"Perhaps this is the reason you call upon lawyers to speak on occasions like this, when the varied products of the farm, in their rich profusion and excellence, are spread before us. Besides, it is the common opinion that lawyers can talk as well about things they don't know as things they do know—and on either side of the question, without respect to the merits or morals of the topic. Your worthy secretary, in inviting me to speak for a few minutes on this occasion, said that I was quite at liberty to choose the subject of my remarks. So I have chosen as a text a discovery I have made very much like that of Benjamin Franklin, who advised the people of Paris that he had made a great discovery—that being wakeful one morning he discovered that the sun rose at Paris at five o'clock, and that if they would rise with the sun and go to bed with the sun they would save an enormous sum—millions of francs —in the cost of candles and lamps, and greatly improve their health and morals. So I have discovered that our farmers have become machinists, and, instead of working themselves, they make the horses, mules, and especially the machines, do nearly all the work of the farm.
"I have observed in the numerous fairs I have attended since they were first introduced in Ohio, and especially since the war, a marked change in the articles exhibited. Formerly the chief attraction was the varied exhibition of fruits, grain, cattle, horses, sheep, hogs, poultry—all the productions of the farm—and the chief benefit then derived from our state and county fairs was to excite competition in the size, excellence and abundance of these purely animal or agricultural productions. Formerly the tools and implements of husbandry were few, simple and plain, the chief of which were the plow, the scythe, the cradle, the sickle.
"Later by degrees there appeared new devices—new implements of husbandry—the mower, the reaper, the thresher, the binder, the sulky plow, an infinite variety of mechanical contrivances to make the labor of the farmer easier, or rather to dispense with a multitude of laborers, and substitute in their places the horse, the mule and the steam engine. In other words, to convert the business of farming from an agricultural pursuit, where the labor of men and women was the chief factor of production, to a mechanical pursuit, in which the chief element of cost and power were machines, the invention of a single generation.
"This striking change in an employment, which in all ages has been pursued by a greater number of human beings than any other, is shown in every fair now held in the United States, and especially in this."
I spoke of the changed condition of the farmer since Ohio was a new state, covered by a great forest, when the home was a cabin, and about the only implements were the plow and the axe, and then said:
"After what has been said by others, and especially so eloquently said by Judge Thurman, I need not express the high value I place upon the magnificent work of the state board of agriculture in preparing these grounds as a permanent place for the exhibition of the industrial products of Ohio, not only of the farm but of the workshop. It is this day dedicated by appropriate ceremonies for the use of the present and future generations of Buckeyes, and, I hope, as time rolls on, there may be here exhibited, not only stock and grains and vegetables, not only ingenious machinery and inventions, but men, high-minded men and noble women, and that with the many advantages in education and culture secured to them by their ancestors they will maintain and advance with manly vigor and sturdy virtue the work of the generations before them, who have planted and founded here in Ohio a model republic."
I attended the thirteenth Industrial exposition at Music Hall, Cincinnati, on the 2nd of September, where fully six thousand people were gathered, I entered the building with Governor Foraker, and we were received with rounds of applause and made brief remarks, the substance of which was reported, but I can only remember the magnitude of the audience and the difficulty of being heard. The city was crowded with men, women and children, all in holiday dress, and everybody in good humor at the success of the exposition. During September, and until the day of the election, I was engaged in making speeches. The one at Portsmouth, on the 28th of September, was carefully prepared and reported, and contained the substance of what I said in that canvass. It was a review of the political questions of the day. I always feel more at home in that part of Ohio then in any other. The river counties are associated with my early recollections and the people are uniformly generous and kind. With rare exceptions they have heartily supported me during my entire political life.
I attended a meeting conducted by the Blaine club in Cincinnati. The procession that marched through the streets was an immense one, and seemed to include all the men and boys in the city. The clubhouse, brilliantly illuminated, was surrounded by a great crowd, too large to hear the speeches, nor did it matter, for their enthusiasm and cheers showed that they needed no exhortation.
I attended a reception of the Sherman club of the 24th ward, at the head of which was my old friend, Governor Thomas L. Young. I there made a strong appeal for the election of Benjamin Butterworth and Charles Brown to Congress, the former being one of the ablest and most promising men in congressional life, and the latter a gallant soldier, who had lost a leg in the service of his country. I said:
"Their election is more important than anything else. The election of a Republican House of Representatives is of vital importance, because if we can have not only a Republican Senate, but a Republican House of Representatives, we will tie up Cleveland and his administration so that he and it can do no harm to anybody. If we can get a good Republican House of Representatives we will be able to maintain the system of protection of American labor, which is the pride and glory of the Republican party. We will maintain all these great measures of Republican policy which tend to develop our country, to increase its happiness, diversify its pursuits, and build up its industries; to give you a good currency; to protect your labor; and generally to promote the common good and welfare of our common country."