The farmer and mechanic., 1911-06-13
(Southern Pines Tourist

sian Jews lately arrived in this coun-
try. Some of them are pounding
away in good style. Some of them
went back to the city.
| never could quite understand that
weakness of human nature which will
sacrifice everything else for the sake
O fbeng with the crowd.
The average man wants to be in the
city The fellow who comes out from
town Worries around for a day or two
and then confesses that he would die
of loneliness in the country He asks
where you go to. and what you do and
what you see and how you can exist
His trouble is that he has been
reared in an atmosphere of excite
ment. depending for his entertainment
on the outside influences, running af-
ter the sensational, and when he gets
away from that kind Of stuff he lacks
the elements of entertainment within
himself and he is lost.
So the cities are crowded with peo-
pie who struggle to make a miserable
living, where poverty reaches its eli
max. where crime is the dominant ele-
ment and the country is constantly
begging for workers.
But, curious as it is. the country is
always short of hands and the city is
always oyerrun with unemployed peo-
PIE. HeI lHc city coma nation Is
so nearly a life sentence that it looks
all the more singular that a man
would accept it with his eyes open.
Always q struggle, always the uncer-
tainty of no job. always the certainty
of high costs of living, always the Ger
tanty of unwholeSome food. always the
certainty of sitting, second hand air,
always the certainty of foul water in
spite Of its f1ltering and its doctoring.
" ri nj hot
York or Pittsburg or Philadelphia
people would think themselves for
tunate to get Ny hogs are fed better
milk than nine-tenths Of the city peo-
pie are able to procure. NY cows
breathe an air that Pittsburg with all
OF it's predatory wealth, could never
obtain The gas man never comes
with bill, for we haul in all the wood
we want at any time and never figure
on what 1T is worth We kill a chicken
II We are hungry. or a pig or a veal
call or beef, and we are glad to see
the price of meat stay up, for we get
more for what we do not want to keep
than If the price dropped low. But
when the farmers want hands and in
Nite people from town to get out to
the country the cry is that the town
folks would die out in the loneliness.
Some of them would. for hom esick-
Ness is terrible malady. But the
trouble is not all homesickness. It is
the unnatural craving for excitement
which the unnatural life of the city
has engendered. 1t shows itself in the
small children as soon as they are big
enough to take on the airs Of their
elders. The little people who come
into the public schools of the village
here. hailing from the North, show a
contempt for the conservative things
that surround them here. They ex-
press in f1ippant and slangy terms the
different views they hold Of country
ways and find no good in anything
that is not of the larger mass of peo-
pie.
Thousands of hands could find en-
ployment on the farms of this State
tomorrow. and thousands Of men in
the cities are wondering how long they
will be able to keep their heads above
water. But it is practically impossi-
bic to get people from the towns to
the country The town has a notion
that country work is an inferior sort
of work: that country life is an in
ferior sort of life. And the noisy as
sertiveness of the town custom en-
courages many people to think the
town view is correct.
SO the country continues to clam or
for hands. the prices Of farm stuff stay
up because of the difficulty of getting
men to work on the farms and pro-
duce farm stuff. and the toilers of the
city pay the bills
The cities are the buyers of farm
stuff. you know. The farmer does not
buy much of his food supply. He
makes it. He makes his own supply
and he max es the supply for the town
man who prefers to stay in town and
pay the high price rather than go to
the country where he can provide
himself at 1o n, in imIIrn cost
/ see no likelihood of a change. for
the whole trouble rests on the peculiar
trait of human character which i'm
pels men to gather in thickly settled
places where they may herd together
In crowds and be within the Sensa-
tional atmosphere of modern excite
ment
The farm has always felt the need