Norwich bulletin., 1911-05-27
MIGHT FARE FARTHER AND DO NO BETTER


written Specially for The Bulletin.)
One OF the most frequently heard
indictments against farming as live
hhood is that there amt no money III
1T" Certainly, it must be. admitted
that il there be money in it, the aver
age farmer hasn't found it. The most
of US farmers-in the east, anyhow =
have to scratch gravel pretty con-
stantly and vigorously to get where
withal to buy clothes and pay taxes.
AS a rule, we live. and maintain our
families on smaller. incomes than the
mine workers and many other persist
entity striking wage earners confesseGiy
receive. When we come to compare
our receipts with those of the ''rner-
chant princes and other captains of
industry" why. we aren't even in 1t.
Not as rule that Is l have heard,
here and there OF farmers getting
fairly rich. But they. are exceptions
I've even heard of one who made three
millions at farming. lie was not
merely an exception; he was a sort of
agricultural Halley's comet, coming IN
range not oftener than once in two
generations.
Let's admit the worst at the start
off. 1t is generally assumed that there
are about seven millions of US farm
ing for a living in these United States.
Did IL ever occur to you what a sadly
unfortunate thing 1t would be for the
other eighty odd millions il we actual
" should all get rich--we farmers? We
get out manure and pillow and hoe corn
and dig potatoes because we have to,
most of us. not because we want 10.
With wealth the necessity would cease
and the result would he a tremendous
shortage in the output of corn and
potatoes and the like. Necessity is
hard and driving ia skmistress, but
somehow she generally gets things
done when an easier boss might fail to
make good. If We were all so rich
that we didn't need to work, I'm sor
rowfully certain that a precious lot Of
us wouldn't work. This may be re
grettable, but it nevertheless seems
highly probable Yet the very exist
ence of the race depends upon our
working.
Did you ever stop to think what
would happen If the whole. passed. of us
hayEeeds. from Maine to Mexico. should
decide to strike" for season? Heaven
knows we've got better reason for. do
Ing so than some of the city labor I'M
ions have for their strikes. Suppose
such an improbable thing should hap
pen as that we should all join mon
strous Farmers union and unanimous
ly decide to strike for ten cent milk.
and dollar potatoes, and dollar-a-
dozen apples, and SO on through the
listr Eth What?
But that isn't the point I'm aiming at
this morning. We are not going TO
strike, even for our rights. And we're
not going to get rich, many of us.
We're going to keep on working to feed
ourselves and. incidentally, the rest of
the world. We're going to keep on
working hard for inadequate returns
We're in the condition of the neither
milestone. which takes what comes to
1t and just -grinds-grinds. But
after all, Is that neither milestone
wholly pitiable object? Is it worse off
than any other possible stone, any
where? Looking at. things from the
large poirt of view. may not something
be said for that milestone?
1t never moves. True; but it's there
fore in no danger of bursting apart as
the whirling brother above may, If thur
ried too fast 1853
True; but 1t is able to take that IN
edible grain which is fed down the core
and turn 1t into useful -four.
Even the fixed and apparently hope
less neither milestone is a more useful
and-I think-more honorable object
than the inert boulder which lies CEN
fury after century buried in the clay
below the scratching of the plowshare:
or than the wandering pebble which is
erratically moved along the bed of the
torrent by seasonal freshets and finally
worn into a mere fragment of gravel
ever doing anything--except
serve as an obstruction to an otherwise
free flowing stream.
Life pays in other things than money
sometimes-things that are worth more
things that money itself cannot buy.
One payment is in our own inner sense
Or service rendered.: of good work we'll
done. Il is vastly better to earn more
than We get paid for than to take pay
for more than we earn. This may no,
he the axiom of business" but it's a
foundation rule OF something higher
thar business mean true manhood.
To come back to our starting point,
however. the complaint that farming
is. for most of us. struggle without
large pecuniary reward. Even as
Stunning that this. form of reward is
the only one worth considering. are
we farmers really much if any worse
off than our brethren in other voca-
tons? Today there are thousands of
young men in all parts of the land
studying for the law. They have heard
of the big fees which have been paid