The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1897-02-25
TowN AND COUNTRY INTERESTS

The Missouri Legislature seems to be
divided into two classes, classes that
are far from being as friendly to each
other as they should be. These classes
are the country members and the city
members. The Kansas City Star
speaks of the matter in these terms:
The secret organization composed of
members OF the present Missouri gen
eral assembly and known as the
Farmers Club" in betraying a GER
tain hostility to cities and a DISPOSE
ton TO retard their growth and pros
perity, betrays the same short-sighted-
ness that would be displayed by a
farmer who should burn down his
house with the idea that it would help
his barn. The growth of cities means
the growth of the entire country. To
agricultural producers markets are
necessary. Cities are those markets.
Take out of q country its towns and
cities, and agriculture would perish
with commerce. A country before it
has towns and cities is simply no coun-
try at all. 1t is a wilderness; a hunt
ers paradise, perhaps, but certainly
not a paradise to anybody else. Agri-
culture is not only indirectly, but di-
rectly, fostered by the presence of
cities. The nearer the farm is to the
city the greater its value. Farming
land near the city is high, because it
is more accessible to the city where
the buver lives, and the farmer is
nearer the CITY, which is his greatest
necessity and convenience. When the
buyer fiourishes the seller fiourishes.
When the city is doing well the coun-
try thrives. The policy of injuring the
city has no basis in reason; there are
no arguments to support it; there are
no figures to back it. No living being
can show that the farmer was ever
made better off by the loss, restriction
or injury of anybody in the city, or
that the decline of real estate in the
city ever raised the price of an acre
of farm land in the country, or the
price of any product of that land. The
Farmers club" should do just little
thinking.
In Utah we have been comparatively
free from any particular jealousies
and rivalries between the town and
the country. This is largely owing to
the fact that the farming communities
of the state are grouped together in
towns and settlements, and the conse-
quence is that the people engaged in
farming and kindred pursuits are more
or less imbued with the same ideas
and aspirations that those who dwell
in the larger cities and towns. and
who are engaged in other pursuits. are.
Still there have been some jealousies
between the town and the country
even in Utah. If the people of the
various parts of the state mingled to-
gether more and became better ac-
quainted, these jealousies would largely
disappear. There is no more sense or
reason Cor iealousies and enmities be-
tween town and country than there
was in the iealousies and enmities of
the belly and the members. If one
gets out of order, you may be sure
something is the matter with the 9TH
ers. Peace, harmony, good will, encour-
agement, mutual respect and forbear-
ance are what are needed to make
the people of the state a homogeneous
whole. Every Utah man and woman
should feel that they have a personal
interest IN the welfare and advance
ment of the whole state. State pride is
one oe the best guarantees of state
success.