Baxter Springs news. [volume] (Baxter Springs, Kan.) 1882-1919, 1911-09-14
Farm the Foundation

Sometimes men make the mis-
take of getting the cart before
the horse, or, in other words,
some large classes of men are
grievously mistaken as to the
relation of the farm to prosper
ity. During the quarter of a
century in which we we're min
ing the fertility of the corn belt
and selling it at the cost of min
ing to the great cities of the east
and to foreign lands, the one
thing that we wanted above all
others was a market, and a mar
ket as profitable as possible.
Farmers had the idea that if
factories were increased in num-
Der and the number of their OPP
eratives increased and more fully
employed, then we should be on
a basis of permanent prosperity;
in short, that the fully employed
factory was the basis of the pros
perity of the country. In Eng
land, a free trade country buying
four-fifths of its feed from for
eign lands, and thus largely in
dependent of the farm, this was
and still is true; but it is not
true in the United States.
The basis of prosperity in our
country is the farm; and the aim
of Legislation should be to give
the farmer a square deal in both
his buying and his selling, and
thus enable him to create values
to the utmost possible limit.
The manufacturer does not Gre
ate; he merely fashions. The
transporter does not create; he
merely takes products from where
they are abundant to where they
are scarce. The middleman does
not create. He simply distrib-
utes products to where they are
needed for immediate consump-
ton.
The farmer alone creates; and
prosperity is based on the mag.
nitude of the creation and not on |
the transportation or distribu-
ton or modification of form.
When the farmer has plenty of
money and his employees are we'll
paid, business is prosperous
from one end of the country to
the other; but when the farmer
is living from hand to mouth,
when there is not employment
for labor on the farm, then there
will speedily be big, black trou-
BILE for business everywhere. III
the farmers were with one ac-
cord to stop purchasing every
thing that they do not absolutely |
need, we would have a panic
from one end of the country to
the other, from which we would
recover in thirty days after the
farmers began buying again ac-
cording to their normal require
mentS.
There are large sections of
business men who realize this
fully. No one realizes it better
than the railroads. From now
on till the frosts come their eyes
will be upon the farm. They |
will study the clouds, note the
rainfall, note the temperature |
for it is upon these elements that
the magnitude of their business
mainly depends. They may give
preferred rates to the manufac-
turer; they may permit discrim-
nations against the farmer to
remain; but none the less they
fully understand that the meas
ure of the prosperity ofthe far
mer is the measure of their own |
prosperity. If the crops fall
short, the cost of living advan-
ces. If at the same time the
farmer has not the means to pur-
chase, they know, and so do the
broadest-minded manufacturers
know, that there is trouble ahead
of them in the very near future.
The farmer must not consider
himself a yellow dog behind the
wagon nor a minor factor in the
great business of this nation; but
as the very basis of all our, pros
perity. He will be all the better
farmer for thinking so; and a
sill better farmer if he acts con-
stantly on that conviction.
Not odly is the farmer the ba.