AGRICULTURAL RELIEF 
251 
and is so still. A group of farmers that give up their sole time and energy in 
growing produce for these centers in order that their citizens may have their 
daily feed is found at every city or community center. Without these farmers 
these citizens would die. It follows therefore that every such city or community 
center should in turn look after the welfare of its own farmers. On the other 
hand, it is only common sense that each such city or center should direct its 
farmers as to what kind and quantity of each article of food so grown they may 
desire, and at the same time to fix a price for the producer, so that the burden of 
entire loss and sometimes financial ruin, as sometimes happens, shall be lifted 
from the anxious soul of thé farmer. In other words the relationship between the 
producer and consumer in every such case is mutual, and each should assume 
his part of the responsibility of the matter and not leave all the misfortune, all 
of the time, to fall upon the already tired and careworn shoulders of the producer. 
In the proposed bill it will be seen that the city of Washington, D. C., has heen 
chosen as the place of first trial for this scheme. It is thought only right that 
it should be the city first chosen, it being the seat of the government. If this 
scheme is found successful it will rapidly spread to every other city under the 
Government, and in the end to every city in the world. "If it is found to be a 
failure Washington will feel very little, if any the worse off by the trial. 
Attention is invited to Exhibits Nos. 1 and 2 herewith. 
Very respectfully, 
Epwarp H. Boots, 
717 21st St., N. W., Washington, D. C, 
EXHIBIT NO. 1 
(This exhibit consists of a copy of the Washington Herald of September 16, 
1923, containing the speech of Senator Borah concerning the depserate condition 
of the farmer, of which no copy is now found.) 
EXHIBIT NO. 2 
In the beginning farming was comparatively simple. The earth was rich, 
and readily yielded its return to evervone that cultivated the soil. The seasons 
must necessarily have been better than now. The pests could not have been 
found then as now. The markets were simple and sure, for every man was both 
his own producer and consumer. All had plenty to eat, and those who stored 
up for future needs did it to no purpose. While through all the ages the craft of 
the farmer has been getting more and more difficult, until now it has reached the 
point of being the most complicated business on earth. In the time of George 
Washington money cut but very little figure in the world. The records show that 
George Washington contracted with a preacher for Pohick Church to preach so 
many sermous for so many pounds of tobacco. Even up to the time of our own 
Civil War the farmer still remained largely both his own producer and consumer. 
The farmers then grew all their own food such as wheat, corn, vegetables, poultry, 
pork, cattle, etc., as well as their own sugar and beverages, tobacco, and clothing. 
They then had slaves to do the work. They grew their own wool and spun it 
into cloth, and their own cotton likewise. The women of the household made 
them up into clothing. The farmers tanned their own leather from hides of their 
own slaughtered cattle and made this leather up on their own premises into shoes. 
At that time they knew little about doctors, lawyers, or artisans of any kind. 
Each farmer was necessarily a complete plantation within himself. While he 
had but very little money he had everything else in abundance. There was then 
scarcely anything to take his money, no railroads, telegraph lines, telephones, 
automobiles, flying planes, matches, coal oil or petroleum in any form, and few of 
the luxuries that we of the present day enjoy. All this has changed, while the 
farmer of to-day is still farming away on practically the precise terms he started 
in the time of ‘Adam and Eve. Now the soils are everywhere largely depleted 
and exhausted, and need constantly refertilization of an expensive sort. 
The labor question is an extremely difficult one to manage. The extravagances 
of all sorts detract from the attention to business and allure the voung. The 
markets wherein the farmer must now make his purchases are at the sane time 
80 high in price to him as they are probably to no other line of occupations. 
All other business houses buy at wholesale prices, while the farmer always buys 
at retail prices, while he always has to sell at wholesale prices, and that at prices 
little above the cost of production. Even at this the present-day farmer, to make 
anything of a success of his business, must be an all-round intellicent man.