Putnam patriot., 1910-07-15
Written especially for the National erane e

WILL>MAkE FARM LIFE MORE AT
 TRACTIyE AND PROFITABLE.
 Written especially for the National Grange
 This article deals from the view point Of the farmer with what after all is 6 farmers question, thelpresent high cost of food. It gives the farmers's ideas about the cause and cure of the evil de. seribed by MT. Jas. J. Hill as "An en. larged city life and neglected country life, a crowded artisan population ella. moring for food and foreign demand for the product of their wages limited to fields where the competition of all the world must be met and overcome. T While the newspapers and magazines have lately been full of remedies for existing conditions, they have mainly been put forward in the interests of the cities. The side of the question which seems to have been neglected is how the whole matter affects the man who Is being asked on all sidess to come to the rescue, the man who lives on the soil and raises the nations food supply --the farmer himself.
 The first fact which should be brought out is, that it is not the farmer who is responsible for the present high cost of living, and that it is not he who is prin- cipally benefiting by the present high price of wheat, beef, mutton, pork, corn or milk. It is true that he is receiving more for his produce than he did twen- ty years ago, but the increased reward of farming is only in line with the ge- neral increase in values all over the world. It must be remembered that the wages of farm labor, and the price of practically everything that the farm- CT buys, have increased in the same proportion.
 Take the typical case of wheat. The retail price of flour is at the rate of S7 per barrel. Of the difference between former and present values the farmer GCts nOput ilC El.oO IC~ represents a change in the conditions of distribution. It means city prices com. pared with country prices, and in- eludes the speculative profits of the middleman. The divorce between the food producer and the food consumer, due to the overcrowding of the cities and the relative depopulation of the country districts, has placed the con- trol of the country's food supply in the hands of class who are speculators first and distributors last. IL is in the fact that the population is becoming more remote from the sources of supply ra- ther than in the fact that food produc- ton is more costly than formerly that the real reason of the present high cost of living must be sought.
 Insls04 only per cent of the popu' lation of the United States lived in cities. At the present time the percen- tage is over 40. One interpretation of these figures-the one insisted on by MT. Hill-is, that whereas in 1900 there were 9e cultivators to support non- eultivators, at present probably not over 30 in every 100 people are in the agricultural sense producers. But 1t should be remembered that the general employment by the modern farmer of agricultural machinery, which makes the modern farm hand at least six times as efficient as his predecessor, prevents his relatively decreased numbers from having much effect on prices.
 What is important in the above fig uFes in relation to the cost ofsiiving is, that every increase in the urban popu- iaiion, and every decrease in the coun- try population tends to put both pro- ducer and consumer more and more al the mercy of the middleman. An in- dividual farmer has about as much chance, under present conditions, of de- termining what he shall receive for his milk, vegetables or corn, as the consul mer has of determining what he shall pay for these products. The only rem edy from the viewpoint of both the consumer and farmer, is such co-opera- tion among the farmers as will enable them to deal on equal terms with the distributors. And this again Is ques- tion of convenient access both between farmer and farmer and between farmer and consumer.
 Translated into practice access means roads. As we proceed we shall see that it means roads plus something more, good roads at least are necessary. For the present let us see how far system of highways, similar to that existing in France, would tend to reduce the cost of living.
 Every commodity pays . "wheel