ADDRESS. 



By Edward James Cattell, 



Statistician, City of Philadelphia. 



I welcome from my heart the opportunity which Mr. Calwell has given 

 me to address this important body on this important subject, because this 

 meeting appeals to me strongly, not only because of the vital necessity 

 of studying agricultural problems, but because I can speak to you as an 

 old bank boy — one whose privilege it was to labor in the Corn Exchange 

 National Bank nearly fifty years ago. 



I am further glad to speak because it offers opportunity for me to 

 thank the preceding speaker for his most illuminating and interesting 

 explanation of the system established on the peninsula for the handling of 

 farm products, which certainly points the way along which an immense 

 amount of good can be accomplished, resulting in added wealth to the pro- 

 ducer and, through an increased volume of products, reducing cost of living 

 to the consumers. 



While he was talking, an old memory of a visit to the eastern shore 

 came back to me with compelling force — a visit on a farm, when young, 

 where I met the two laziest men I have ever come across in my world-wide 

 journeyings. These brothers were so lazy that it took two of them to 

 sneeze, one to throw his head back, and the other to make the noise; and 

 they would sometimes wait an hour, or two hours, the one for the other, 

 rather than essay the awful strain of sneezing individually. I do not for 

 a moment mean to suggest that this traditional opposition to labor still 

 prevails in the peninsula today, or that it is in any way responsible for the 

 necessity which has brought about this splendid system of distribution. 

 At the same time, it may suggest a certain line of development which 

 promises great returns to the nation at large, namely, a more energetic 

 and intelligent handling of the food-producing question. We have fallen, 

 of late, into the habit, especially in financial centers, of regarding this 

 country as practically a finished country. It is the commonplace of our 

 public speakers, and of the press, to refer to the good old days when there 

 were plenty of opportunities, plenty of unoccupied land, and the nation 

 was just being opened up. Of course this is all nonsense. After an 

 agricultural development which has staggered the world by its rapidity, 

 we have still awaiting utilization practically three-fourths of the surface 

 of the republic; and if you take into consideration the multiplication of 

 producing power, born of intensive farming, it is almost impossible to meas- 

 ure the extent to which we can increase our product from even our present- 



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