1906] ■ ANNUAL REUNION. 87 



President Wright, of Clark College. 



I had the pleasure of speaking to you about a year ago and 

 I then said something about experiments in advancing plant 

 life and to-night I am going to speak of what the Federal gov- 

 ernment does for the people. 



We talk a geat deal about accumulative wealth and we think 

 we have a great deal of it. Now as a matter of fact we are 

 within three and one-half years of starvation — always are. 



That is to say, that if you should take all the accumulative 

 wealth of Massachusetts and live on it without any outside pro- 

 duction, it would last our people for the purchase of food 

 alone, for three and one-half years, and then we should have 

 to quit. 



Our accumulative wealth doesn't amount to much. It is 

 the power of the country to produce annually what it needs and 

 a little more, and it is that little more that we are after. Now 

 the Federal government aids in many ways the production of 

 annual wealth. Are you aware that the government expends 

 three million dollars a year and employs over 50,000 persons 

 purely for educational and scientific purposes. It is not possi- 

 ble for the human mind to take in the production of agriculture 

 alone for the past year. 



We hear a great deal about young men leaving farm lands, 

 and the young men do leave the farming districts but the Fed- 

 eral government is trying to keep them there so that there may 

 be a better distribution of labor. 



There is a good deal of arid land where cattle will not live 

 but where they might live. The chief production there is cac- 

 tus, and experiments are under way to grow it without spikes 

 and then the cattle could live on it. England has no depart- 

 ment of agriculture and would not think of putting out any in- 

 formation that would be of help to the farmers, but our gov- 

 ernment supports the weather bureau which is a help to 

 produce wealth, not here, but in the West it has a positive 

 value. It saves all that is expended on it in saving from floods 

 alone. 



You all know what the government has done in saving 



