Norwich bulletin., 1910-04-16
Back to Land Distinctive 2Oth Century CryStabil
 ity Represents Virtue and Power-This Tendency is One of the Most Cheering Among the Few Hopeful Siqns of the imes.

majority. For the most of us 1t as true that about the deepest sentiment in our nature is this land hunger. Even men most submerged by the attrac- tions and distractions of city business find themselves at times craving. al most starving, for some land of their own. It's the call of the blood. the breaking out of the inborn instinct, the demand of the racial faculty.
 Of all the civilized nations of Europe none has been more battered and banged in the last thousand years than France. It has recuperated from all it's misfortunes. has recouped itself for all its losses in way to command the admiration of the world. Yet there's rothing mysterious about it; France IS a land of small farmers. Paris is not France; had the country been like its capital it would have disappeared in its own froth years ago. The millions Of small landhOlders who really make up the French people frugal: in1ustrl- ous, saving-these are and have long been the saviours of France. Of all Asian lands, Japan is most notewor- thy in this same direction. Practical 1y the entire arabic area of the mika- dos empire is parcelled out into little farms of from half an acre to four or five acres. Who shall say that Japan does not owe to this characteristics Of her people that headshdp of Asia which she holds by indefeasibIe right?
 The iandhoIder has . "stake in the country" which the ownership of nofh- ing else can give him. He is a stock holder in the greatest asset Of the world, and ait the same time he is czar and supreme dictator of tho acres that he calls his own He is. an fact. part owner of the world Why should he not hold his head higher than before? Have you never noticed when your city or suburban friend has bought a1am a little place in the country, how he promptly develops a new carriage of the head, new gravity of demeanor a certain solidity of satfsfaction? He may have thousands of dollars in bank, and only 8. few hundred invested in land- But that landed estate bulks larger in his consideration than all his bankbooks. No matter what subject you begin on, he is sure to bring it around to '1ny little place fin the coun . try" before many minutes. Even if don't agree with him; the disparage- ment Is only assumed and playful, as one might say "Oh, you pdggy- wiggy" to his own first born. But do not you fall into his tone and address that baby such connivance in his tone an erTror of. judgment. Similarly, when he makes slfghting or deprecatory remarks about means them. He wants to appear de- gently humble, while he's really so stuck up that he leans backward in his awkward attempt to stand straight
 One of the trite lamentations of the press Is that over the tendency of young folks to leave the country for the city. There's something to bo said. oder e to t cty for te country. It Is one of the most cheer ing among the few hopeful signs of the tirnes-this tendency back to the land. Tn simple truth 1t is just the re- birth and renewal of our race instinct. City life in hired tenements or flats is not the real desideratum of our breed, but home life in our own houses and on our own land. That is the thing which, after all calls 1oudest to mem bers of a people with our ancestry and our inbred characters.
 Of course, there will always be farms for sale, just like ships and city blocks and Mississippi senators. But the change which I think see in the sit- uatfon now, as compared with that of srs ons esers oselnx is tsat foa ras ases than farms looking for buyers. Given a country place with any sort of value or attractiveness, and the problem now is not how to sell it at all to sorne- get the news that it can be bought to the dozen or so land-hungry fellows who would gobble it up in a flash, and be glad to pay well for it. too, if they only knew where to look for it.
 "eack to the land" might fairly be said to be a distinctive cry of this opening Twentieth century. It's a mighty good and wholesome state of mind which that cry voices. It fore tells a recrudescence of national vigor and virile strength; a slrbordination of conventional and effeminate luxury of racial youth. Who was the fabled giant whom neither men nor gods could overcome-so long as his foot touched the earth? That nation a ma jority of whose people foot firmly their own land the land they have earned and bought and own-ttat nation is not likely to be overthrown by outside attack nor to fall from internal rot.
 THE FARMER.