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practically what it was last year. Nevertheless, we must recognize and study 

 the significant changes in production and consumption of our farm products 

 in this and other nations, and we must not be wholly dependent upon 

 governmental sources for our information. The Standard Oil, the Steel 

 Trust, the International Harvester Co., the great grain merchants, the 

 packers, and the large manufacturers select strong, capable experts of their 

 own to gather and to interpret the very latest and best information obtain- 

 able throughout the world on those commodities in which they are concerned. 

 If the farmer shall exercise proper intelligence, he will adopt the same course 

 of action. This does not mean necessarily the reduction of production, but 

 it does mean possibly a more diversified character of production and selec- 

 tion of the commodities which you will raise and sell. 



The Department of Agriculture has rendered invaluable service along 

 these lines, and' during the past year your authorized representatives have 

 helped to place additional facilities in the hands of the Secretary of Agri- 

 culture for this very purpose. Incidentally, in this connection, I want to say 

 that last winter, when we appeared before the House Committee on Agri- 

 culture we secured a statement from the Department of Agriculutre to 

 present to the committee concerning the control over news gathering agencies 

 throughout the world that organized business has built up through our 

 government, compared to that which agriculture had obtained. We found 

 that the Department of Commerce had 28 representatives; the Department 

 of State had 43 representatives; and there were 626 in the Consular Service. 

 The following is a direct quotation from the letter from the Department of 

 Agriculture: 



"We have no men in foreign countries selected to collect crop, 

 livestock, or trade information. * * * Through other departments, we 

 do get information, but these foreign representatives are not in the 

 employ of the Department of Agriculture and are not trained or experi- 

 enced in the agricultural industry." 



Recently a substantial sum has been appropriated to the Department 

 of Agriculture for the building up of more efficient news gathering agencies 

 throughout the world; and this important branch of the public service is 

 being ably developed under the guidance of Mr. Secretary Wallace. Never 

 in the history of the world' has there been a more efficient organized effort 

 on the part of the government and of organized agriculture to give practical 

 assistance to the farmers along the line of a more intelligent and efficient 

 production of farm products. And yet you are far, far behind organized 

 business in the intelligent control of your production. 



TRANSPORTATION PROBLEMS. 



Second, as to transportation: Next to agriculture, the greatest industry 

 in the United States is that of the railroads. If it should cost as much today 

 to move a ton one mile as it did a century ago, your transportation cost 

 would be approximately sixteen times what it is today. That marvelous 

 change has been brought about by some revolutionary inventions and develop- 

 ments in the industry. But in the same breath, I want to add that it costs 

 as much today to ship a ton one mile as it did forty years ago. 



In other words, so far as the benefit to the public from these phenomenal 

 developments in inventions, the economies effected by the large consolidations 

 of railroad systems and the improved methods of operation is concerned, we 

 have made practically no progress in the last forty years. And yet, during 

 that forty years, we have built practically three-fourths of the transporta- 

 tion system as we see it today. There has been built up on American soil 

 the greatest transportation facility upon the face of the earth. The railroads 

 distributed partially the benefits derived from invention and other methods 

 of progress in their industry for many years. The forces of the government 

 and the forces of society and commerce compelled this result. 



