Norwich bulletin., 1909-01-16

Cwrltten specially for The Bulletin.
Some time last month one of the
leading agricultural papers of the
country published a pagelong letter.
with enthusiastic editorial endorse
ment, slang whanging the government
kOr giving away western lands as
homesteads, and also, for charging the
cultivable area Of the country by irri
p cation projects. To these two facts,
and to them only the writer attributed
the alleged deCadence of American ag-
riculture. The argument he made was,
in brief, that men who have to pay for
their farms in the east, can't compete
with men who have farms given them
by government, in the west.
Well, as to that there's much to be
said on both sides. I haven't any
brief for either, and don't here and
now, propose to argue either. Though
! do feel moved to say that, even if the
said homesteading and irrigating in the
west were proven to be harmful to
eastern farming, that verdict wouldn't
carry with it the decision that they
were solely responsible for farming
troubles.
My next door neighbor may have an
automobile given him. That doesn't
make the man who gave it to him re-
sponsibe for my horse sticking a shin
gle nail in its foot.
But do want to quote a few SEN
fences from the chaps letter, intro
ductory to his main contention and
intended to set forth the present state
of farming and farmers. as he views it,
] want you all to see what this man
thinks about you and your condition.
] want you to read just d little of the
stuff which a few farmers are all the
time talking or thinking. There are
dc Of In,
the letter l am referring TO, but I'm
going to pick out about q hundred, just
as samples. To wit, that is to say, as
follows:
why are there in the eastern states
hundreds Of thousands Of acres of
abandoned farms, and millions of
acres that may be called semi-abau-
doned2 Why are the farming lands Of
the whole Of New England for sale
Why are the majority Of
farmers wives obliged to slave and
toll as no other class Of women are
obliged to do, the women and girls of
our city sweat-shops not excepted?
Why, of all the business enter
prises in the United States, has that
OF agriculture declined from the high
est to the lowest scale in respectable
ty? Why has the farmer fallen
to the condition Of the hardest worked
and most underpaid citizen, until. as a
class, he has become the laughing
stock Of the store clerks, peanut-ven-
ders and boot-blacks?'
There you have it, Fright from the
bat" Catch it. please, and hang on to
1t long enough to see what you think
about it.
When did you advertise your faImc
AS the farm lands Of the whole of
New England are for SALE" of course
yours must be-or else our friend has
made a slight mistake.
read the other day of a New York
city family where the wife and all her
three daughters worked till midnight
every night on cheap shirts for the big
department stores, at price so low
that after the rent was paid, they had
less than $3.50 a week. on the average.
10 supply food and clothing. The ma
Jority Of farmers wives are worse off
than this, our jeremiah tells US. And
1t must be sO-Or else he had made
another slight mistake.
Farming has declined from the
highest to the lowest scale in respect
ability" says he. Perhaps you, in
your blatant self conceit, may some
times have thought your occupation at
least as respectable as that of rag
picking or cesspool cleaning or dive
keeping. But you see you were wrong
unless he has made another slight
mistake.
Now, however, comes the very worst
Of all; you have become the laughing
stock of-bootblacks!"
VIII you please cringe, crouch, cover.
grovel, crawl out to the barnyard and
hide yourself? Apparently our friend
and mentor thinks that's about the
proper thing. Or has he made still
another mistake?
For one, | frankly confess that all
ehis sort of talk and writing makes
me tired" It's absurd; it's bilious; it's
untrue. The farming lands of "the
whole Of New England" are not for
sale. The majority of farmers wives
DO not slave and toil' harder than
the workers for sweat shops. Farm
ing has not sunk to "the lowest scale
Of respectability." What's the sense
Of writing such manifest extrava gan
sies Of dyspeptic spleen?
And as 70 that bootbIack; WE'LL If I
were ruling my life with the one OBJ
feet IN view Of winning the admira-
ton and envy Of the bootblack frater-
nifty, probably I should take that as
a final knockout. But-shameful as
The confession may seem, really con-
slider several other things as more i'm
Rortant than the prevention of hilar-
ity among bootbiacks. My ideals Of