Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1908-05-07
THE FARMERS PROSPERITY

IF the American farmer went out Of
business this year he could clean up
thirt thousand million dollars. And he
would nave to sell his farm on credit:
for there is not enough money in the
whole world TO pay him half the price.
Talk o. the money mad trusts, They
might have reason to be mad If they
owned the farms, instead Of their water
cd stocks when we remember that the
American farmer earns enough in seven
tccn days to buy out Standard Oil and
enough in fifty days to wipe Carnegie
and the Steel trusts of the Industrial
map. tho story Of tho trusts seems like
"thc short and simple annals Of the
poor"
ono American harvest would buy the
Kingdom Of belgium. King and all; two
would buy Italy; three would buy Aus
tria Hungary. and five, al a spot-cas Il
price. would take Russia from the Gar.
Talk OF swollen fortunes. With the
| setting Of every sun the money box Of
the American farmer bulges with the
| weight OF twenty-frur new millions. On
| ~ the most athletic Imagination can
| conceive OF such a torrent OF wealth.
Place your finger on the pulse g. your
wrist and count the heartbeats one. -
! two. three four. With every four of
those quick throbs, day ana night. a
| thousand dollars clatters into the gold
| hin of the American farmer
! How ,ncomprchensible 1t would seem
| 10 P"ilc'os. who say Greece in her gold
on age, # hc could knoy. that the yearly
revenue of his country is nov no more
than one days pay for the men who till
the soil Of this infant republic,
| Or. how il would amaze a resurrected
Christopher Columbus If he We're told
that the revenues Of Spain and Portugal
are not nearly as much as the earnings
of the American farmers hen.
Merely the crumbs that drop from the
farmers table otherwise known as az
ricultural EXPORTS have brought, him in
enough Of foreign money since 1892 to en-
able him. If he wished. to settle the rail
| way problem once for all. by huyinG
every foot Of railroad in the United
States.
| Such is our New Farmer.-a man for
whom there is no name in any langua GO
| He is as far above the farmer of the
| storv-book as 1905 touring-car is = bov'
| n iinrikisha. Instead of being an ignor
ant hoe man in barnyard world. he gets
| the news by daily mail and telephone
and incidentally publishes .Oo trade jour
mails of his own. Instead Of being a
| moneyless peasant. he pays tho interes,
| on the mortgages with the earnings Of
week. Even this is less OF an expense
than It seems, for he borrows the money
| from himself. out OF his own banks. and
| spends the bulk of the tax-moncy around
| his own prOperties
! Farming for a business. not for Nv
| ing-this Is the motif OF the new farmer
! He is a commerCialist,- man Of the
| twentieth century. He works as hard as
the old farmer did. but in a higher way
lie uses the four ms.-nind. money. ma
, chinery. and muscle; but as little of the
lattc- as possible.
| Neither is he a Robinson Crusoe Of the
soil. as the old farm was. His hermit
days are over: he is man among men
The railway, the trolley. the automobile
and the top buggy have transformed hin
into suburbante. In fact, his bushes:
has become so complex and many-sidet
that he touches civilization at NOR,
points and lives n larger life than II h'
| were one Of the atoms of a crowded city
| All American farmer, OF course. arr
not Of the new variety. The country. lik'
the city. has its slums. But after havint
made allowance for exceptions, II IS still
true that the United States is the NATIVE
land Of the new farmer. He is the mos
| typical human product that this countr!