this conference, and I am here to pledge, with the other gentlemen 

 present, the best efforts, the most hearty co-operation and assistance 

 of the great corporations with which I have the honor to be asso- 

 ciated, and the best efforts that I can give personally to this most 

 important of all subjects." 



(Long and loud applause). 



BY THE CHAIRMAN : 



"I think that was a very fine promise that President Brown made 

 to us just now. We know what the corporations he is connected 

 with have done and can do, and we believe they will do great 

 things in future to help this movement. I know President Brown is 

 thoroughly in earnest in that matter, and that he does not mean, 

 so far as he is concerned and his corporations are concerned, that 

 it shall stop here, but that it shall go on and grow. 



"We have a gentleman with us to-day, a gentleman from the 

 western part of the State, who spends most of his time in Washing- 

 ton making good laws for us. It gives me very great pleasure to 

 introduce Congressman Dwight, from Ithaca." 



HON. JOHN W. DWIGHT, United States Congressman from the Thir- 

 teenth District of New York, said : 



"Mr. President, I will not make a speech. All the gentlemen 

 who preceded me have made my speech. I believe that every man 

 present here to-day regrets the necessity of holding this meeting. 

 In the papers and magazines general discussion has been held it 

 has been talked everywhere on the cost of living, the increased cost 

 of living, abandoned farms, unusued farms, unoccupied farms call 

 them that you will; but all of those conditions have resulted in our 

 meeting here to-day. You have had all the statistics, have you not? 

 In a general way. With the greatest crops ever raised in this country 

 last year, amounting to eight and three-quarter billions of dollars, 

 the cost of living is the highest ever known. That cannot continue 

 unless we increase the production. We have here to-day gentlemen 

 who have told us what the soils of New York would do; that they 

 were ready to co-operate with the Department of Agriculture of 

 this State. Secretary Wilson, of the National Bureau, offers his 

 co-operation. The Bureau of Commerce and Labor, 'with its Immi- 

 gration Department, offers its services. Every railroad president 

 in the State of New York is represented here to-day, ready and 

 willing to take hold of this movement to increase the agricultural 



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