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anywhere are denied the right to a fair childhood, your children and 

 mine must face in the future a moral competition which could not 

 help but sadden them. To work little children, or to overwork 

 men and women, means degrading competition for you and me 

 on much the same principle that the slave was the real enemy of 

 free labor. I think farmers, of all men, should support labor laws 

 which prevent what I call degraded hand labor. 



Fair Credits for Farmers. 



There is now a movement on foot to establish in this country 

 a system of agricultural credits which will enable a farmer to 

 obtain cash in his business as readily as the merchant or business 

 man. You may not in this neighborhood feel the need of such 

 credits as they do elsewhere, yet that is no reason why you should 

 not support the principle. In the European countries such a sys- 

 tem has been established, and has practically saved the European 

 farmers from bankruptcy. We have in this country for years 

 been trying to teach our farmers how to grow larger or better crops. 

 This education always means an added expense for tools, methods, 

 fertilizers, and also for transportation. That is one reason why 

 so many farmers have been unable or unwilling to take up this 

 science or improvement. It costs too much in cash, and they have 

 not been able to obtain credit, for it would seem as if agricultural 

 development and money march side by side. Thus we have in 

 a way been putting the cart before the horse in our agricultural 

 development, by offering the farmer an education which makes 

 money expenditure necessary; at the same time we have made it 

 impossible for him to obtain the needed money, after seeing that 

 he could use it to advantage. In Europe and England, as I think 

 wisely, the reverse of this has been worked out. Farmers were 

 given fair credits ,and taught the possibilities of co-operative work 

 before scientific education was put so much before them. That 

 is one trouble, in this country, with scientific education, it has been 

 of most benefit to the rich and the strong who have the needed 

 capital to put the theories in practice. It is a patriotic duty of 

 every farmer to help as he can the extension of this credit system. 



Parcels Post. 



For years as you know, our people have been held up and 

 robbed by the Express Companies and Railroads for transporta- 

 tion service. While every other civilized nation has reformed its 

 postal service so as to give fair competition, this government has 

 persisted in charging such high rates of postage that our farmers 

 are denied the direct trade with consumers which European farmers 

 enjoy. On January ist we are to begin in this country a new system 

 of Parcels Post. It is not all we need, or all we deserve, but it 

 is a beginning, and the extension of it to what we need will de- 



