244 



DRY- FARMING CONGRESS, WICHITA, 1914 



Congress, which is nothing more nor less than an International "Better 

 Farming" Congress, differs not a whit from many I have attended, in one 

 respect, in that it is more than likely that it will be attended by the 

 BETTER FARMERS of the country, by those farmers who have ALREADY 

 DEVOTED considerable thought to the problems of farming, and who, 

 therefore, need the benefit of the instructions received here, the least. 

 THOSE WHO NEED OUR HELP THE MOST, my friends, are NOT 

 HERE TODAY, and you can not reach them with speeches; you can not reach 

 them with agricultural bulletins — the only way you can reach them is by a 

 trained agriculturist, a man who combines the scientific and the practical 

 knowledge of farming, who can work with and be one of them. And it is to 

 the extension of this kind of work that we, of Texas, have devoted our chief 

 efforts. We believe THIS so fully that we are not only lending our efforts 

 to putting these trained agriculturists into every community in our State, 

 but we are backing up our own faith in it by extending a willing hand to 

 those farmers who will work with the bankers of Texas for "BETTER 

 FARMING." We are lending our money for dairy cows, for hogs, for 

 silos, for everything that tends to make the farmer independent, and we 

 shall equally refuse to assist those who are so blind to their own wel- 

 fare that they will not make the effort to help themselves, and if there 

 is one thought I should like to leave with this assembly, it is that we 

 must not only endeavor to arouse the FARMERS of America to the im- 

 portance of this great "better farming" movement, but we must, at the 

 same time, educate our country banker and our country merchant, and 

 endeavor, so far as we can, to get unity of action in the matter of ex- 

 tending a wise and judicious system of credit to those entitled to receive it. 

 The bankers of the Union have recently had a salutary lesson from the 

 Secretary of the Treasury in the withdrawal of Government funds from 

 banks not employing them along proper lines, and once we show the far- 

 mers of this country that the HELP of THE BANKS and the HELP of 

 the COUNTRY MERCHANTS will be WITHDRAWN from those who 

 do not apply the assistance received along sound lines, we shall have gone 

 a long way, indeed, toward stimulating a greatly increased interest in the 

 better farming movement. 



SECRETARY FAXON: 



Mr. Presidpnt, the Chairman of the Committee on Nominations is ready 

 with his report. 



MR, BAINER: 



Mr. Dillon, we will now hear the report of the Committee on Nomin- 

 ations. 



MR. DILLON: 



The Committee on Nominations begs leave to submit the following 

 report and recommends its adoption: 



For President of the Congress — F. W. Mondell, of Wyoming. 

 First Vice-President — W. C. Edwards, of Wichita, Kansas. 



