The citizen. (Honesdale, Pa.) 1908-1914, 1909-10-15

Why Prices Are Higher.
The cause of the general advance
in all kinds of food is not hard to
find. The steady influx to the cities
of the country people has increased
the number of the unproductive eat
ers, and at the same time reduced
the number of hands that produce
the food products.
City life in crowded apartment,
working by the month on a wage
that barely gives them living, has
country boy, then the freedom of
the country with an opportunity to
save something for his old age.
Since the Civil War the very life
of the people seems to have changed,
andit is not for the better. Prior
to that strife the country controlled
the affairs of the nations, and each
community supplied nearly all it's
needs. 1t raised it's own feed and
manufactured it's wearing apparel
and tools. The day of machinery
came after the war and has special
lied communities. The wheat and
corn fields of the West can raise
these crops cheaper than the East,
so we have turned our broad acres
into milk production wh'ch is
thought to pay better.
But the specializing of sections
gives the spectators and monopol-
lists a better chance to reap where
they sow not, owing to the cost of
getting the products to market. This
section, owing to it's location, is nat
urally milk-producing and it might
be very profitable if feed was not so
dear Herein can be seen how the
railroads and spectators reap big
money by specializing sections. The
Western farmer has to send his gram
East for market, and to do this he
must pay the railroads a share of
it, and several dealers must have a
slice out of it before the milk-pro-
ducing farmer of the East can turn
it into milk The consequences are
that the price of milk has been
forced skyward, and the city peo-
pie are complaining over the high
price. Milk has been produced for
many years at small profit consid-
ering the work and the amount in
vested in the business. And we are
glad to state that the outlook for
better milk-prices is splendid.
But the poor city people will be the
ones to suffer owing to the advance
in prices of all food stuffs. And they
must either get back to the farm or
find living more expensive as long
as their is lack of hands to tin
the soil. Life on the farm is getting
attractive because of the improved
methods of farm work, and the
many modern conveniences of life
which rural people are securing.
The influx to the cities is our ma
tion's greatest danger. City life
shows the extreme conditions, and
makes the working class dissatisfied
as they daily witness the great diff
ference between those who work
with their hands and those who work
with their head.
AS the cost of living increases,
as it must so long as the supply of
farm labor is limited, the time must
come when hunger will serve to
work a power that will cause cities
to tremble.
Our farms are capable of produc-
Ing twice as much as they do and
the call of the day is for help to
make them produce. 1t has been
claimed by some that the soil has
lost some of it's productive force.
Probably this is on farms where
no husband-like regard for the fu-
ture was used. But by proper care
and usage the soil will never fail to
yield her increase. But the farmer
who robs his acres of their fertility |
will come to want in the end.
The farmer of to-day is the peer
Of them all. The life that he lives is
broader than that of any other oc-
'upation; for he has time to think |
out the great problems of life while
following the plow. He lives the
pest, he sleeps the sweetest, and his
mind is not always working on some
scheme to rob his fellows.
We believe the time is coming
'oon when the exodus from the cit
es to the country will commence,
or the cost of living will be SO ex-
'ensive in the cities that 1t will be
necessary to seek home in the coun-
.ry, where at least part of their
living can be produced. In the
meantime the farmers must increase
he yield of the farm.-Nicholso