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It is going t J be a big movement, t'lis movement for tae improvement 

 of agriculture. The unfortunate part of it is that the farmer in a great 

 many instances, does not feel that he needs help and perhaps does not want 

 help, but we in the city know that we are paying higher prices for food. 

 We know that riding out in the country, we can see the farm products 

 wasting on the ground, and we have come to the conclusion that the 

 way we can help this movement, for cheaper living, is by studying the 

 question of farm production and transportation and selling. This is not 

 a question of philanthropy at all; it is a question of business. That is 

 the reason that the Corn Exchange Bank is in this movement, and also 

 the reason that the trade bodies have become interested here with us. 

 On the front page of the programme you will see the names of the different 

 trade organizations that are associated with us in helping to solve these 

 problems. In addition to the Board of Trade, Bourse, Philadelphia Pro- 

 duce Exchange and Commercial Exchange, Chamber of Commerce, 

 Merchants' and Manufacturers' Association, Hardware Merchants' and 

 Manufacturers' Association, the Pennsylvania Railroad, the City Club 

 and Ohio Society of Philadelphia, we have the University of Pennsylvania, 

 State College, the Pennsylvania Rural Progress Association and the 

 Philadelphia Society for Promoting Agriculture, all interested in this 

 movement. 



There are plenty of means for developing farm lands and of instructing 

 the farmer how to increase his production. But there is more than that 

 to this subject; there is the question of transportation, the question of 

 marketing and the question of meeting the needs of the consumer. Penn- 

 sylvania has the largest rural population of any state. We have right here 

 in this wonderful agricultural section, surrounded by the best agricultural 

 country anywhere in the United States — Chester County, Lancaster 

 County and all through the eastern part of Pennsylvania. Take New 

 Jersey: No better section anywhere; also Delaware and Maryland. 

 You cannot find any better agricultural land than we have here. Yet it 

 is selling in some sections for practically nothing. We have a wonderful 

 market here. Six or seven millions of people are right within two or three 

 hundred miles of our homes. Why should we not raise enough agricultural 

 products and food supplies for ourselves? We do not do it. You go down 

 along Dock Street and Front Street, and you will find that we are getting 

 turkeys from Texas, chickens and other poultry from Illinois, Indiana 

 and even further west. We are getting butter from Minnesota. You 

 try to find where the Pennsylvania products are, and they tell you that 

 they cannot give you any percentage ; it is so small that it is hardly worth 

 noticing. The only way they can use Pennsylvania poultry is by having 

 it shipped in alive and killing it on Front Street; otherwise, it does not 

 come in in good condition. 



When the housewife goes to the store and pays a dollar for a dozen 

 eggs and pound of butter, it is time that the farmers around Philadelphia 



