

 live. Therefore I say confidently that I be- 

 lieve that I will solve our country life problem, just as I believe 

 we will solve the other great problems in our national life. 



It is rather a departure, I should say, for the relation of the 

 country newspaper and the farmer to be considered at a country 

 life conference — or, for that matter, for the country newspaper to 

 be considered at any conference. It is a regrettable fact that too 

 many persons regard the country newspaper as a nuisance, if not 

 actually a menace, and the editor a public malefactor — until it 

 becomes desirable to suppress something which the public is en- 

 titled to know, when, on the instant and for the instant only, and 



Ovid Bell. 



