The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1897-04-22
THE SOLIDARITY OF TOWN AND
FARM

H. DR.. A. G. True, director of the office
of experiment stations, u. S. depart
ment of agriculture, contributed an
able article bearing the above title to
the March number of the Arena. He
said that it is common to lay great
blame on the farmer boy for leaving
the farm to seek his fortune in the city.
He defends the boy and tries to show
that he is compelled to do it by force
of circumstances. He argues that the
introduction of labor-saving machinery
and rapid transportatio on facilities have
driven men from the farm because they
are no longer needed there.
In remained for a western journalist
to puncture the DOCTORS theory in the
following artistic manner:
That the farmer boys have been going into
the cities is true enough, although hardly from
the cause the doctor alleges, because they are
not needed there This writer falls into the
error so many of his eastern contemporaries
have committed of judging Of agricultural
probabilities and possibilities by the rather
somber aspect that occupation presents in the
older New England States. The boys on the
farms there no doubt left and went into the
cities because in many instances necessity
compelled them to go somewhere in order to
gain a living. Large tracts acquired by the
colonists were divided as members increased,
and subdivided again and again until the aver
age holding became so small, and the naturally
thin soil so worn and exhausted that gaining a
living became next to impossible None OF
these difficulties and discouragements face the
western farmer. The chief reasons why the
boys have left the farm are not apprehended by
this writer nor by many of his contemporaries
It is well known agricultural condition that
there are many months in the year, between
crops, when the farmer has but little, if any
ready money in his pocket, and when the boys
are lonesome and weary of the monotony O
farm life For the past thirty years the farm
boys have been observing that the worker il
the cities and towns gets his weeks wages il
cash each Saturday highland the jingle O
those hard dollars, be they many or few, ha
rung out across the miles of intervening prairi
and made merry music in the ears OF the pen
: niless plough boy, surdily plodding behind hi
|
rows that cross his fathers broad acres. AnG
so he gives up to the temptation of the 'smone
devil goes to town, learns trade it he can, o
takes place behind the counter if opportunit
offers, and pockets the wages of his toll eac
Saturday night in hard cash.
No, the farmer lad does not leave the farr
because .'he is not needed there nor becaus
of necessity to earn a livelihood" He ca
ma xo 1iJJinc DO X cio
less of worry, anxiety, and dread for the future
: on a farm than anywhere else in the world
! And thousands of them have grown burrows i
: their faces, while silver threads sprinkle thei
a hair, in other fretful occupations before the
found out their mistake. The crying need {
: the times is that thousands OF the unemploye
D now crowding every city in the union go bac
to the soil and there find the comfortable livin
which awaits them. Ten acres will keep an
e man from the starvation which hundreds
n them are facing in the overcrowded cite
where factories mills, and production have Il
= outgrown demand. Further were these unen
e plOyed located on farms they would be cOnSun
! ing that much Of production which now Ii,
a without a consumer because Of their enforce
; idleness, lessening the surplus product ar
g giving to it q better value for the grower TT
day will come, and soon, when it will be SET
that herein lies the only true solution OF Il
q labor problem so threatening in all centers
Le population. Smaller FARMS and more employ,
thereon, eating up the surplus now accum
lated in the possession of fewer large far1
le ers, who can find no market because so mai
Ia workers cannot earn in the cities the wher
withal to purchase it. II this surplus was eat
- up, the poor would be better fed, and the pri
Of the remainder considerably enhanced