The Newport miner. [volume] (Newport, Wash.) 1899-current, 1910-05-12
PATRON|zE THE
HOME. MERCHANT IS
Then You Will Help Decrease
High Cost of Living.
GIVE UP TRADING BY MAIL.

This Will Tend oWard Breaking Up
GIGANTIC Monopolies That Handle
Foodstuffs-Populate and Work the
Farms.
Very much is heard nowadays about
the Increased and increasing cost OF
living. Prices for many things. par
ticuarly for food of nearly every kind,
have been rising steadily for thirteen
wears. The general level Of prices for
foodstuffs has risen so high this win
ter that the food has broken over its
banks, and the United States govern
ment is taking a 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 we'll
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.
The tendency of the age is toward the
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 a small part of their
holdings, leaving the rest idle. Farm
ers' boys migrate to the cities like
birds-in f1ocks. Young men and wom-
en- 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 your
pin. 1t is because millions Of farmers
families fail to help support their
home towns properly by trading with
the local merchants. They buy great
deal Of their clothing, household goods,
even groceries, from the mail order
stores
Back to the farmv' 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
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 Inn
proved in every sense by farm life.
ASJ NOoiN SAOW Wy " NC u4 ClLks
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 do
with hayrake and hoe. Make him
producer instead Of merely 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 ascommunity in Mis-
souri, which until three or four years