DRY FARMING CONGRESS. 



7 



of you delegates are opposed to these policies, it may be that by confer- 

 ring with the proper officers and getting a thorough understanding of the 

 motives and the plans. of the Government you can come to terms of agree- 

 ment and thus remove whatever differences there may be. 



Speaking for myself, and I think I speak for the State of Utah, as 

 well, I am thoroughly in sympathy with the steps being taken by the 

 Government to save the public lands for homeseekers and the public 

 range and the forests for the home-makers and their children. I am sure 

 this is the only object sought by the Government. If there are interests 

 opposed to this laudable purpose. I believe they will have to yield to the 

 general good. While I should very much dislike to see any worthy indus- 

 tries' crippled, yet if they are being conducted in such a way as to en- 

 danger the wealth or the safety of future generations, I think it is the 

 right" and the duty of the Government to interfere. As to the proper extent 

 and means of interference, there may be differences of opinion among the 

 interests concerned. It is with this view that President Roosevelt has 

 invited the governors to go to Washington in the spring and consult with 

 him and the heads of departments. But it is decidedly impolitic, in my 

 opinion, for these various conventions to pass drastic resolutions of dis- 

 agreement with the general policy of the Government, or censure the 

 officers entrusted with its enforcement. 



The country has no greater benefactor than the man who makes the 

 land productive. Those who own and till the soil form the best element 

 of any nation's citizenship. I do not mean the large landed proprietors 

 nor the serfs that till these men's lands; but those who own the farms and 

 gardens, whether large or small, and who take their sustenance from the 

 earth. As a rule there are no better citizens. They are the mainstay of 

 the Nation; they support the merchant, the manufacturer, the professional 

 man; they feed the world. They are intelligent. Their children are among 

 our leading students. There has been a change since the great French 

 artist produced his immortal painting, the fame of which has been made 

 still more secure by Markham's equally immortal poem, "The Man With 

 the Hoe." The farmers of to-day and especially of this country are not 

 the woebegone, hopeless, downtrodden, spiritless clods the Frenchman 

 painted, but intelligent, hopeful, progressive, and useful citizens. (Ap- 

 plause.) Their combination of brawn and brain is irresistible; and neither 

 envious man nor the destructive forces of nature can stand in the way of 

 their great achievements. 



The Nation does not need to fear its farmers. Who ever heard of 

 the prosperous American farmer talking anarchy? He may get out 

 among his neighbors once in a while and say that this or that condition 

 should be bettered, or that socialism or some other "ism" will cure cer- 

 tain ills. But it doesn't last long. He is nearly always too busy for that 

 sort of thing; too much occupied with his multiplied duties. And as the 

 golden grain falls before his reaper and he garners and markets it and the 

 price goes jingling into his pocket, he forgets all about his little troubles 

 and decides that things are about right after all. For anarchy does not 



