The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1877-07-20
uome-.endInE NOS SO Easy.
Some Reflections on President
Hoss' Article.


did not offer comments because we
supposed some Homesteader would
perform that duty in a more prac-
teal way than we could, and here
we have q Communication from a
live one who "knows how it is him
self:"
PEABODY, Kan, July 16, II.
EDS. NEws.-In your last issue
notice an article from the Indian
apolis Journal, Homesteads and
Herd Laws VS. Poverty" from the
able pen of President g. w. Hoss,
of the Indiana University, wherein
he suggests homesteads in the
west" as relief to the large num-
Der of working men in Indianapo-
lis who are unemployed half or
three-fourths Of the time, and get
poor wages at best. Now knew
President Hoss personally while he
was in Emporia, and 1 knew him to
be n good and true man, and q man
of no ordinary intelligence and
good sound judgment, and I am
well satisfied that in his suggestions
he had the welfare of his fellow
citizens alluded to deeply at heart.
But while his theory in regard to
homesteads In the west is pretty
thing on paper, it presents one
sided view of the case, and is rather
calculated to mislead and bring to
ruin poor men who are already
struggling hard against the tide.
He gives the following as an in
stance of what may be done:
"My son left Bloomington the
I'D day of March, a year ago; went
onto q piece of land near Lawrence,
Kansas; bought his horses, plows,
hunted place of boarding, superin-
tended fencing, etc.; then with two
horses broke up eighty acres; hir-
ed few days help in sowing and
drilling, and was back home on the
9th of September.
That was good work, and more
than would ordinarily be done with
one hand and TIVE horses. But call
it an average seasons labor, aud
where is the poor man, whom he
advises to walk hither if he has no
means, to get his two horses, plows,
harness, ETC., with which to do this
labor? Who Is to pay his board
and feed his horses while the work
goes on2 How is he to obtain
wheat to seed his eighty acres
These are questions that would
have puzzled the brain of young
Mr.. Hoss If he had come to Kan
sas to open farm without money.
1t is useless to say let him go to
work aud make the money to buy
the necessary articles, for if man
comes here with a family and has
no money, he may work till he is
worn out aud hardly ever make
enough, above a scanty subsistence,
to buy a team. No, man to sue
coed on homestead, even in this
fair land, where his farm is dona-
ted to him, must have q start. In
The first place he must have house,
which will cost him at least 500,
and then he will haYe poor shell
ter from the storms of winter; then
he must have a team, horses and
plows, which will cost $3.50 moro,
and if he succeeds in breaking and
seeding fifty acres, and does other
necessary work, he will have done
a heavy task for one hand and team.
Then he must have seed, and feed,
aud fuel, aud provisions for himself
and family; and then with favora-
bic seasons he may make it through,
and make home. And with all
these to start on, let me say, it takes
hard and constant work to succeed.
Now these are facts which we who
have been here longest have demon
strated by actual experience. And
if men who know these facts, when
writing about the West and home
steads, would state the whole truth
more clearly, we would not see
people coming here without means,
who probably never did q days
farming in their lives, expecting to
make good living the first year
on new prairie homestead. And
if newspapers were more careful to
state the matter fairly our country
would not be flooded with go many
penniless tramps, and we would
not haYe so many croskers, and so
many grumblers, accusing editors
of lying about glorious Kansas.
We printers know that editors
won't lie, but sometimes it is hard
to convince the outside world OF
the fact.
am sure President Hoss did
not fully realize what 1t requires to
open a prairie farm, even where the
uCI u law C4ISNS, w ACn AlO ouSSCoNCu
that men be helped by the govern
ment to free transportation 10 Kan
sas and $25 or $50 to start on, for ii
they had no more than that they
would simply come here TO starve.
1t would not be beginning. There
are plenty of men here, men of ia
domitable courage and persever-
ence, who came with small means
four or FIVE years ago, and who have
toiled hard aud constantly, aud yet
are compelled to work away from
home a great deal to earn the nee
essaries of life, not being able yet
to make their entire living on their
farms. Then let us not hold out
the idea to men in eastern cities,
many of whom n ever plowed a day
in their lives, that they can come
here without money aud jump
right into a good living on a new
homestead. for it can't be done.
Such publications are injurious to