The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1910-06-12

The farmers son Is staying at home.
He cant make the same money nor
have the same opportunities at DOCK
keeper's desk or back of q ribbon coun-
ter.
The shoe has shifted to the other
foot--the city man is trekk1ng TO the
fields.
And this great movement Is not an
eph emeral phase. 1t is an economical
adjustment, affecting all of the United
states 1t is most evident, however, In
the south west, because of the bound
less resources of this section hitherto
handicapped by inefficient transporta-
ton facilities, but now brought to the
front by the energy and paternalism
of a progressive generation of railroad
builders.
The department of agriculture has
vigorously forced this regeneration. Elk
detrimental stations are charting soils
and climatic conditions, introducing
new grains and grasses from the Old
World; the semi-arid lands have been
turned into dry farms-regions hith
erto restricted to cotton and cane and
grazing are now diversified with
trucking and forage and melons and
fruit and berries Irrigation has worked
its miracle here as In the once worth
less lands of California and the north
west but the rich soil of the prairies
sands.
Yet the southwest Is not land of milk
and honey. Agriculture is not an auto
matte process; profits do not leap out of
the ground--they must be dug out of 1t.
And there are fools and failures. to be
| sure as everywhere-eyen the Garden of
Eden had Its allotment. The real estate
dealer sows his deceits, and the half-wit
who believes In their lurid improbabilities
and exaggerations pays the same penalty
for his credulity that is imposed on all
purchasers Of gold bricks.
The plains are not beautiful. The tenn
perature Is high, but 1t seldom rises as
high as In New York or Washington, and
the dry heat is far less oppressive than
the humidity of Philadelphia or Chicago
| in the summer months.
| The air Is snappy and good and whole
some; 1t is full of vitality; the water Is
| pure and sweet. Storms are not frequent
and, even though spectacular at times,
seldom dangerous. Trolley cars are more
deadly, and city automobiles MAIN more
persons than suffer from the sum total
of perils to be met with even In the Wild
est sections. The country Is extraor-
dinarily healthy. Some portions are
! slightly malarial. but kerosene and screens
are easily secured, and this danger is
eliminated along with the mosquitoes that
cause II.
| Men do not grow rich over-year; but
they make good livings from the outset.
dwell In comfortable homes, eat nourish-
ing food, and soon maintain substantial
bank balances.
| The southwest will with time, meet
it's various perplexities and adjust them
| to the greatest ultimate profit. That
| spirit which Is changing the barrens
into granaries and gardens will uproot
the economic prickly pears. along with
the other bothersome growths Of the
prairies.
new type of man is rising to power.
| The southwest will add distinct type to
the great national potpourri 1t will
| breed original thinkers and workers; 1t
| will produce leaders with far visions.
and builders with great dreams. The
crossings of strains and the blending of
brains will enrich the twentieth century
with sturdiness and Imagination. The
son of the pioneer Is heir to ambition,
pluck and tenacity. He is physically fit
and mentally clean; and 1t Is in such
men that the boundess hope Of the re-
public lies.