The Lake County times. [volume] (Hammond, Ind.) 1906-1933, 1911-10-03
o<l0iion
Offices resdsdo
Mprete.
Messe9es'

tances. Hence We have the problem of
distribution, or the problem of the
middleman, and all the direct results
of the application of science to in
dustry. Since the world began the like
has never been seen before. We have
gone into this troubled sea without
chart or compass Problems are evolv-
ed, for the solution OF which we have
neither precedent nor guide.
while this was going on. an en-
pire of virgin soil, the Ike of which
exists in such mass nowhere eiese in
the world, was opened up for Immediate
settlement. and that settlement was
powerfully stimulated by the home
stead law and immense railroad grants.
AS a result the Old World and the New
were literally slushed with food for
man and beast al the bare cost OF mtu-
ing the soil fertility, the storage of I'M
numbered centuries. Had this
Mississippi Valley been covered with
forest like Pennsylvania and Ohio. and
opened up slowly as the world needed
food. our history would have been writ
ten differently. and the problems to be
met would have been of an entirely
different character.
with corn at from twenty to TWEEN
fifteen cents, the manufacturer coul1
afford to pay higher wages than the
farmer and give shorter hours. The
city could furnish plank walks. then
cement. paved streets. light, amuse-
ment, society-the JOY OF living Is it
any wonder that the farm boys and
girls fed to the cities, away from the
old -time isolation of the farm. from bad
roads. from the lack of society, when
offered better pay and shorter hours?
Better pay; shorter hours, larger life;
amusements for all, whatever their
tastes might be: what boy girl could
resist all this?
| Our great problem. is how to pro-
duced food for our own people at prices
which they can afford to pay But
how? Partly by putting more brains
into our farming. There is a great deal
OF agricultural labor wasted simply boz
/, cause many farmers do not have even
an elementary knowledge of the forces
with which they have to work.
| The farmer complains that he can
not employ labor necessary TO grow
full crops his land, and therefore
that he cannot now engage in intensive
farming. There is just ground for his
complaint The factory, the store, the
the labor even that which is farm born
and farm bred. He cannot use the
cheap labor of Southern Eprope. nor the
hobo or tramp, nor the ne'er-do-w we'll
of the city because the farm with its
improved machinery and its live stock
requires skilled labor, and kind of
skill that can be acquired only on the
farm He can use Russian and the
Japanese in the beet fields. He can use
the emigrant from Southern Europe In
the vegetable garden. in digging
bitches or making roads; but he cannot
use this labor in modern farming oper-
ations He dare not employ unskill-
ed man in milking. nor in feeding his
cattle. nor intrust to his care the man
agement OF either improved machinery
or team
! Therefore the very root and kernel
of our modern farm problem is how to
/, retain on the farm all the boys and girls
born there. who are fit TO be farmers or
farmers wives. This can be done only
by making farm life worth living. Maxi
ling money or owning a farm is not all
Of farm life. We have but one life TO
Hive on this earth. and we should get
out of 1t all that is possible. In many
isections In tho country. with bad roads,
poor schools, poor churches and no So
cial life. farm life is not worth living.
THAT proof of this is seen in the fact
that farm boys and girls flee from H.,
and the armer himself. as soon as ne
thinks he is able to live in town.