Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1902-10-23

nuteS tnat II the Ndiue OF the three great
cereal crops were distributed evenly
among the families engaged in raising
them, each family would secure-each
family. mind you, each whole family
about $3.50. One hundred and eighty dol
lars for a family as its gross return, not
by any means net profit, for the grain
marketed by its working members dur
ing a year of enormous abundance.
was talking not long ago with man
of considerable means, not acquired in
agriculture, but a real farmer and the
descendant Of generations of farmers, oc-
cupyiug ancestral fields of large dimen-
sions In one OF the most productive re-
gions of New York, fields that have al
ways been carefully titled and abundantly
fertilized, with due attention to rotation
and to the selling of finished products,
and he said: The fact OF 1t Is, the drift Of
things in this country is steadily reduc-
ing our farmers to the condition of peas
antry Of the old nations Of Europe, a con-
dition in which sustenance, of very plain
sort, may reasonably be expected, but
In which there is positively no hope for
anything better than unceasing toll, no
opportunity whatever of accommodating
even the most modest competence. Have
you noticed he went on, the great num-
Der of advertisements in agricultural
prints of farmers who want situations as
managers on gentlemen's places, and of
gentlemen who want farmers to OPP
crate their places? The farmers are be-
coming quite a distinct class from the
gentlemen. That is most strikingly fea-
ture of our own times. Our grandfa..4ers,
our fathers even, If they were Americans,
would have regarded such distinction
as that as hardly conceivable in this
country"
My friend put the case pretty strong
ly but no one who takes a broad sur
vey of all the facts will deny that he
had some colorado sanction for his view,
and the computation of the newspaper
writer who would give the farm families
of the country a gross return of $50 each
family from our principal cereals, forms
kind of bridge by which one may pass
back and forth between the consideration
of the stupendous aggregate value OF
the products of our farms and the con-
sideration of the real financial condition
and, above all, the hopes for the near
future of the farmers themselves. Talking
both groups of facts into view.
the idea will gradually dawn upon the
mind of any one who will really take the
trouble to give the matter even cursory
and superficial examination, that the vast
development of our national contribu-
tions to the sustenance of the world has
no necessary relation whatever to the well
fare of the men who raise the crops.
American agriculture may flourish like
a green bay tree while the American FAR
mer receives, on the whole, and as COM
pared with other classes of the commu-
nifty, pitiably meagre return In the way
of compensation for his labor, interest
on his capital and reward for his special
services to mankind.
It is to the failure to notice the very
simple and, when one thinks Of 1t, per-
fectly manifest fact just mentioned that
is due, more than to all other causes put
together the permitted existence in the
body polite of whatever evils environ,
unnecessarily and unjustly, the farmer S
lot.
Every American has a more or less
clearly conceived apprehension Of the
fact that all our prosperity rests upon
our agriculture, and therefore pretty GER
tain to understand, II he thinks about
the matter at all. that our agriculture
ought to be fostered, but that is as Tar
as the average American goes. 1t never
occurs to most people for an instant that
II is quite possible to foster our agrtcul-
ture by methods that will certainly de-
grade our agriculturists, and that IN
doubling the volume OF the agricultural
products of the country at large we may
II we go about the doubling process In
certain ways. really divide by two the
net returns for those products as they
come into the possession Of the individ-
ual farmer. Time was, and not so very
long ago, In the life of the nation, wher
no distinction could be drawn between
the prosperity Of farming and the pros
perity of the farmers. The first was then
as now, absolutely necessary, and the
second went with it inevitably and as a
matter Of course, and we inherit certain
inability to perceive that the two are not
necessarily one. The idea of developing
our agriculture, letting our agriculturists
take care of themselves, has become, oy
heredity, and in the absence OF reflection
on the changing circumstances OF chang-
ing times. one of the most firmly hxec
notions that has taken possession OF the
American mind. 1t is on a par with the
common American craze for increasing
the population of the country, and, In
deed, is much the same thing. The more
people we have and the more cereals we
raise, the better of must we certainly be
Such Is the ordinary belief, and 1t is moi
at all to be wondered at. The facts are
these:
From the time of the first European
settlements on these shores down to a
period almost within the memory OF
men now living, it was not only taken
for granted on all Sues buL ASdliS "N1
indisputable truth, that every foot oil
this country back into the wild interior,
every increase in population not posi-
lively vicious, was in many ways a real
and solid gain to the people of the
American colonies and of the young
United States. Occupying as our fore
fathers did but a narrow strip OF land
along the Atlantic coast, with only IN
choate manufacturers, very slow and
uncertain communication between diff
ferent sections, and agriculture not
much more than adequate to provide
for very modest living, the one thing
that was needed before all others was
DEVELOPMENT of the nation. The father
of a large family of stalwart sons and
daughters was most distinctly a public
benefactor AS the children moved
westward, bringing into cultivation acre
after acre of new soil, and thus supply
ing better ard better the needs Of a
growing population and enlarging the
material resources of the common