Norwich bulletin., 1913-04-05
TO REDUCE HIGH COST OF LIVING
Rev. Madison C. Peters Gives Some Remedies-Cut Down Cost of Disribution-Do More Farming in Scientific Way-Systematic Housekeeping Would Help-Public Market Advocated-And Pay You Go.

I to America the French revolution vii
 school picnic beside it. We are gath
 ering together the worst elements 0
 the worst nations of the earth. w
 have never been afraid of danger, bll 1 it is possible to be too optimistic
 when the facts do not warrant op 1 timiSm.
 Homeless Families, BreakfastIess chil
 dren.
 | In New York every month there ar, | 5000 families put out of their home: because they cannot pay their rents
 Charitable donations do not reach th'
 really deserving unfortunates Wht | perish in silence. One in every ten O. 1 New YorI's people is buried in a pot l ter's grave. Every morning 75,0Ot
 children in New York go to schoo | breakfastless. There is plenty of food for all They are in distress in the midst of plenty In America tonight | while you have been sitting at tables grooming and bending with plenty and 1 luxury, there are ten millions of peo- pie in the country actually starving There are more suicides and more in sane persons in America than in any other country of the world, and it is all due to worry.
 Distribution is What Costs.
 / The cost of. food has increased 61 per cent in the last ten years, and at
 
 erything is cheaper. There is no high cost of living. It is high cost of selling, of distribution. If we do away with the middlemen our costs will be reduced. One hundred and ten years ago only 3 per cent. of the people of the country resided in cities or towns. and today 55 per cent. live in cities and towns. There. are nine millions of people in New York state. and 75 per cent. of them reside in the cities and towns. We are rapidly becoming nation of cities. There are S7S millions of acres of farm land, and only about one-half of this land is farThed Of this half but 8 very small proportion is farmed scientifically, to produce its utmost capacity. In 1850 there will be 300 millions of people in the United States, and 75 per cent. will reside in the cities and towns. Then will come a famine, and famine will mean revo- lrtion. That is one reason why living is high.
 Back to the Soil.
 The first thing to do is to get the us the land and the means. Only a part of 1 per cent. of the foodstuff consumed in New York city is fur nished by Long Island. and yet Long ork. Connecticut and New Jersey are states of abandoned farms. and yet New Jersey has New York at it's door, 8 market for its products. We are eating onions from Egypt and Spain with a tariff of 25 per cent. ad va1orem. We could raise the onions here.
 Make Farm Attractive
 We must make the farm attractive. Agriculture is a basic industry and this is the only government in the world which does nothing to make country life attractive. The farmers here Is one great reason for their re- moval from the country to the city they wish to give their children an The farmers do not have try are the worst of any civilized of the globe today. The agri- cultural department sends out seeds which do not come up and literature which nobody reads.
 Farmers Don't Know How.
 We must not only get the people back to the soil. but teach those all l yield. We don't know how to farm. 1 One can drive all day without en- | ccuntering more than one farmer who 1 is worthy the name I hope to see 1 -he, day when the schools will cease to be fool factories, when there will l oe something taught besides ancient ! history and dead languages, when l of practical value will be l given the children. Europe beats us 1 50 per cent. in her grain yield per 1 acre. Germany produces 30 bushels | If wheat per acre, England 2S and | he United States Is. Producing wheat 1 It the standard maintained by Ger many, we would cut the cost of our oaf in half. Even the poor benighted Russians beat US by seven bushels an acre in the potato yield. When will you have sense enough to teach your soys that the comin~ profession is not l he law nor medicine, but agricu1ture2 | Adams, Henry Clay, l Daniel Webster lost none of their dig lity by going back to the farm when trough with the strains of public ser ice. Agriculture is a profession dig lff1ed if carried out with brains.
 Should Distribute immigration.
 Another reason for the high cost of wing lies in immigration. The worst people are coming to the country, 1eaV- ng their own country for that coun- rvs good. 1 would never close the loor of opportunity to any man. The hange should come not by restriction ut by distribution. They are pouring Eighty per cent. are locating in the jties and 50 per cent. are locating long the Atlantic seacoast. Up to 40 ears ago they went west. locating on he soil The Hungarians. the best in the world. come over here md go to work in the mines. They ave their money and go back home to ,uy land at S100 an acre when they ould locate in this country on farms which they could secure for s25 an ere. The HungarianS carried back vith them $150,O00,000 last year. The italians are fine fruit growers and the if garden truck, but in this country he Italians are mt tO work Of con 1