In those lectures, Shozo protested as 'the good harvest is never a result from the construction, but it is because the landslides occurred by the bad flood last year and the farmlands of the damaged area were covered with new earth.'
この演説で正造は、「豊作の原因は断じて工事の効果ではない。去年の大洪水による山崩れで、新しい土が被害農地にかぶさったためだ」と抗弁した。