center the soil brought customers, those who take the product of 

 our business; it means, consequently, that as products decrease in 

 bulk prices naturally rise; and we lose the customer for our industry 

 on the one hand, while paying higher prices for his product on the 

 other. We lose both ways, as far as the farmer is concerned. We 

 cannot blame the farmer for high prices. Magazines talk about the 

 high production in Germany. The reason is that she has the labor to 

 produce it there. When I was in Poland in 1907 and in Germany 

 I found they were bringing north from Italy to Germany 90,000 

 Italians a year to harvest their crops. They told me I do not vouch 

 for the figures they were bringing 250,000 people from Poland to 

 harvest their crop. I do know that the farmers of Poland were 

 thinking of bringing Chinese coolies across the trans-Siberian rail- 

 roads to harvest the crops in Poland. Other people have their 

 troubles just as we have. The farmer of the West who produces 

 half as much as the farmer of Germany is doing it as best he can 

 on an economical basis. The more men he has the deeper he can 

 plow and the better he can cultivate. And with the labor he has, 

 agricultural experts will tell you that he is doing as well as the 

 farmers in Germany. So, don't blame the farmer. Let us do some- 

 thing for the man living on the farm. The telephone has done much ; 

 also rural free delivery. Let us give him a parcels post on strictly 

 rural routes. (Applause). And when we Congressmen from New 

 York City districts vote for increased appropriations for agriculture 

 do. not make fun of us. For five years in Congress I have voted 

 for the maximum that the Secretary has asked for any year and 

 the Committee has reported. I am going to do it for the remaining 

 year of my term, no matter what you think about it. That old 

 gentleman who sat down there, in his twelve years of service to this 

 country has done more good than most generals and admirals have 

 done, and done more good in his department than the head of any 

 other department of the Government. I am glad that he got the 

 recognition, the attention and the applause, and the resolutions that 

 he did here, because he deserves, that old Scotch gentleman (cries 

 of 'American, American!') deserves everything American people can 

 give him. (Applause). His department has kept down the cost of 

 living. He is at the head of scientific research to-day, bringing on 

 to our farms new food crops, and by the tens and dozens intro- 

 ducing every year new food crops ; and not only new but better kinds 

 of the crops we are familiar with. The whole crop of the West 

 has been benefitted and increased by the better seed that the Depart- 



