The Green Forest tribune., 1909-09-17
SOLVE RURAL LIFE PROBLEM
Differs with Point of View and the Varying Interests of Those Whs
 Look at Question.

ress," Dr. Liberty H. Bailey, dean of the New York State College of Agri- culture, and who was president of the Countrywide commission, has given us all wholesome food for serious thought on a suject about which there are di- verse opinions, says Farm and Fire side. He said:
 We have heard a great deal during the last few years about the country life problem. Now, the countrywide problem differs with respect to the point of view and the varying inter- ests of those who look at the problem. To one man it is merely a question of better agriculture, better prices for crops; to another man it may have to do chiefly with the organization of schools and colleges which will put men in touch with rural affairs.
 We must, in the first place, of course make farming profitable if we can possibly do it. There was a time a few years ago when persons expect ed professors from colleges of agri, culture to tell them how to mae farming profitable. That time is past, because persons have found out that we cannot do it. In other words, we can merely express recent results of science, we can give some general ad- vice, but it remains for the men on the farm to make land profitable. If they cannot do it, certainly no one else at long range can.
 'It first necessary I conceive it, if we are to develop a more effec- tive rural civilization, to remove the handicaps under which the farmer la
 bors. Because farmers are not or ganiZed, because they do not work to- gether, it is natural, of course, that the individual farmer should be at a disadvantage as against persons in commercial occupations, or as against manufacturing interests, or as against organized interests of all kinds. It is time that the farmer should be freed | from the disadvantages to which he has been subjected by the corporate combines and syndicated interests ot the country; yet there is no power
 within himself so long as he is not or SohlACu lO dCCOllDllS IlllS.
 This is not a criticism of any or ganized or syndicated business, but merely a statement of fact
 Perhaps 1 might illustrate this as
 well as in any other way by speaking of the whole subject of the farmer s relation to the marketing of his prod ucts. The farmer is, as you should know, by nature individualized, be- cause he owns land, because he is sep arated from his neighbors, and thus he tends to be dependent-ifde- pendent. This individuality, this inde- pendence, he loses, if at all, when he goes to market his produce. He finds
 that he is practically powerless; he finds that the regulations as to trade are made by other persons than him. self. In many cases they are the working out of natural laws which no
 man can work out otherwise But ne | is poWerless so far as having any voice, in the marketing of his goods.
 "The whole question of the middle
 man in the development of rural civ | ilization is one that has been dis
 cussed a great many years, as you know. There are certain persons who think and say that the case is so hope | less, that the farmer is so much at a | disadvantage, that the only way in
 which he can protect himself is by some kind of means to do away with | the middle-man, to do away with all | Intermediary tradespeople through the organizations which have that purpose as a part of their general movement. | All of you know that is impossible. | Certain men, of course, become | skilled in transportation; they become
 skilled as salesmen; they become skilled as distributors. It is unreason- | able to think that man, however | skilled he may be in raising wheat. or in raising cantaloupes, or in raising fruit, it is unreasonable to expect that he can develop the skill that will allow
 him to place his products on the mar
 ket where they will return him the best prices.
 But the middleman has been unre. strained; he has developed almost to the point of license in many cases. I | have come to feel that the whole mid dleman question in the country must be studied fundamentally. It must be | regulated. If necessary, it must be
 controlled by some kind of public service commission or some kind of public service agent. This not for the
 purpose, or would not be for the pur. pose, of curtailing the liberty of any honest middleman By eliminating dis. honest practices it ought to benefit the
 middleman system"