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DRY-FARMING CONGRESS, WICHITA, 1914 



very hard to refrain from calling your attention to the fact that the county 

 which is my home has taken the three leading prizes at this Exposition, 

 and the man in charge of it will come home with $500 or more in his 

 pocket as a result of his enterprise. He really thinks he would come home 

 with more were it not for the partiality of the management! 



But there are people from other parts of Kansas who will go away 

 with a new idea of the agricultural resource's of this state, and there are 

 people from other states who will go away with a new idea of the agricul- 

 tural possibilities not only of Kansas, but of the other states of this great 

 Middle- West and Far- Western section. It is a splendid work this Congress 

 is doing, and an inspiration to every American citizen who may come here, 

 and it cannot fail to be of advantage to our whole nation. 



It seems to me that the time was never so ripe and promising for the 

 farmer to come into his own as it is right now. No American citizen, of 

 course, would be so lost to all sense of humanity as for a moment to enter- 

 tain a feeling of exultation because of the strife between the nations of 

 Europe, and yet it would be very foolish on the part of any citizen or nation 

 which is not engaged in that desperate war to fail to consider the question 

 of measuring all the conditions which that war will bring upon the five 

 great nations of the world engaged in the deadly conflict. 



The exports of England, France, Germany, and Austria, a considerable 

 part of them agricultural in their nature, amount to something over 7 

 billion dollars annually. Of course, those exports will not immediately 

 cease, but they have been much curtailed. If the war lasts six months more 

 they will be more strongly curtailed, and if the war should continue another 

 year, they will almost entirely cease. It will develop upon the other nations 

 of the world to supply that lack, and whether that may be in manufacturing 

 or agriculture, the farmer is the one upon whom the burden will naturally 

 rest. If it be necessary for us to expand our manufacturing industries, it 

 will fall upon the farmers of this country to feed the laborers, and if the 

 necessity should arise for further food export from our country, it will fall 

 upon the farmer to supply that necessity, so it seems to me there never 

 was a time when this Congress could feel it so certainly had a mission as 

 right now. 



With all our homestead lands practically absorbed, the chief avenue .we 

 have for the further development of agriculture lies in that section of the 

 country, both, here and farther north, where until this time farming has 

 been sporadic. The work of this Congress is doing a great deal to make 

 that farming an established part of the industry of the world. Therefore 

 I am proud to be here today, to express my pleasure in extending the 

 felicitations which are due on this occasion and to give you my congratula- 

 tions and the most cordial hope that these sessions may be the most suc- 

 cessful and most notable of all the sessions the Congress has yet held. 



I thank you very much. 



PRESIDENT WATERS: 



The next state on the rollcall is Arkansas, to be responded to by Mr. 



