Report of Missoun Farmers' Week. 331 



pleased to call "bunk." The advertising men of today have gone 

 forward and are putting advertising on an honest basis. They are 

 fighting for that. And along that line a lot of newspaper men are 

 trying to impress the idea on their readers' minds that advertis- 

 ing is honest, that the merchant cannot afford to advertise dis- 

 honestly, that if he does his publicity is lost, and I think that same 

 policy should be followed along other lines. It puts our profession 

 on a higher plane and makes us stronger with the people. 



There are two things that are very gratifying to me along 

 that line of public service which I believe are of greater benefit to 

 the newspaper, and naturally it follows of greater benefit to the 

 people, and that is the teaching of journalism at the University 

 of Missouri, teaching it to agricultural students. That means that 

 a farmer can sit down and tell you of his experiments last year, 

 perhaps, with oats, in which he had imported some new seed, or 

 whatever it was. He can write that story and give it to the paper 

 and tell the storj- in a terse style, yet leaving out no important 

 details, and his neighbors will get the benefit of it; whereas, if he 

 makes an experiment and says nothing about it he is doing an in- 

 justice to his neighbors and himself. I find that farmers are more 

 than willing to give us items, especially farmers who have been 

 experimenting and who have met with success, or where they have 

 failed, in order to keep their neighbors informed. And I want to 

 say that if every farmer would enter into the spirit of co-operation 

 as much as he will be met by the newspaper men, wonders will be 

 accomplished. There is no question about that, because newspaper 

 men of the country are more than glad to give stock and farm 

 news space, and it will be vastly better, because that means more 

 prosperity and better conditions, more reading for the public, and 

 naturally when the newspapers have more influence and have bet- 

 ter service the editors feel that their efforts have not been in vain. 



The Ledger has just closed a six months' campaign in Audrain 

 county for a farm adviser. Like some of the other speakers who 

 have spoken about the way advanced agriculture was received, we 

 were laughed at by a great many, but the majority of farmers are 

 taking hold of it, and not only the farmers are going to get the 

 benefit of this, but every citizen is going to learn something about 

 agriculture, about furthering the interest of Audrain county. The 

 Mexico Commercial Club is in for making Audrain county a greater 

 agricultural community. I think, with the newspapers taking up 

 these improvements and educating the people and keeping such be- 



