Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1910-04-29
PATRON|zE THE
HOME MERCHANTS
Then You viii Help Decrease
High Cost of Living.
GIVE UP TRADING BY MAIL


Farms.
Very much is heard nowadays about
living. Prices for many things, par
ticularly for food of nearly every kind,
have been rising steadily for thirteen
years. The general level of prices for
foodstuffs has risen so high this win
ter that the flood has broken over its
banks, and the United States govern
ment is taking hand in trying to
check it.
Did you ever hear of the old woman
who tried to sweep back the sea tide
with her kitchen broom?
Well, Uncle Sam might just as well
try to dam the rising tide of prices
with his whiskers unless he goes up
to the fountain head and stops the
original leak that has made high
prices not only possible, but inevitable.
Many theorists are entertaining
themselves by telling us what causes
the high prices charged for food. My
belief is that James Wilson, secretary
of agriculture, has come closer to the
head of the nail with his hammer
than any of the others. Mr.. Wilson
says high prices are caused by the
fact that there are too many distrib
uters and not enough producers. There
are twenty men engaged in handling
foodstuffs where there ought to be but
one and one engaged in raising them
where there ought to be twenty. Not
only does the lack of supply increase
the demand and thus raise the price,
but the comparative scarcity of prod
uce makes it easy for the big gamblers
to corner the markets, keep meat and
eggs and vegetables in cold storage
and wait for still higher prices.
The matter simply boils down to
this: There are too many people in the
large cities and too few people on the
farm and in the small cities and towns.
swelling of city population and the
shrinking of country population.
In some states there are many aban-
doned farms In all states there are
splendid areas OF fertile land unculti-
waited. Thousands of farmers own a
great deal more land than they need.
They cultivate but n small part of their
holdings, leaving the rest idle. Farm
ers' boys migrate to the cities like
birds-in flocks. Young men and WON
ell and older persons, too. leave the
towns and go to the cities because the
towns offer them less and less induce
ment in the way of employment or
business. And why?
Here's where you should stick youl
pin. 1t is because millions of farmers
families fail to help support theil
home towns properly by trading with
the local merchants. They buy a great
deal of their clothing, household goods
even groceries, from the mail order
stores.
Back to the farm" is the sensible
slogan for the crusaders against high
prices to use. Populate the farms.
Agriculture is the life of any com
munity that lacks manufacturing
plants. If the farms are not worked
wisely and their products not market
ed with view to mutual interest OF
town and country, distress is inevi
| table.
Secretary Wilson is perhaps the best
I informed man on agricultural matters
in the world. With other men OF
broad information and foresight he
urges that more farming be done
The cities are crowded with persons
utterly incompetent under such envi
ronment who would make excellent
farmers. There are thousands of other
man not altogether incompetent, but
struggling along TO support their fam
lilies on meager incomes from business
or employment in the cities. who
would be vastly better off on farms
Millions of children are growing up in
the cities, physically, mentally and
morally defective, who would be i'm
proved in every sense by farm life
They would grow up to be useful citi
Zens, happy, helping to make Others
happy, instead of becoming rum soak
ed. slang singing, narrow minded men
and silly, gum chewing, empty headed
women
1t seems to me that every town ought
to make a systematic ,attempt-not
spasmOdic, but continuous-to induce
city persons to settle on the land
Bring the landless man to the man
less land. Show him what he can dc
with a hayrake and hoe. Make him
producer instead of merely a con
sumner. a western senator declares
that the United States will be compel
led to import food in few years un-
less our neglected farm possibilities
are utilized
| have in mind community in Mis-
souri, which until three or four years
ago had more land than it knew what
to do with. but a bright man came
along and bought up the land at q
cheap figure. He laid it out in small
tracts, sold hundreds of them, brought
settlers from the cities, and now thai
town is prosperous. 1t used to be
merely n wide Mace I'm the road