State Convention—Better Education, Etc. 167 
Mr. Adams: My business is tilling the soil. We are looking for 
remedies for existing evils. This morning, while the paper was be¬ 
ing read by Mr. Smith, my attention was called to one point in 
particular, where he was speaking of our lack of representation in 
the national Congress. 1 think that so far as our State legislatures 
are concerned, we have representatives enough in those bodies. It 
is true we have but very few in the national councils. It seems to 
me that this may be easily remedied. Public sentiment at the 
present time is wrong in selecting men for public positions. You 
are members of your respective political parties, and I call you all 
to witness while I state that in our primary meetings, caucuses, and 
conventions, at the present day, the first question asked, when the 
delegates come together, is not whom do we want to serve us, but 
who wants the position. Well, now, that is not the right course 
for us to take, and we are just as much to blame as any of the other 
classes in the community. The question that we should ask should 
be this: Whom do we want to fill our public positions? I tell you 
that more than three-fourths of those who are eager aspirants for 
the place are the least fit for the position. They may be talented, 
educated, possess excellent business qualifications, and at the same 
time they ought not to be trusted. Now, the professional classes 
have many advantages in obtaining high position, like Senator of 
the United States, and other positions of trust. In their profes¬ 
sional life and in their extended intercourse with the world, we 
admit that by those influences and those advantages, that they are 
especially qualified, by learning, ability r , and so far as experience is 
concerned, to fill those places. I believe by taking this course in 
our political meetings, from caucuses up to the State convention, 
we could place these men there. The men we select are the eager 
aspirants, while if men of more modest pretensions, men of honor, 
integrity, and ability w r ere-selected, we should be better represented 
in the higher councils of the nation. 
President Stilson: I will contribute my mite in regard to one 
question raised by Mr. Smith with regard to marketing our pro¬ 
duce. Experience is worth something, and that is what we come 
here for, in part, at least. Well, he is right in theory, yet I think 
he will be found to be wrong in that particular commodity, wheat, 
as an article for the grower to ship as a rule. The profits in mill- 
