Montana news. [volume] (Lewistown, Mont.) 1904-191?, 1908-07-16
The Farmer
Slaves for All
Poorest Paid PrOducer...W Longest Hours,
Gets the Least Part of His Product.
Suffers Isolated Misery.

American political life is the farmer.
This is. perhaps. not because of any
natural tendencies but because of his
isolated condition and lack OF social
intercourse which keeps him more
under the influence of what he reads
than any other class of men-and cap
italism has been wise in maintaining
control OF the agricultural press.
But the on-rushing stream OF eco
nomic evolution has drawn the farmer
into the current and has raised
doubts in his mind which cannot be
removed by the puerile arguments OF
the capitalistic editors. The abso-
lutte ignorance of these editors on
questions OF economies is apparent to
any one who win pick up a copy of
any agricultural paper and look at the
editorial work.
One OF the brightest farm papers OF
which we know. and one that has per-
haps the largest circulation of any
farm paper in America. is the Farm
Journal. published in Philadelphia
by the Wilmer Atkinson company.
The subscription price is only rs
cents for five years and IL Is chock
full of useful hints about the rails
ing OF chickens. turkeys. ducks, geese,
pigeons, pigs, sheep, cattle, horses,
hay. grain. small fruits and truck Of
all kinds. But when the editor
tackles an economic subject he puts
you In mind of hen who has hatched
out a brood of ducklngs and watches
them for the first time take To the
water. He hears the rumbling OF
discomfort coming from the farm as
the result of the crushing of the car
of industrial progress but the idea
that the farmer should get on the
car and ride instead Of trying To place
obstructions In the road never seems
20 enter his head The only remedy
he knows is to sing songs of con-
tentmcnt and try to blind the farmer
To his actual conditions.
Here is the first item in the Farm
journal for July, 1908:
You don't have to go 10 heaven TO
find angels You may find them on
almost any farm,-sweet women,
around the cookstove. at the washtub.
AT the ironing table, fitting about
everywhere, ministcring To the wants
a.
the angels that the world can not do
without.
Surely. now that ought to make any
woman content TO bend over the wash
tub or ironing table even with a steam
laundry in easy reach. on the same
front page we find this:
depopulation of rural England In
favor OF the cities, traces the matter
to the fact that the young women are
also leaving the country districts.
The same condition il true of our
own country. Moral: Get the girls
to go back and the boys will follow.
why the girls leave the farm the
editor does not. attempt to say. but
we can get hint from the following
verse that heads the department ON
How to DO Things" in this same
issue:
Up with the birds in the early morn
ing
The dewdrop glows like a precious
gem.
Beautiful tlnts in the sky are dawn
ing,
But she's never a moment to look
at them.
The men are wanting their breakfast
early,
She must not linger, she must not
wait:
For words that are sharp and looks
that are surly
Are what the men give when meals
are late.
Yes. there are beautiful tints in the
sky at dawning, there -are beautiful
tints in the sky at evening but the
farmer and his family are engaged in
a pitched battle with poverty and
have no time TO enjoy any of the
beauties Of Nature with which they
are continually surrounded. IL II any
wonder that the children tire of this
kind of life and are ready to leave the
farm at the first opportunity?
Here is an item from the Farm
Journal for March. 1907:
But II things go badly out-of-doors
when farm help is hard To get, the
conditions indoors, when the hired
girI' has given notice, or has de-
parted without going through that
formality, are no less lamentable.
The man goes to the creamery, the
smith shop, to the village store, to the
election. the public sale, and other
places, where he may meet his kind
and hold discourse with them; and II
ne happens To be late to dinner or
supper he argues that II can make no
great difference. The good house
wife, however. has no such oppor-
tunity TO break away daily for even
an hour from the round OF house
hold cares. She must rise early In
the morning and start the frying-pan,
and the inevitable three meals must
he cooked and served whether kitch-
en- help goes or stays: and IL Us sell
dom that anything occurs during the
dny 10 break the monotony. TraV-
continent