Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1912-06-18
WHY NOT AN ONION DAY?

In some parts of the United States .
days are especially set apart in honor /
Of some particular product Of the soil. |
Thus in Central Illinois they have
broom corn day: in middle western |
Missouri they have sorghum day in |
Michigan they have peach day; they
have apple day in New York: they
have raisin, fig prune, and lemon days |.
In California; melon day is one of the F.
principal holidays of Georgia; ham and
spinach day is a joyous festival
throughout the poesy and romance belt
of Indiana; potato day is now gener-
ally observed in the Aroostook region;
they have blue grass day in Kentucky,
wheat day in the Dakotas, flower day
In Oregon, and so on. And now il is
proposed that onion day be established
in the southwest.
Why not? Why should not the on
ion be hoEored as well as the others?
And why should il not be honored es-
pecially in the southwest, where its cul-
tivation is along phenomenally extern
siye lines and reduced to a fine art?
/ Most people associate the onion with
/ flied beefsteak, or with a corner in
; the back lot or perhaps, with the whit
i-h green stalks of the spring vegeJa-
bic display at the grocer's around the
corner. But these people have much
TO learn. They have never seen the
great onion farms Of Arizona or Tex
as, stretching, as it were, from horizon
70 horizon. they have never seen the
sCuthwcsterncTs focking for an onion
harvest; they have never seen the
loading Of the southwestern onion
trains: they have never felt the in
huence of the true onion spirit when
the crop is big, the market is high, and
the paper of the onion planter is at a
premium in the southwestern bank.
However, those who have been in
Kansas at corn cutting. in Minnesota
during the wheat harvest. in Maine at
potato digging, in Florida when the or
auges are yelloWing, in Arkansas dur
.Lg the paw-paw season in New Eng
land when the bean is in the bud and
The squash is in blossom. must know
something of the thrill something of
the ecstasy, that comes TO the south
westeTner when the onion is in the
freight car and the car is nOrthbound.
Many there are who charge the on.
ion with osteGtatiCusness and obtru.
siveness, who insist that il forces itself
into recognition, who hold that it is
already too often in evidence, and that
a whole day given over 10 it would be.
as Artemus Ward used 10 say, -
mulch Thus. IL will be seen. as re-
CARDS onions as we'll as many other
things. there are all sorts and shades
o. onions Some people raise onions
some people eat onions. some have
] onions thrust upon them. But the
rest Of US must take things as they
come. The onion in the southwest is
making many a home prosperous and
happy. even though il may divide fam,
lies, even though II may temporarily
separate the best of friends in other
parts Of the country. Let us think OF
II at its best and let US confess, as
] the great majority Of Us must. il We are
: honest with ourselves that there are
times when for the sake OF the onion
We are ready TO forget almost every
{ social tie. Why. then. should we hest
b tate 20 applaud the idea of an onion
{ day. especially since only those who
2 are nearest the onion, who are most
P concerned in its welfare. and who are
! most indebted 70 its culture. need OBJ.
serve ito