The Caucasian. (Shreveport, La.) 1900-192?, 1910-02-08

Movement From City to Country WIZ
Start Before Long and Effect Will
Be Felt, Says Railroad 5uiIder-Be-
Iieves Problem Would Soon Be
Solved If We Could Stop Our Rush.
Back to the soilr'
That is the slogan of James ]. Hill,
sage, philosopher and master railroad
builder, one which he would have en-
ployed as the rallying cry for all per-
sons interested in the solution of the
problem of the high cost of living.
'sThe problem is not local; neither is
it national" said Mr. Hill in recent
Interview, adding: at is International
All Christendom is wrestling with 1t.
Obviously the world has reached an
economic crisis. We are not producing
the farming area of the earth; we
must apply scientific principles to
farming we must adapt ourselves to
conditions as best we can while we are
going through the slow, tedious proc
ess of making the soil yield more
abundantly''
1.-The Maithusian theory of the rapid
increase of population for subsistence
on normal productiyeness would seem
to have some bearing on the present
worldwide situation" was suggested
to Mr., Hill
Plenty of Land Can Be Obtained.
"Nonsense!r he exclaimed. "Agri-
cu1tural1y speaking, the earth is not
overpopulated anywhere. There Is
congestion in the cities. The problem
is to relieve this congestion and scat
ter the unproductive population to the
farms. Then when we get them there
we must teach them how to farm bet
ter than nine-tenths Of our farmers
| now know"
But the people are intensely con-
eerned over how to bring quick relief
to the existing situation Mr.. Hill was
reminded.
81 am aware of that" he said. No
body is more interested than am.
frankly confess, however, that don't
know what can be done to bring early
relief. fer there is mighty little
that legisla r;s;s4s do The statutes
are alreaa etainsnaa with laws in
eehueu s &c e d conoltlon
as the now SUFFERING from.
But they HBve done precious little good,
IL any. Within the last ten years the
cost of everything we have to buy has
increased about so per cent Popula-
ton has not increased in any such
ratio. So what's the matter? For one
thing. we live too high. When some
ladies down at Washington the other
day asked me to tell them how to
stop the high cost of living / told them
that If they would tell me how to
stop the cost of high living l might
be able to answer their question. The
one is as grave and pertinent as the
other.
Expensive and WastefuI Methods.
Does your wife go herself to the
butcher. the baker and the candlestick
maker and select what she wants after
pricing the articles, or does she send
the cook or the butler? Maybe she
gives her orders by telephone. Both
are expensive and wastefuI But this
is the telephone age and the automo-
bile age. Each is a symbol of the
times. Each denotes that we are liv-
ing high.
IF as a nation we could stop our
rush for few days and give ourselves
over to solid thinking, to casting about
US to see what is going on, the prob
lem would soon solve itself. There is
extravaganza everywhere and in every
thing extrayagance in government, in
Industry, In speech and in promise.
We are wasting our heritage more
shamelessly than any people in the
history of the world. 1t has been
come easy and go easy with us for so
long a time that we don't know how
else to i've
Lets Turn to the Farm.
But other nations seem almost as
extravagant as we are, or else the ar
ticles we import from foreign coun-
tries. such as sugar, coffee, tea and
rice, would not have kept pace with
the increased cost of our home produc-
lions. This shows that the soil else
where Is not being made to yield suffi-
ciently. In word, our best thinkers
everywhere must turn their thoughts
to the problem of Increasing the pro-
ductiveness Of the soil before we can
arrive at the solution. So let's turn
to and solve the farm problem It is
simpler than any of the others, but it
Is harder to make practical use of the
solution. We knew how to make two
blades of grass grow where only one
grew before, but we haven't the men
and women out on the farms to do the
work so the chief feature Of the
problem Is how to get the people back
Is the soil They have got to come to
IT If we survive. The sooner the better.
IN the present posture of affairs !
don't know how any Of the neces-
sarles of life can be cheapened to the
consumer. do know that they viii